Dashcams and GoPro's

Well the obligatory two or three paragraphs might not come to fruition as this a simple question from a Novice. I want to join the world of people recording their driving and outdoor activities. Day or night and the difficulties one might come upon with the lighting. I am a complete Newb when it comes to these things, I still have only a land line and flip phone cell. In my beautiful state, I would like to take movies of the beautiful outdoors, and occasional point of interest and perhaps a selfie or two. We have a great many members, from an abundant number of generations who have grown up with this stuff and it comes naturally to them, so I'm sure you can coach myself and others interested in jumping into this arena. Cost.... I would like to spend less than $4-500 dollars, more like $299.00 lol or thereabouts. Is that possible ? Extended length memory cards, like 5-6 hours.... Do they exist, and perhaps anti jiggle picture with abundant pixel quality. Mounts ?

So yea, there's a great deal I don't know.... I readily admit. So help me/us out, guide us towards units that would be top quality in their price range and Good in general.

Ok, I have seen all the ones on ebay under GoPro in the New category. I don't need all the accessories like chest strap or tripods or anything more than a suction cup windshield mount....... I think ?


a reply to: Plotus

a reply to: Plotus

GoPro

Bam simple if you want to go GoPro.

There are a bunch out there. Some that will even record telemetrics. I have a friend that uses a Waylens, and it records speed, local weather, Gs, pitch and roll, and some other stuff. Pretty useful for traffic incidences. Or calling BS on a cop who tries to get you for speeding or unsafe driving.

Waylens Horizon

They've also got a 360 car security camera which is pretty cool.

Waylens 360

Before Covid we shot a feature movie using GoPros only... At first I was skeptical, but it looked fantastic. Sold to a big distributor on the 2nd day it was edited.

The stabilization was fantastic, the color perfect. All hand held shots, no tripods or steady cams. Well known director and screenwriter.

a reply to: Plotus

I use a GoProHero3 on my fun car. I poke it with a long rod, it is mounted behind the front bumper. Then I access the GoPro with the app and start recording and do stuff on it, without having to get out of the car. Took a while after they changed the app to get it to work again.

Still have the fisheye lense and on high RPM the ignition coils seem to spray a lot of interference. The cam does not like that and pixels up then and sometimes even shuts down complete.

You could use a GoPro for a dashcam but I if you only want to have a dashcam, then buy one of these.

a reply to: Plotus

$40 you can get a camera for your car. Probably less now just leave it in there to always record when you drive. Also great for if you are ever pulled over or in an accident to prove your innocence. Spend an extra $30 and you can get one that records both the front and rear as well as the speed based on GPS.

For outdoors Go Pros are nice but there are off brands that do the same thing for a fraction of the cost. Honestly tech advances so fast that my go pro that I bought 3 years ago for around $300 is not as good as the alternatives that you can pick up for $30 now.


Go pro alternative

This Waylens seems quite up to it even with premium cost. The Horizon interests me, Thanks ...AutomateThis1

Get a dash cam one but don't, don't get one that records your speed cos I will guarantee you sometime you will break he speed limit. In the Uk if a police officer sees you have a camera they can by law view the footage. As well as a car I ride a motorbike and I see these eedgits with the cameras attached to their helmets. now as I mentioned earlier apart from Adam in the garden of Eden I can win bets that 99% of people have gone over the speed limit one time or another.
Now you have the camera on your helmet, it looks where your looking and that includes the speedo, whoops you've just convicted your self.

a reply to: crayzeed
This is a good advice, also no RPM or gears, as it is kind of the same. They could still get the speed if they wanted to by looking at the footage and the distance covered.

I have no idea about the UK, but in the US they can't just inspect or take your dash cam to use against you. I am sure there are dashcams sold that are password locked for those in the UK.

I originally had a dashcam that only recorded one direction I bought it on Amazon for $30. A year later I saw one for the same price that had all the extras which is now mounted where the old one was. The old one I mounted on the passenger side facing me so if I am ever pulled over there will be a clear view of any interaction I may have with the police. The camera has always been more of a protection from police overstep in my mind than anything else.

a reply to: Plotus

Waylens is way too expensive for me, but you know what you need more than me. I would be afraid it would become a target for thieves. If you are only looking for 360 there is this which does the same thing for $270 less.

Thanks Grimpachi, I am learning at this point. The 360 hasn't caught my interest really. And now I want to sift through other brands. Fortunately I have Roku and can chase down stuff on my flatscreen on youtube This is 'School' for me at the moment with no wrong answers. Thank you all...