After three days in a row of interesting things happening on my commute, I decided to get a dashcam. I know GoPro isn't a great dashcam in itself, but I figured I'd use it for other stuff too, so it's a worthy compromise.

At first I bought the suction cup mount and tried to place it inside the windshield, but it was very gangling looking, and didn't have a very good field of view where I wanted it (the bottom of the windshield). Fine for one-offs, but not suitable to DD.
That's 1080p @ 30fps.

Next I decided to try an adhesive mount on the windscreen, right behind the rear-view mirror. This worked pretty good, much less un-sightly. You get a pretty good field of view without eating much of the driver's line of sight. Two issues though: The glare from Sport Chrono is front and center, and though the mount is black, the adhesive strip turns out to be white, so it's visible through the glass... need to look into possible black tape alternatives. Additionally, the exoskeleton that comes with the GoPro really stands out, for a stealthier option, I purchased the blackout case.

Default:


Blackout:



And here's a youtube from the adhesive mounted location. This one was actually shot at 2.7k @ 30fps, down-sampled to 1080p @ 30fps for youtube.

In terms of image quality, I think the 2.7k is clearly better than the 1080p, check out these crops of the same signs:

1080p


2.7k


Full Album:
https://plus.google.com/photos/11675...MSN0JKGoqODrwE

 

Nice. Im thinking of doing something similar. is it wired to the main battery or runs on own power?

 

It uses it's own battery, which *almost* lasted my entire commute shooting 30fps in 1080p. I ordered the bigger battery (the so called battery backpack), which should give it an extra hour or two of life. There's also an option to wire it to a power source (via usb), so that's something I might consider as well.

 

Curious.... are you storing / archiving the recordings? Or do you flush the memory at each tail end of your commute.

I've been considering installing an "always on" camera and have yet to figure-out the in-car storage. Also considering ways to have the recordings transfer to my home storage via bluetooth when the car pulls into the garage each day....

 

A dedicated dash cam would probably be the better choice with the automatic recording over hours of old files while saving specific ones. I am looking at the Lukas 7900 or the Blackvue.

 

Yeah, that's definitely the good option. The gopro isn't meant for dashcam, but I figured I can use it for other stuff when I'm not driving around. Dedicated cams look easier overall, so we'll see if the GoPro is too much of a PITA. I will say that the 2.7k resolution option is great, even after 1080p down-sample, I can see a big quality difference.

As it stands, I un-mount the gopro whenever I park, don't want to give anyone extra motivation to break in. When I get home, I either transfer the files to my computer, or I re-format and slap it in the charger.

 

I want a camera that is hidden so no one knows it is there. For two reasons: 1. No one will steal it. 2. No one will subpoena it if I am doing something naughty.

Marc

 

I've got the Blackvue - it works great.

 

We carry all the GoPro parts and accessories in stock, if anyone is in need of anything. We also make sure we order all of the newest accessories as soon as they come out so you can count on us for that as well.

 

The GoPro Black editions do have a looping feature that will turn your GoPro into dash cam. Here are the articles:

http://abekislevitz.com/understandin...-gopro-part-2/
http://translogic.aolautos.com/2013/...ash-cam-video/

Please note that GoPro does make a a full case (the skeleton) that has accessibility to the ports, or you can use the Frame mount.

 

Two updates:
I replaced the white adhesive tape on the mount with black adhesive tape. I ordered 3M 5952 VHB, which is a close cousin to the factory 3M 4991 VHB tape (only available in white and grey). The old mount came off very easy, hair dryer on hot for about 3 minutes and it popped right off. I trimmed the 5952 tape to fit the mount, then stuck it on. I think it looks a lot better, but I might have put it a tad too low... might re-adjust later since it's so easy.

The other update is that I got the extended battery 'bacpac', which is more than capable of powering my entire commute. However, it's significantly bulkier, and I have to use a non-blacked out backing on my blackout case. It might try painting the backing to match the rest of the blackout housing, but I think I'm going to try hard-wiring to the power first.

Here's the trimmed tape:


And here's how it looks mounted:


On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 8:10 PM, Matt Manolides <manolides@google.com> wrote: