Let's Talk About Dash Cams

[ClayW]

I don't know about you, but I drive through a crowd of crazy, inattentive drivers every day. After scaring myself by watching a bunch of Youtube videos of would-be scam artists that are thwarted only by dash-mounted cameras, I'm seriously considering getting one for the E30.

Does anyone have a dash cam?

What brand/features?

Cost?

Other considerations?

[bmw325csi]

When I go on nice canyon drives, I like to putt iPhone on my windshield mount and record the drive. Works great and you only need to buy a mount.

[ROLLingKING]

Lol..I'm from ny so when I moved to the DMV I was like holy shit. Ppl here can't drive

[Ryane30guy]

I've had one in my car for about a year now and I love it. Just the extra insurance is nice, plus if i ever catch myself driving past a car show I can pull the camera out and use it.

[ClayW]

I've had one in my car for about a year now and I love it. Just the extra insurance is nice, plus if i ever catch myself driving past a car show I can pull the camera out and use it.

What brand? Where did you mount it? Do you have to turn it on manually? What kind of storage?

[tonerrrr]

Floridian here, for the past two weeks I've been thinking about this same thing... I'd like a GoPro or similar device but just need a SIMPLE way to delete an uneventful drive. Maybe the real answer is to just buy a huge SD card and delete everything weekly..?

[agent]

My GoPro (1st gen) is only good for about 90 minutes of footage before the battery needs charging. Although that meshes just about perfectly with the available space on an 8GB SD card recording at 720p.

[VinniE30]

sub'd.
I've been thinking about this for a while. Especially because I only have the minimum requirement liability insurance.
I was thinking about getting a GoPro for filming car stuff and possibly using it as a dashcam too but I know it's not really good for a dashcam because it's not made for that and the battery life compared to cameras made specifically for being used as a dashcam.

[semaj4712]

You could easily hardwire a gopro into your dash for long life battery, and have a few 64gb cards on the ready

[dannyyisntt]

In all honesty I'd be afraid it turn into states evidence against me.

[VinniE30]

In all honesty I'd be afraid it turn into states evidence against me.

Then only use it when it can help you. Obviously you can simply not say you have a dash cam or delete it and say it wasn't recording or whatever. They already have evidence against you if it happened near one of those streetlights with cameras on them.

[Swanny]

So is the main point of the op's dash cam to be used in case of an accident or for use against the man tryin to bring is down?

In either case how likely is a forward mounting camera going to capture whats needed to save you?

[VinniE30]

So is the main point of the op's dash cam to be used in case of an accident or for use against the man tryin to bring is down?

In either case how likely is a forward mounting camera going to capture whats needed to save you?

It's useful in either case.
If you're not at fault a forward mounting camera would be able to help your case in almost every instance. Think about it, even if it's something the camera doesn't show like someone rear ending you, it would show that you came to a stop in a safe way and didin't do something to purposely get them to hit you, that's more than enough evidence. Most of the cases I can think of where the dashcam would be really necessary to help your case would involve the other car being somewhere in front of yours anyway.

[agile30]

Have them on all of the company cars..... Leads to write ups.

[Nick's e30]

In all honesty I'd be afraid it turn into states evidence against me.

They can't man, 5th amendment allows you to not be forced into submitting incriminating evidence against yourself (recorded evidence included). The only time I can see it being used against you is if the bank owns the car and you're paying it off, the camera could "technically" belong to the bank if you permanently installed it in the vehicle. For 99% of e30 owners I don't see that being the case though.