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Thread: The Dashcam Thread

  1. #1
    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    The Dashcam Thread

    This topic has come up here and there at this forum, but I figured it deserved its own thread.


    My wife surprised me with a Momento M6 dashcam for my birthday. She paid for installation at the local Car Toys store where she got it. She also gave me the receipt so I can return it if it's not what I want.

    I've read good reviews and bad reviews about this model. It's not quite what I had in mind, but it seems like it would get the job done.

    I learned this camera has been on the market for at least three years. While that could mean a solid product that has stood the test of time, I'm wondering if there might be better technology available three years later for similar cost...I mean, I wouldn't buy a three-year-old laptop. Okay, well, I might. But most people wouldn't.

    I also thought a dashcam should be easily movable between cars and just plug into the cigarette lighter power outlet, instead of being hard-wired into the car. Does anyone have pros & cons of this idea?

    I'm still reading and learning.

    Any opinions and experiences are much appreciated. Thanks.

  2. #2
    Administrator dodint's Avatar
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    Hardwiring is nice because you never forget to plug it in or turn it on. And some of them have shock/motion sensors and will start recording even when the car is not running. So if someone tries to break into it in the middle of the night, or hits and runs, you'll have some footage. Some of them even upload to an account for you to retrieve if the car is stolen (assuming it can connect to a network).

    I'm partial to the Garmin ones, but I do not have one installed. They have several to choose from.

    The power outlet type is obviously nice if you drive a bunch of different vehicles, or use it as a rental car.

    Dash cams make for pretty poor action cams, so don't think it will be great to use at an autocross or track.

  3. #3
    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    Thanks Nate. I want to like this thing, but reviews like this are telling me I might want to return it and try something more currently reputable.

    Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/moment...r/id1447529243

    Quote Originally Posted by November 2022
    Pretty useless and pretty disappointing

    So after having a Momento dealer highly recommended the M6 camera system I spent $500 to have one installed on my Ioniq 5. I can not for the life of me get the WiFi on the camera to talk to my iPhone 14 pro max running iOS 16.1

    Installer says call customer support, customer support says probably needs an app update by the third party developer that wrote the app… both suggest taking sd card out of camera and view on MacBook. Like that does a lot of good in real world situations!!!! I spent the money for peace of mind that in the event of an accident with questionable fault, I’d be able to provide things on the spot to LEOs from my point of view.

    This is a very broken feature and honestly a waste of $500 for me seeing as the camera is non refundable and no refunds obviously on installation fees.

    My only hope is that app developer pushes an update soon that addresses this issue. After reading through all the reviews recently, I’m not the only one who is less than happy with this cameras software and mobile app.
    While browsing more reviews, I noticed replies to reviews at the Apple App Store from the developer but none were newer than two years ago. For all I know, the company who made this is out of business, although still maintaining their website, and Car Toys is selling off their remaining stock. Sell what ya got, right?

    I hate to be so cynical, but I don't want to get burned with what appears to be a decent camera that has an outdated and possibly useless app.

    I also noticed the company doesn't put their phone number on their website, which is a huge red flag to me, as well as being a personal pet peeve - and, more importantly, the most recent thing I can find on their website about the M6 seems to have been two years ago as shown below. And their "new" model, the M7, hasn't been updated since June of 2022.

    If this were a pair or shoes or some other stand-alone product, I might take my chances, but to have some guys who work for a chain retail store take apart my dashboard and headliner to install something that I may not be able to use as intended is giving me the heebie-jeebies.


  4. #4
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    As Linus shows, they're all very similar due to many of them using the same sensor:


    I have a https://www.roadangelgroup.com/produ...ve-2k-dash-cam as I got it for a long service award from work. Works fine.
    Last edited by Alan P; June 20th, 2023 at 03:38 PM.

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    I've had a Blackvue DR750S 2-ch hard wired for 4+ years. The one thing I don't like is the 'low' resolution ie, license plates are hard to read.

    It doesn't work as a gopro because it writes in 1 minute long files and the next minute starts 5 seconds before the last minute ended so it takes more editing skills then I've got to make a 'video' so I don't. Quality Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjZeqiY_0lg

    https://www.vortexradar.com/best-dashcams/

  6. #6
    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    ^ Thanks for the links and video, gents.

    I'm thinking I want a camera with a screen rather than needing an app. My research continues...

  7. #7
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    Get whatever suits your needs. Pluses and minuses to hardwired or vice versa.

    I have 2 non hardwired ones that I take with me when I travel to prevent insurance fraud and record journeys (including via time lapses). I now only have 1 as the cheapo dual-lens one with internal rear cam (which I wanted so that I would have video memories of what the kids travel like in the car when young) keeps breaking due to summer heat in the rental cars, so I use the backup "HP" (as in, I assume not developed by them but just HP-branded) model. They (it) has a screen for ease of use on holiday and as looks don't matter.

    At home, 2 of the cars have front and rear dashcams and 1 has a front dashcam. All hardwired by professional installers, with no screens. The summer heat fried the latter (a Blackvue) a few years ago so I changed it to another front one from iRoad and now check the footage once in a while. Hence the current models are all iRoad. The app works fine and doesn't crash or have problems connecting, although it's not super-fast at downloading stuff to the phone (probably as I haven't bought the highest-end models). Then again I could always pull the sf card and download to something else.

    I have suggested just buying what you need as they aren't things you're going to use everyday. But of course you may want to bear in mind road trip use if you are doing that.

    The top Korean mfgrs (Thinkware, Blackvue, iRoad) seem to have pretty good software support if that's what you're interested in.
    Last edited by Yw-slayer; June 20th, 2023 at 07:54 PM.

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    I’ve always bought cheap ones, <$100.

    My 1st was a rear view mirror mounted. It enlarges your mirror and has 2 cameras that can look fwd and back. I quite like the concept but the unit kept on burning thru SIM cards! So I got rid of it.

    My subsequent 2 cams that just sticks the the windshield seemed to be more durable and have lasted for years, but sadly I can no longer find the cam nor the company’s products on Amazon! So can’t make any Recommendations.

    All of my current cams are pretty old school. No apps. Just take the cards out and read it yourself if you need to look at something!

    If I need a new camera, I’ll probably just buy another cheap dashcam with decent ratings on Amazon. I probably won’t spend $300 on one even if it has awesome reviews.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alan P View Post
    As Linus shows, they're all very similar due to many of them using the same sensor:


    I have a https://www.roadangelgroup.com/produ...ve-2k-dash-cam as I got it for a long service award from work. Works fine.
    I should have added, the one I have uses an App. I connect my phone to it via WiFi, open the app and I can view all the recorded videos on it and download them to my phone if required.

  10. #10
    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    Thanks to all for the advice.

    Well, I went back to the store today and talked to the store manager, who was off on Monday when I last went to learn more about this stuff. He's the one who sold my wife the camera. He immediately offered to reverse the transaction if I didn't want it. He also said they would install whatever I ended up with if I wanted to buy a camera somewhere else. He said people try out the app and make sure it all works before they leave the store. He also said he sells far more of that model than the other five or six they offer. I believed him.

    I have an appointment for installation on Saturday. He said if it wasn't what I had in mind, he'd remove it and refund my wife's money. He also mentioned he has worked there for 23 years. I was impressed. This isn't typical retail customer service in the 2020s.

    The only thing that's still bugging me is something my son pointed out when I told him about my visit this morning. My son says the app wouldn't be available to download from the App Store if it didn't work with the OS I'm using now. However, the app apparently hasn't been updated in two years, which is consistent with what I saw yesterday about not seeing any Developer's Response messages newer than two years ago.

    I don't know enough about apps to know if this is a problem or if it means they worked out all the bugs two years ago. My son says app makers need to keep updating the apps to work with new OS versions. He knows far more about iPhones than I do, not surprisingly.


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