In-car video camera?

[Simon Cee]

Had a crash on Monday, thankfully a fairly minor one. Driver pulled out of side road without looking, and I have a few witnesses so I'm hoping the claim process should be so straightforward.

Trying to describe events to the insurance company is a bit of a nightmare however, so I was wondering if there are any cheap and easy to use cameras that can record an entire days travelling [up to

4hrs?]. Ideally battery-powered, and with a decent endurance. Just in case similar happens again it would make the whole process a lot more straightforward plus we seem to be "blessed" with a loss of fraudulent cash for crash scams around here recently, so that would help protect against these cowboys.

TIA

[Mr Pounder]

If you were an insurance company assessor would you accept the recordings?

[John Williamson]

don't know how much use it would be, we have four external and a couple of internal cameras on our buses, and it's amazing how often the details needed by the police and insurance company are missed by all of them.

Maplin used to sell one that held the last 90 minutes of video on an SD card, stopping recording when it was turned off. It's probably stillavailable, but not from Maplin.

[tim....]

It's not the sort of thing that somebody can doctor and it can't be a set up because you are using it to show the "normally assumed guilty party" is innocent

tim

[Ian Jackson]

Of course, for catching accidents, you don't really need hours of recording time. All you will need is continuous recording, with storage medium being constantly overwritten, and keeping only the last few seconds of the journey (well, a few minutes would be nice). I'm sure such devices exist.

[tim....]

They're certainly available for the haulage industry

I suspect that the problem is in fitting them in a way that won't get nicked

tim

[Simon Cee]

John/Ian/all,

Thanks for the replies. Something that just recorded the last 90 minutes of journey time would sound ideal if anyone knows of something appropriate. I'm thinking about something that might simply clip over the rear view mirror to record the view ahead, and powered by rechargeable batteries. Am I hoping for too much?

One question though, in the accident on Monday we were both (passenger and driver) taken by ambulance to hospital as a precaution. Our vehicle was recovered by police and put in a compound. So any camera that overwrote recordings 90 minutes ago would simply show our car sitting in a deserted car pound unless we had the presence of mind and were physically capable of stopping the recording. Something to bear in mind?

I'm thinking that these days battery life is limiting factor, not memory capacity. So perhaps a simple 4 -hour (say) memory capacity would be better. Any advice gratefully received. Thank you.

[dennis]

You can get apps for smart phones that do that and they record gps position, speed, etc. android or apple and possibly others.

[Ian Jackson]

In message , Simon Cee writes

I would have thought that such devices would only work when the vehicle ignition was turned on (possibly continuing for a few minutes after it has been turned off). If so - problem solved.

[John Williamson]

On checking, the current version is out of stock at the moment, but can be told to do what you want.:-

running, under manual control or triggered by G forces.

[mark]

I believe Roadhawk is the one of the more popular ones in the haulage industry.

[Mark]

I have one of these

records in 5min clips with a two sec pause between each clip and over-writes when the card is full. quality is ok ish for the price.

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[Andy Dingley]

They're designed for this - they have an accelerometer that stops recording shortly after an impact.

Try China, via eBay, DealExtreme or ChinaVision. Lot's of them out there now.

[Brian Gaff]

I don't know about that but I am aware that most modern cars seem to have the equiv of a black box flight recorder that can give all the parameters of the vehicle when it crashed, including air bags etc.

Brian

[Londonman]

For peace of mind I agree with the idea and it would save a lot of issues if there was a 50-50 liability type situation eBay item 350489131284 for £45 seems a bargain, and it's in England ready to ship.

I certainly would welcome this idea if, like in many countries, these devices are fitted as part of insurance company liability and premium reduction schemes

Had a crash on Monday, thankfully a fairly minor one. Driver pulled out of side road without looking, and I have a few witnesses so I'm hoping the claim process should be so straightforward.

Trying to describe events to the insurance company is a bit of a nightmare however, so I was wondering if there are any cheap and easy to use cameras that can record an entire days travelling [up to

4hrs?]. Ideally battery-powered, and with a decent endurance. Just in case similar happens again it would make the whole process a lot more straightforward plus we seem to be "blessed" with a loss of fraudulent cash for crash scams around here recently, so that would help protect against these cowboys.

TIA

[andrew]

or

How long does the battery last? Could it be used unattended for a day to watch for fly tippers?

AJH

[Mark]

> or

No you would need one that does motion detection, and probably IR night vision.

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[Andy Burns]

Search for "trail camera" though a lot of them are stills rather than video.

[andrew]

I already use the bushman but it takes about a second to react.

AJH

[Mark]

Bloody quick fly tippers ! The ?HD Vehicle video cam kit? link to ebay that somebody gave earlier at £51 is also available from 7dayshop for £30, which does do motion detection, but i have no idea how good it is, or how long the battery would last in MD mode.

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