Dashboard cameras for civilian owned/operated vehicles?

[peacefuljeffrey]

A few questions:

- Does anyone know if there are commercially available recordable dashboard mounted (or in-vehicle-mounted) videorecording camera systems for civilians?

- If so, how much do they cost?

- What do you think of the idea of covering one's by mounting and running one of these while driving, for the just-in-case where the video might be used to capture an accident you had in which someone else was at fault, or an incident in which you had to use deadly force?

I realize that if you had such a camera, and it recorded an accident/incident in which you were in the wrong, you would be guilty of tampering with evidence (since it existed) if you were to destroy or erase the recording.

Input, please. Thanks.

edit: I found a site for Martel Electronics but this seems like a system designed specifically for police use, and the cost ($2995) is prohibitive. (Still seems like a really cool system, with excellent selling points.)

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Smith&Wessonfan]

I realize that if you had such a camera, and it recorded an accident/incident in which you were in the wrong, you would be guilty of tampering with evidence (since it existed) if you were to destroy or erase the recording.

If the camera leaves no record of when it was turned on and off, who's going to prove that a recording existed at any particular time?

Can't prove you destroyed evidence since it can't be proved the evidence existed since it can't be proved the camera was on at the time the evidence was allegedly recorded.

Simple logic.

[Smith&Wessonfan]

I would think that two cameras would be best.

One looking fwd through the windshield and one looking at inside the car.

The one looking in can come in very handy in the case of a civil rights violation by LE.

[retsupt99]

There have been times that I've thought about how good this could be in the right circumstance (a defense tape)...especially inside the car...road rage captured on tape perhaps? Car jacking?

OMO

ret

[JD]

You might want to give this a read:

http://www.pafoa.org/forum/pennsylva...ffic-stop.html


Interesting at best, the biggest thing going for cameras half the time is the mic audio, and as stated abovr the date/time stamp on the recording.

[ppkheat]

I love camera type stuff and use them frequently, their data can't hardly be disputed. To answer your question there are some systems available that I think would work well in vehicles. Check out www.scdlink.com and look in their law enforcement section. Their mini 4 camera DVR looks very workable for about $400. There are some other "portable" DVR units that are completely self-contained, in other words you could easily move them from vehicle to vehicle, their cost is even less. Some have a small camera already built in to it, others don't and you'd have to attach a small camera.

There is lots of stuff out there, I have a four camera system I installed on my house. It's computer driven saves the images on HD, then after about 2 weeks overwrites the old data. There had been some bold day-light house burglaries in our area, and I decided to be pro-active. My system has the capability of sending me email photos of what it detects, or be able to look at my house remotely. A bit pricey though!

For fun, we recently attached a small wireless camera to a remote control airplane, flew it around a while, and saved the recording to tape. Fantastic shots.

[peacefuljeffrey]

The Martel Electronics site touts their system because it records to flash memory cards, not a hard drive or DVD. Makes sense. I fully believe them when they say you won't get much time or reliability out of a hard drive or DVD system. They say the card can withstand 50 Gs in a crash!

I guess I'll have to wait until this kind of thing is so common that it's universally affordable...

[ppkheat]

The system I previously referred to can be bought with the option of HD or flash. At least that's how I interpret the catalog info.

[BIG E]

Look for a small camera with low lux that will perform both day and night. They make small recorders that will compress and record to MPEG4.

I just had a whole catalog of that stuff, but threw it away. I forgot the name of the place.

They had a nice small board camera for about 20 bucks and I think the recorder was 200.00?

Nice though. You could do it yourself cheap.

[Bryan]

you might be able to mod one of these. No recording function but its wireless and $99.

http://www.heartlandamerica.com/brow...006010&DL=SCH1