On the basis of many OzB recommendations I decided to purchase a dash cam. Many reviews put the garmin 55 as #1 for 2018. Likely overtaken by the Garmin 65w for 2019 though there seems to be some differing reports on the fish eye lens. User reports aren't quite as positive, but who knows really…
This seemed like a good price compared to other stores and previous OzB posts. Much cheaper than JB.
I'd have to agree with this. I too am a Lurker and it's amazing how quick these guys get on stuff.
I was once stalked by a lurker.
Sorry about that. But you're mistaken. You live between me and the donut shop.
If you think that's bad, you could have been lurked by a stalker
Is being a mod a full time job at ozb?
Ozb is a commercial site that is very profitable. The mods are paid and not volunteers. Not taking anything away from their efficiency though of course.
Source?
Sauce?
Really?? I didn't know this. I thought it was just a not for profit community dedicated to bargains.
From About Us
What's the history of OzBargain?
While OzBargain started as scotty's part time project and a community-driven website back in 2006, it has continued to grow and demand resources – in both hosting and development. While web hosting is relatively cheap (and scotty has been quite good hunting down cheap hosting offers), time and stress to run this site comes at a much greater cost.
scotty has been working full time on OzBargain since mid-2011, and OzBargain (as part of Delvu Media Pty Ltd founded by scotty) is currently employing 4 full-time staff developing the website to make this community better. OzBargain is the most popular bargain site in Australia and continues to increase both its amount of users and traffic.
We need an Ozbargain Mod AMA.
How good is it compared to Viofo?
pricewise viofo is better and specwise depend on which model you are refering to, but i would pick anytime for a viofo model due to the capacitor over battery and proven viofo clarity.
Is capacitor more durable than battery in the high temperature Australian summer environment?
Technically, yes. Capacitor only stores enough charge to finish the current video before switching off. Downside is you need a hardwire kit or an external battery pack of you want parking recording.
Batteries aren't rated for the high temperatures of the car. Most will see dash cams rated at 50 degrees and think that it should be fine since our summers don't go that high, but you also have to factor in that a car parked in the sun heats up like an oven, enough to get interiors over 70 degrees which was enough to melt some of the dash adhesive that comes with some cars. Batteries can't take the heat and can swell up, damage separators and in extreme cases, explode like the Samsung galaxy note 7.
That being said, there are some dash cams that are rated for decent temperatures. The advantage of battery dash cams is they can handle their own parking surveillance for a short period of time without needing external batteries or hardwire kits.
@DangerNoodle: Thank you! This is awesome high quality reply that explained the background and the pros and cons clearly.
Ahh ok, I didn't know that Garmin uses battery. The Viofo is better then, thanks!
I've had this camera for 14 months, it's pretty good especially for this price!
The unit warns you when red light or speed cameras are coming up.
Video quality is pretty good, not amazing but I'm able to easily recognise licence plates even when playing back on the tiny screen.
Sound quality is ok, again not fantastic but it's not very important.
The app works quite well, keep in mind the camera heats up excessively when using the app to view video over wi-fi direct.
Battery life is horrific, but again it's designed to be plugged in.
Hope this info helps anyone :)
Has it got motion sensor to activate if someone hits you whilst your car is parked?
It describes this in the second bullet point on the website:
"Featuring an automatic incident detection (G-Sensor) and a GPS locator, the in-car camera immediately saves footage on impact and tracks when and where the event happened."
I get what you're saying but it doesn't specifically state anything regarding parking. The way I interpret that is you don't have to do anything to save footage during an incident aka don't have to click anything. What I want to know is whilst the car is off whether that G-Sensor is still active and will wake itself up to capture footage.
Does it work when car is parked and activated when there is motion ?
*Edit : yes it does after searching on google…
product details : https://www.strathfieldcarradios.com.au/garmin-dash-cam-55-1…
Awesome, thanks :D
From the linked website: "Requires Garmin parking mode cable, sold separately; professional installation recommended".
A separate cable is required for parking mode which is not included in this deal. In the linked shop above, there is a price difference between versions with and without cable.
it seems a separate power cable is required for the dashcam to operate all the time(or when motion detected).
There's 1 left in Bondi Junction in the cabinet. Maybe more stock off floor.
There's 1 left in a cabinet in Bondi Junction.
anyone know the main difference between the garmin 55 and 65?
10.
From my reading, it was that the 65w had a wide angle lens. That's all.
Do your own homework obviously.
The 55 has 3.7Mp sensor but narrower FOV. The 65w has a 2.1Mp sensor but wider FOV with a fisheye lens. Only the 66 has a similar sensor to the 55 but with a 180 FOV like the 65w.
So 55 seems better all round
People with dashcam already - Would connecting the dashcam to car battery for it to record while the car is off, affect the car batteries overtime?
A good installation will have a low voltage cutoff which turns off the dashcam when it detects the battery voltage dropping below some threshold.
runs on a battery and not a capacitor. :(
Is there any other version including rear/back camera? Or buy 2x of this? lol
I was going to buy 2 as well. I think it's worth it!
Bought one from JB, there was an issue (known issue on forums)
Unit runs the initial setup every time power is on
Took it back got another, same issue. Returned and got a refund.
Ordered an VIOFO A119S instead
First thing to do is update the firmware, I did this and unit is perfect since.
Did that too, updated to 4.20. no luck :(
I picked this up yesterday. Just had a quick test with it. install was easy ( I did not use the Garmin parking kit yet). First thing I did was update the firmware here https://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=1103…
Seems like a great unit for the price, it just works. I tested night mode 1080 30 HDR and it seemed pretty dark, will test further.
It does seem to get pretty hot, interested to see how it'll survive Australian summer.
Deal has expired
Can I just give a shout out to the mods working behind the scenes. I'm a lurker more than a poster, but after a couple of recent posts it's amazing to watch the little tweaks the mods make within minutes (almost seconds) of a post to make it more useful/valuable to the collective. Great job!