stealthpilot

I'm having a Thinkware F770 installed this Friday.

I'm seeking advice from those who have bought both front and rear dashcams.

Is the rear dashcams useful?

Does it annoy you having the camera sticking out on the rear window? Or can they install it in a hidden way?

Porsche_nuts

I have Blackvue both front and back. The rear camera has a small footprint and not obtrusive at all. The Blackvue rear cam looks similar in size to the Thinkware.

If you don't use a rear view camera, you won't be able to memorialize crappy stuff like this:

pashaj

LIE?

Rear camera totally worth it. You won't know you needed it till you need it. Plus it's more fun to watch, you already know what happened in front of you. But what do I know, on a flight I kinda like watching the channels which feature a feed from several camera angles.

stealthpilot

Thanks for sharing. That ticket sucks - but it seems like you didn't pass him, but he was going faster than you which is why he snuck up on you from behind. i.e. he was speeding without his emergency lights too!

do you use the cloud feature of the blackvue? I chose think ware because of the 1080p rear camera, but it doesn't have the cloud (not until a new model comes out towards the end of the year).

Porsche_nuts

I have the feature but don't use it because you have to keep the unit powered on at all times and have to have a wifi unit in the car in order to use it (I think . . . Could never really figure out how to use it).

I have heard good things about Thinkware. If I had to do it all over again, I would probably go Thinkware and would still get rear cam.

I can take a pic of my rear cam setup if you are interested.

stealthpilot

Thanks. It would be nice to see how the rear cam is mounted, and also see what it looks like in the rear view mirror.

pashaj

First two photos are from the outside. Third from rear view and fourth I just turned around from the driver's seat and focused on it. It's not as obstructive as one would think, at least not for me.

I have the cloud feature and I just bought the wifi hotspot. The alerts are helpful but I still need to figure out the best G-sensor settings. Currently, the motion detector is set to 8 and I get about 4 alerts an hour. When I get into the car in the morning, about 5 seconds after I shut the door, I get an impact alert which is good...tells me if someone is in the car.

Porsche_nuts

. .

pashaj

Nick Murray has his rear camera mounted on the top left corner, closest to the top edge of the rear wiper.

stealthpilot

Thanks. Looks great. I will do a similar install. The cloud feature sounds useful. I may upgrade the Thinkware when they release their cloud version (later this year).

Are those Lloyd's Ultimats you have there?

I have a feeling the rear camera won't be visible on my car from the outside given my 35% tint.

stealthpilot

Thanks. Our cars have the same color scheme.

pashaj

I'd love the rear camera to be 1080p as well...wonder if I can swap it out when they release one. I'd also love an interior IR camera. The app/settings are not perfect yet...would be nice to set a schedule of which cameras should be active during certain hours. Like from 8pm-12am there is a lot of activity in my garage so I wouldn't mind the motion detector to be off. I guess we are still in the infancy stages of the dashcam era. I read somewhere that there are aftermarket firmware updates...I think on dashcamtalk.com

Yes, Lloyd's mats. Just a small touch.

R_Rated

Nothing for cabs :/

pashaj

Thinking a little out of the box but could you mount it (with quite a bit of slack) under the rear vent, next to the third light? Is there enough clearance?

babyjocko

I have the dual Thinkware F770. The rear camera mounted at the top of the rear window is not noticed at all. I mounted the front camera in the right side (inside perspective) nook behind the mirror and just below the black tint along the top of the window. You do not want to mount it in the middle directly under the mirror otherwise it will obstruct your view. Behind the mirror makes it invisible from the driver's perspective and you still have access to the components.

Yes, the rear camera has good purpose, for example rear end collision; theft approached from the rear, etc,

I have this dashcam in both of my cars. It is excellent. The only issue is video gaps on very twisty roads. Apparently, due to significant rapid image variations, the data is too high. I don't know if it is the fault of the codec or the SD card delivered with the dashcam. I just replaced the SD card with a very fast SanDisk Extreme PRO UHS-I/U3, but I haven't driven on the twisty since the replacement. I will this weekend and will update the result.

BTW, when I say very twisty, I mean extremely twisty like Dragon's Tail. 99.9% of roads in this country don't come close to this kind of twisty. We who are near the Smokey Mountains are fortunate to have such roads. This is the only reason why I bought a 911.