Dashcam with motion detection - recommendations wanted

Technical Area Electrics & ICE
1
  1. My model of MX-5 is: 2007 NC
  2. I’m based near: Cardiff
  3. I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Dashcams

Hi all,

I’m in the unfortunate situation where somebody unknown is keying the paintwork on my car, now on an almost weekly basis. I’ve put CCTV up on the house but also wanted to install a dashcam in the car that either has motion detection functionality that would pick up somebody walking by the car (as opposed to just when the car is ‘bumped’ whilst parked) or a dashcam that can record continuously whilst the ignition is off.

I’ve been looking at Nextbase cameras and whilst they seem like great pieces of kit, their parked mode only seems to activate recording when the car is ‘moved’ i.e. when it’s been bumped by another car or when a door is opened etc.

Does anybody know or have experience of a decent dashcam with decent motion detection capabilities?

Thanks in advance

Ray

2

I’m pretty sure that mine will record continuously with a button combo.
I’ve had instances where it’s been recording all day in the works car park, but I don’t really know how I triggered it.

I’ve had mine a good few years,.
It looks identical to this


Although the innards and firmware may have changed.
3

I went with a Garmin mini dash cam


It has no screen but you can view it on your phone & has a parking mode. I have it hidden behind the rear view mirror so very tidy
1 Like
4

I question how good would a dashcam be in this situation. You need to get the Bast***'s face to identify him, if that is what you are after. Assuming the culprit is keying the side of your car as he walks past, would a dashcam be suitable when it’s field of view is mainly forwards (or rearwards). It is probably also dark with very little lighting. If it is a regular occurrence, it would suggest that the culprit probably regularly walks the route past your car. Is it occurring on certain days/nights? Is it just your car that is being damaged? I would be tempted to use a CCTV camera pointed at your car on a 24hr recording loop if possible. If not, I would be tempted to lie in wait with a friend and confront the guy.

5

For seversl years and cars we’ve used Blackvue dash cams specifically for their parking mode. They will record when they have sensed an mpact but also when they sense movement in their field of view. They also record any sound at those times.
As First_rider_off says, cameras don’t give much of a view along the sides of the car. Might the damage have been caught on the dash cam of a car parked behind yours?

A horrible situation for you to be in, I hope you get it resolved soon.