Dash Cam

[Lord Steve]

Because of the high mileage I do and the high volume of numpties on the roads I use a forward facing dash cam recording video on a continuous loop.
I understand that the use of radar detectors in France is illegal but does anyone know what the French law is regarding these cameras?

Steve

[lofty]

Steve those things are for sale in Leclerc auto so must be legal i guess.

[jimclark]

Steve those things are for sale in Leclerc auto so must be legal i guess.

There are numerous places here in the States that the use of a radar detector is not legal, however the purchase and ownership thereof is legal....

[landman]

Just had a look at a number of articles on t'internet and the consensus is that they're legal in France.

However illegal in Austria and apparently it's frowned upon in Germany if you post up dash cam footage due to violation of personal privacy.  In fact you can be fined in Bavaria for such matters up to a max of 300,000 euros!

Take a look at the following article, your Lordship: -

https://www.rt.com/news/194236-germany-dashcam-video-fine/

[Lord Steve]

Lofty / Landman
Thank you for your advice. If they are good enough for Leclerc that'll do for me.
I've decided to avoid Austria, Germany and Bavaria en route to LM this year.

Steve

[landman]

Lofty / Landman
Thank you for your advice. If they are good enough for Leclerc that'll do for me.
I've decided to avoid Austria, Germany and Bavaria en route to LM this year.

Steve

...and Luxembourg.

[aricus654]

Lord,

I'm intrigued by dash cams.  Have you found it of benefit?

Aricus

[Lord Steve]

Aricus
I've been looking at them for some time and am pleased to report that hitherto I have had no reason to download the content of the memory disc as evidence!
It's a bit of insurance against spurious claims and idiotic driving standards.
These things are available from about £60 to £200 but I picked mine up at an Esso forecourt for £19.99 including a memory card which is worth £20 alone and, if I ditch the recorder the card will fit in other devices I have anyway.
So, I'm using it as a trial unit which I may upgrade later.

Steve

[aricus654]

Wow, that was cheap, and I bet the quality is good enough?

I don't do big miles these days, but have always wondered about them, especially as the motoring I do is at weekends when the standard drops dramatically.

(When I did big business miles, I did witness a few incidents, including two cars somersaulting, and a transit drive off the M1 motorway and up the backing before taking a tumble).

I have considered a helmet cam for cycling, and an in-car for track days, but I'm not sure that you'd spend your winder nights watching these whilst there's watch paint dry instead. 

Aricus

[smokie]

I have an Android app which I can use but I rarely do. There's a few of them, none as good as a dedicated device but they are free, and I have a screen mount for the phone for when in use as a satnav. I missed one spectacular incident when on my way down the M6 in the outside lane a couple of years back - an artic turned 180 degrees right across the motorway in front of me, lucky I was concentrating!! It would have been good footage but I didn't have the cam on...

[aricus654]

I think I need a rear facing camera because I see lots of accidents happening in the rear view mirror.

     

BTW - last year my son Tristan (FezBoy) was in BBC's Chinese School.  (I hope you didn't see this pile of  misleading rubbish).  The film crew asked me if I would put a camera in my car. In my nievety, I thought that they wanted it pointing out to get footage of my "spirited" driving.  My wife told me that they wanted to film us talking on the way to school, at which point I declined.

Aricus

[DelBoy]

I bought a pretty decent one 14 months ago after some yoof slid into me on a single-track country road (I was stationary at the time).  "Your word against mine, guv - you ain't got no witnesses".  Cost me £400.

I did quite an exhaustive analysis of what's out there and what facilities are available (such as parking sensor, full 1080 HD, larger memory card), and bought one which gives me everything I wanted for £130.

Had a couple of near misses which were interesting to watch after the event, and also caught out the mechanic at my local Audi place doing 43mph in a 30 area.

You don't have to do a big mileage to warrant one - the prang I had was less than 2 miles away!!

Del

PS.  You can get systems with  two cameras for fore and aft recording.  I also know of one 'enthusiast' who also had one each side of his vehicle!!

D

[lofty]

Wow, that was cheap, and I bet the quality is good enough?

I don't do big miles these days, but have always wondered about them, especially as the motoring I do is at weekends when the standard drops dramatically.

(When I did big business miles, I did witness a few incidents, including two cars somersaulting, and a transit drive off the M1 motorway and up the backing before taking a tumble).

I have considered a helmet cam for cycling, and an in-car for track days, but I'm not sure that you'd spend your winder nights watching these whilst there's watch paint dry instead.  

Aricus



Aricus i tried a helmet cam once. I think i'll leave it at that before i upset someone!!

[landman]

If anyone is interested then Which Magazine's "BestBuys" are the Nextbase In-Car Cam 512G Ultra and the Nextbase In-Car Cam 402G Professional.

There are quite a few models on their "Don't Buy" list and they are not all cheap either, but that said the two models with the lowest score retail at £18 and £39.

[Lord Steve]

I think I've been ripped off at £19.99 then.......