2 dash cams (one for front and one for rear)

[cornflakes 9]

I want to install 2 cameras on the car for recording while driving. One will face the front of the car (dashboard or behind the mirror), and the 2nd camera at the back of the car recording traffic behind me.

My question is, what do I need to know about making sure it doesn't drain my car battery? If I leave the cameras recording say while I'm parked and gone for a few hours, will I come back and find out that my car won't start due to the battery being dead (so i will need someone to help me jumpstart it?), or do people just usually unplug their cams when they leave their cars overnight etc?

Also, are most of these cams only daytime capable cams? Do they not have night vision capability? I realized that if I record during the night, it may be too dark to record anything, so that could be an issue. I hope they are night vision capable, too. Most digicams even have night vision options to them (ie. on sony cameras).

[Gossamer 50]

I have a dash cam that can work off of the cigarette lighter or it own internal rechargeable battery.

It also has night vision, but that is hit and miss.

It records well if there is some ambient light around (street lights or business lights), but it doesn't record well on back roads with no light.

As far as killing the battery on the car, supposedly the Spark has battery protection that will not allow the battery to drain past a certain point. However, that feature may depend on how it is hard wired into the car.

If you use the cigarette lighter, the power will cut off automatically.

[bluer101 241]

I have a dash cam that can work off of the cigarette lighter or it own internal rechargeable battery.

It also has night vision, but that is hit and miss.

It records well if there is some ambient light around (street lights or business lights), but it doesn't record well on back roads with no light.

As far as killing the battery on the car, supposedly the Spark has battery protection that will not allow the battery to drain past a certain point. However, that feature may depend on how it is hard wired into the car.

If you use the cigarette lighter, the power will cut off automatically.

What cam do you have?

[cornflakes 9]

ok thanks, good to know about that cigarette light option.

[Gossamer 50]

The camera I have has no name on it.

I got it off of one of those Chinese sale sites in a brown box about a year ago, but I can't remember which one.

It only cost me $30, and I have to say that aside from having to figure out how to work it (the instructions were in Chinese), it was well worth it.

It only records in standard definition, but it has worked well, and aside from the 4GB internal memory it has a slot for a 32GB memory card.

I'll see if I can find the receipt or something to find out where I got it.