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Back in May of 2015 I added a fairly inexpensive Chinese off-brand dash cam to my Elantra for about $70. Called the Mini 0805, It’s worked well over the last two and a half years, only requiring periodic formats of the memory card to keep going. The mount continues to get looser as time goes on, causing rattles as the camera is held in by tension. But it worked all the way to Arizona and back and even helped prosecute a hit-and-run driver only a few months after being installed.
But as we all know, technology marches on and I’ve finally decided to upgrade to a new dash cam with some features this one doesn’t have. For years people have raved about the dash cams made by Korean company BlackVue but I was never impressed with their nighttime performance. They were so dark that only objects in the path of the headlights were shown and even then, performance was mediocre at best. Back in August, BlackVue released a new dash camera called the DR750S and it finally solved the woeful nighttime and low-light performance.
I bought the DR750S-2CH which includes a front and rear-facing camera. One goes on the windshield, as is standard while the other faces through the back window. I was a little hesitant on going for this because of my tint and I feared the camera might be distracting but the rear camera is so small it’s really a non-issue, especially with the insurance it provides.
Installation is pretty straight forward. I tucked the power cable from the fuse box along existing clips that hold a wiring harness and sunroof water drain tube in the A pillar and then into the headliner. The front camera powers the rear camera so I simply tucked the wire into the rubber weather stripping and around the plastic B and C pillar trims as I went aft. I mounted the camera just ever so slightly off-center so it would see the road instead of staring at the defroster coils. It's slightly visible in the rearview mirror but luckily the little power LED can be turned off so it's invisible to the driver at night.
One of the features offered on the DR750S is something called parking mode. Since I have a garage at home and the parking lot at work is secured (and most of my coworkers are careful), I’ve never had much of a use for it. But now that I’m back at school, the lots at the college are a MESS and I don’t trust most of the drivers there. Two fuses are tapped into the power management box that controls parking mode and I mounted this box just to the right of the fuse panel where it can’t be seen. It has a toggle switch for power for parking mode so I can keep it off in the garage at home and on in the college lots or in other places where people struggle to keep it between the lines.
Installation took about two and a half hours due to unforseen issues with certain parts of the install being smarter than me. I don't recommend this to anyone who isn't comfortable taking apart certain areas of their car around the curtain airbags and the like.
Front Camera - Through Windshield by Andrew, on Flickr
Front Camera by Andrew, on Flickr
Front Camera - Inside by Andrew, on Flickr
Rear Camera with Flash by Andrew, on Flickr
But as we all know, technology marches on and I’ve finally decided to upgrade to a new dash cam with some features this one doesn’t have. For years people have raved about the dash cams made by Korean company BlackVue but I was never impressed with their nighttime performance. They were so dark that only objects in the path of the headlights were shown and even then, performance was mediocre at best. Back in August, BlackVue released a new dash camera called the DR750S and it finally solved the woeful nighttime and low-light performance.
I bought the DR750S-2CH which includes a front and rear-facing camera. One goes on the windshield, as is standard while the other faces through the back window. I was a little hesitant on going for this because of my tint and I feared the camera might be distracting but the rear camera is so small it’s really a non-issue, especially with the insurance it provides.
Installation is pretty straight forward. I tucked the power cable from the fuse box along existing clips that hold a wiring harness and sunroof water drain tube in the A pillar and then into the headliner. The front camera powers the rear camera so I simply tucked the wire into the rubber weather stripping and around the plastic B and C pillar trims as I went aft. I mounted the camera just ever so slightly off-center so it would see the road instead of staring at the defroster coils. It's slightly visible in the rearview mirror but luckily the little power LED can be turned off so it's invisible to the driver at night.
One of the features offered on the DR750S is something called parking mode. Since I have a garage at home and the parking lot at work is secured (and most of my coworkers are careful), I’ve never had much of a use for it. But now that I’m back at school, the lots at the college are a MESS and I don’t trust most of the drivers there. Two fuses are tapped into the power management box that controls parking mode and I mounted this box just to the right of the fuse panel where it can’t be seen. It has a toggle switch for power for parking mode so I can keep it off in the garage at home and on in the college lots or in other places where people struggle to keep it between the lines.
Installation took about two and a half hours due to unforseen issues with certain parts of the install being smarter than me. I don't recommend this to anyone who isn't comfortable taking apart certain areas of their car around the curtain airbags and the like.
Front Camera - Through Windshield by Andrew, on FlickrFront Camera by Andrew, on FlickrFront Camera - Inside by Andrew, on FlickrRear Camera with Flash by Andrew, on Flickr
