I got to wondering if one of those cheap 'flip' style cameras would work as a 'driving' camera, just to record any 'incidents' which may occur on a journey. I noticed the white Disgo camera was retailing for £19.97 (for some reason the identical black model is £35) at a local Curry's, so I thought it was cheap enough to give it a punt.

I was at a loss for where to fit it but found I could wedge it between the underside of the headrest and top of the passenger seat. The picture quality isn't up to a reasonable camcorder and the sound is tinny and slightly out of sync, so less useful as a GP camcorder but it produces reasonable 640x480 19fps m-jpeg steady video. It comes with a 1Gb SD card which is good for 30 mins at 640x480 (or 60 mins at QVGA). It will take a 2Gb card but not higher. It works quite well at night.

Not high enough quality IMO. And how would it trigger when/if an 'incident' occurred?

Steve

Not high enough quality IMO. And how would it trigger when/if an 'incident' occurred?

As good as some 'cops with cameras' footage. You don't 'trigger' it but leave it running throughout. I've already noticed a few 'incidents' I didn't see whilst driving. Very good for picking up on other drivers risky moves, while you're concentrating on evasive action.

I may try using a DV and HDV camera alongside just to see how much difference there is, although I wouldn't want to use either of those regularly.

This is a 1min Disgo 'Fun' camera clip converted to mp4:-

http://www.vimeo.com/7840853

This is the original mjpeg AVI clip:-

http://www.vimeo.com/7840912

I think Vimeo converts to some flv video format for its streaming but if you join Vimeo you can d/l the original uploaded files. The mp4 is 8.7Mb, the AVI is 23.7Mb. I removed the sound although it doesn't use much bandwidth. It may be useful to have though.

Edited 26 November, 200916 yr by icarusi@hotmail

I noticed the white Disgo camera was retailing for £19.97 (for some reason the identical black model is £35) at a local Curry's, so I thought it was cheap enough to give it a punt.

I was in Curry's today and noticed the Disgo 'Fun' in white with pink buttons and trim is now £14.97! The best of the rest was a Kodak HD Zi6 at £49.99 which does 720p and takes SDHC cards up to 32Gb but doesn't actually include *any* SD card in that price, just 2 rechargeable AA batteries. All the 'flip' style cameras seem to be bulkier than the Disgo 'Fun' though.

It's all well and good, until the police stop you and use it against you as has happened to several people mentioned on the news.

It's also pretty useless to police for most incidents. They either wont bother, or would only send out a warning.

It's all well and good, until the police stop you and use it against you as has happened to several people mentioned on the news.

It's also pretty useless to police for most incidents. They either wont bother, or would only send out a warning.

More useful to me! You notice it shows traffic lights rather well, so it's easy to prove they were green before you moved off. I once got hit in a traffic light junction and only had a 'witness' to say I moved on green. He subsequently had a panic attack in the courtroom and retracted everything he'd stated as a witness.