Good dash/action/road trip camera?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m taking a road trip next month and looking for a multi-purpose video cam.

  1. I’d like to mount it on the dash or windshield to catch whatever crosses in front of me.

  2. I want it to be able to run either off the car’s 12V lighter output, or a USB port.

  3. I want to be able to take it off the mount and use it as a walk around camera.

  4. I want it to have a significant internal battery that can run it for an hour or two, and the battery can recharge while the camera’s dash-mounted.

  5. I want it to have a high capacity memory card, preferably 128gb or larger.

What can I get that will do all these things, or what comes closest?

2

Start here:
[ul]
[li]Sept. 2015 - http://www.pcworld.com/article/2942693/cameras/dash-cam-reviews-what-you-need-to-catch-the-maniacs-and-meteors-of-daily-driving.html[/li][li]Feb. 2016 - http://gear.lifehacker.com/your-favorite-dash-cam-is-the-black-box-g1w-c-1761511545[/li][li]http://www.safewise.com/resources/best-dash-cam-buyers-guide[/li][/ul]

3

There are a huge variety available from Deal Extreme, many very inexpensive (starting under $15). Most have free shipping. Get two!

4

Pretty much any cam will do your first 3 criteria. The car charger is typically a USB cigarette lighter adapter, so USB is the normal connection. #4 is very unlikely. These cameras typically have a small, crappy battery and you won’t get much time off power. They also recommend to get one with a capacitor battery, since traditional batteries don’t do well in the high heat.

You typically provide your own memory card, so you just need to find one which can support that capacity.

5

I use my old iPhone 5s as my dash cam with an app (there are several out there). It can then also double as a regular camera. I’m sure there are Android versions out there where you can drop an SD card in there to get the 128GB. You wouldn’t need the latest and greatest phone to do this either.

6

As far as I can tell these are all just dash cams. I need something that I can carry around and use when I stop to visit places.

7

I’ve been searching the last couple of days and found the Drift Innovation HD Ghost-S, which purports to have a 3 hour battery life. I also got a couple spare batteries and a car charger for it for another 20 bucks.

9

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