Hey it’s Andrew with Car Cam Central
We’re back with our budget dash cam recommendations
for ridesharing and taxi drivers
As always we researched many cameras
tested a few and these two
are our top budget choices for 2017
These cameras record not only your drive
but also passengers
so you have video evidence of what actually happened
Our value pick is the $85 Dome GS65H
It’s the cheapest taxi camera we recommend
which provides the functionality and quality you need
Our upgrade pick is the $200 Transcend DrivePro 520
which has better protection added reliability
and a two year warranty from a mainstream brand
I’m happy to say we bought all our budget test cameras
at full retail price
We want thank you our audience for your support
There’s a lot to cover so let’s get into it
Starting with the basics
both our recommendations are dash cams
They’ll turn on and start recording
as soon as it receives power
They will also record on a loop
which means they will overwrite the oldest files
on your card when it runs out of space
They also have two built-in cameras
The front records your drive
so you have video evidence after an accident
or if you get a ticket
The inside lens records passengers so you have proof
if you are falsely accused of crimes like theft
sexual assault
or if you witness other unwanted behaviour
Both passenger facing cameras have infrared lights. IR lights for short
These illuminate passengers at night
without being distracting to their comfort
To human eyes this near-infrared light is very dim
as it’s just inside the visible spectrum
You should also find out about your local laws
Keeping things simple there’s four categories
If you are allowed to videotape passengers
If you can record their conversations
Where your camera can be placed
For example if you're restricted to the corners of your windshield
If you are considered a taxi driver and if special laws apply
For example
Chicago Taxis can only use cameras approved by City
We wrote a little more on this topic
and the basics of taxi cameras in our article
Moving on let’s get in-depth with our cheap pick
the 85 American Dollar Dome GS65H released in April 2017
We looked at many cameras under $100
and this is the only camera worth purchasing
Picking up the camera it feels solid
The front camera is fixed in place
and the passenger facing camera rotates
and is surrounded by four infrared lights
From the outside the matte black body is fairly discreet
and it has a non-camera like shape
It comes with everything you need for installation
including a 12V car adapter and suction mount
You’ll have to buy your own microSD card
The mount is great it stays in place on bumpy roads
and holds securely to your windshield
unlike other mounts we’ve tested It can be placed behind the rear view mirror
for added inside discreteness and it won't block
the passenger camera on the bottom
The camera can also rotate 360 degrees
to film the side windows which is handy
for road rage incidents or police encounters
Looking at the video quality it’s OK
Video quality is important to show details
that will help prove your case
For example a license plate in a hit and run incident
or a face with a passenger dispute
The front camera records at 1440 by 1080p and has decent day quality
It's somewhat sharp with a 150 degree FOV
which has great coverage
but slightly reduces details
At night the footage is grainy
And the dynamic range isn't the best
So you lose details
I am reasonably happy
As it's an $85 dual channel camera
And normally the quality is much lower
The passenger facing camera
has a lower 720p resolution
The quality during the day has good clarity
And a wide enough FOV to capture all occupants
Under reduced light we were not impressed
Even in a brightly lit underground parking lot
details are lost
At night it's even worse
The image is pixelated dim and there’s not enough light
to illuminate my small Honda Fit
When compared to our upgrade pick the Transcend 520
there’s a noticeable difference
The Transcend 520 is far clearer and you can see more
of what happens inside your vehicle
We originally thought the problem was
the dim infrared lights chosen by Dome
On our other taxi cameras they are brighter
and can illuminate larger vehicles
We tested this theory by purchasing two infrared lights
to see if it would improve video quality
One light was added at a time
and installed above the rearview mirror
Even though both lights are very bright
it didn’t make a big difference
we think the image sensor used by Dome
isn’t very good
In comparison you can see the difference
the added IR lights made on the Transcend 520
and a major reason it’s worth the added money
Moving on the GS65H has a GPS which in dash cameras
is used to log your speed and position
not give you directions on where to go
By default it’s displayed at the bottom of your video
but it can be disabled in the menu
Unlike most GPS cameras we couldn’t see your location using a program
like Dash Cam Viewer or the Blackview player
which worked with Shenzhen Dome's other products
We know audio quality is important
to many Taxi and ridesharing drivers
so you have evidence of what was actually said
This is the audio quality from the Dome GS65H
As you can tell it’s not amazing
but we found it didn’t make a difference for oral comprehension
We found the quality of your vehicle’s soundproofing
and if your windshields are rolled down
made a bigger difference
If you see something interesting or get into an accident
you can press the M button
which locks the current file from being overwritten
But I didn’t like how easily you can press the button below
which turns the microphone on and off
While there is a LCD icon there’s no audible warning
so it’s highly unlikely you’ll notice it while driving
Looking at the storage capacity the GS65H officially supports
up to 64GB microSD cards which is 6 hours of recording time
We formatted our 128GB Lexar 633X card in camera and it
worked just fine but not all 128GB cards may be supported
You might have noticed this video
and the one before was blurry
We thought the hot weather affected the focus
We tested this theory by throwing both cameras
in our DIY thermal oven at 59°C/138°F
and found the outside camera became noticeably blurrier
which confirmed what we saw
Once it cooled down the focus returned to normal
The inside camera was not noticeably affected
We’ll talk about the Transcend 520 later
It was much less affected by the heat
Going back to the camera’s operation
there’s a 2.4” LCD screen
which allows you to playback saved videos
and change settings
You will need to turn on the IR lights
when you first setup your camera
as they are off by default
While the interface wasn’t intuitive like the Transcend 520
I didn’t have significant problems
Not all functions are labelled
so you will have to memorize what each button does
For example pressing M when it’s not recording
goes into the menu
If you hold it down it switches into different camera modes
one being video playback which I found it a little clumsy
as you can only see one file at a time
but was otherwise easy to use
The manual does list what each button does
but it’s not written by a native English speaker
and is somewhat hard to understand
Another drawback is the GS65H uses lithium ion batteries
not capacitors
Both store energy to safely shutdown your videos
when you turn off your vehicle
But lithium ion-batteries are less reliable and heat resistant
so your camera is more likely to fail and need replacing
That doesn’t mean the Dome GS65H will be unreliable
but we don’t have any data
as the camera was recently released
It could be good or there could be serious issues
Unfortunately there’s no capacitor cameras
we can recommend under $400
We suggest you get your camera
out of your vehicle on hot days
or at least out of the sun
The Dome camera
is also not a good choice for parked recording
You car becomes hot due to the greenhouse effect
and motion detection mode isn’t automatic
which means if you forget to turn it off and drive away
you can lose footage
As well we found the manufacturer Shenzhen Dome
to have poor support
There is a 1-year warranty
but good luck contacting the company
or getting firmware updates
They didn’t respond to email or Skype
Other users were similarly frustrated
Get it from a reputable retailer
As they will be the only ones
Who can help you
The GS65H also has poor notifications
when your SD card fails
A faulty SD card can playback saved videos
but you can’t record new ones
Dome was able to detect all four of our failed cards
but you only get a short warning which was hard to notice
Ideally there will be an audio warning
and a persistent message
so you can take action before something happens
So even with those two issues
Dome’s GS65H is the best taxi camera under $100
nothing else we found came close
We know it may be a lot of money for some
but you’ll get way better protection
than the cheaper cameras we saw
which can barely capture anything at night
and come from unknown companies
With questionable reliability
Before we get in-depth with our upgrade pick
the Transcend 520
let’s talk about two popular and more expensive cameras
I see being recommended for taxi and ridesharing drivers
We thoroughly tested both and we suggest you avoid them
Starting with the Vantrue N2
it’s an attractive camera
with a matte grey TPU-like material on the camera body
Our major issue is
that it lacks infrared lights on the passenger facing camera
and as expected you can't see anything at night
We think this is unacceptable in a taxi camera
but maybe you think differently
Next up is the $150 Falcon F360 which is a mirror taxi camera
that clamps on top of your existing rear view mirror
There are similar cameras being sold by different companies
like Blackbox and Jumbl for a $100
Below there are two cameras
which can swivel with infrared lights surrounding both lenses
My main issue is the poor video quality and coverage
It looks blurry and the edges are cut off
because of the poor quality hardware
Unless you really want a mirror camera
because it's more discreet
or want nothing sticking to your windshield
you should go with our Dome or Transcend picks
Now that you know what not to get
let's talk about the Transcend Drive Pro 520
which is our top budget recommendation
It was released in September 2015 and priced in March 2017
at $200 American and can be found on sale for $170
The 520 has a front facing camera
with the rear camera mounted on a turret
that rotates 180 degrees
It turns smoothly without vibrating on bumpy roads
From the outside
it’s a little more noticeable than the Dome camera
because of the shiny black plastic and chrome elements
Like Dome Transcend includes everything you need in the box
with the option of getting either a suction or an adhesive mount
but not both
We recommend the adhesive mount
as the suction version isn't very good
There’s better and cheaper mounts on eBay
that will fit this camera like the one that’s attached
The 520 can be placed behind the rear-view mirror
for added discreteness
although It’s wider body is slightly more noticeable
than the Dome camera
Transcend made an interesting design decision
the passenger camera can only move side to side
but the lens is tilted downwards so that after adjusting
the front view the inside camera
still has a good angle to record passengers
The Dome camera
can only rotate 360° using the suction mount
as the adhesive version
doesn’t have enough freedom of movement
If you drive on the right
you can turn the passenger camera instead
for police encounters which is more discreet
and lights up their face at night
Looking at the front video quality it’s close to Dome
and records at the same resolution 1440x1080P
with a narrower 130 degree field of view
which in our opinion is a better balance
between details and coverage
The inside lens is good during the day
and wide enough to cover both passengers
It’s sharper than Dome but it’s not a big difference
At night the 520 is noticeably better
You can see much more of the passenger cabin
and it improves your protection
as you can better capture details you may need
like hand movements and faces
However the infrared lights aren’t always on
which sometimes results in a dim image
The camera needs to detect it’s dark enough first
I wish it was always on like Dome
You can install extra infrared lights
which worked way better with the 520
You can eliminate the remaining shadows
and increase the quality to what you would get
in a 400 dollar premium camera
It’s $12 for the light $5 for the cable adapter
a few dollars for the 3MB VHB tape and car socket adapter
You can read about it in our article and if there’s enough interest
we can do a video
We also heat tested the Transcend camera at 59°C/138°F
and found the focus on both lenses changed a little bit
but not nearly as much as the Dome camera
This is significantly better than Dome
as it had focus issues even with the air conditioning turned on
Moving forward the DP520 has a GPS
which can overlay your speed and position
in the recorded video
You can disable this feature in the settings menu
Unlike the Dome you can see where you’ve been
on Google Maps
This GPS information is always written to your video file
and can’t be disabled
We found the Transcend 520
has the second clearest audio of all the taxi cameras tested
but again it’s not a big deal
Your car and whether your windshield is rolled down
will make a bigger difference
Transcend includes their 32GB High Endurance card
which helps offsets the higher price
If you’ve seen our reviews the Endurance is our top choice for its exceptional
durability
It’s also expensive
in June 2017 with the memory card shortage
the price is $32 USD and is worth every dollar in our opinion
If you purchase older stock
you'll get the 32GB Ultimate card instead
which is just as good and has the same 2-year warranty
This 32GB card gives you 3 hours of recording time
64GB is the largest size officially supported
but we tested our 128GB Lexar 633X card
and it worked just fine
But again not all cards may work
Similar to Dome
all recorded videos can be played back on the 2.4” LCD screen
using buttons to navigate through the well designed menu
Compared to Dome
the interface was much more intuitive and easier to use
You can see exactly what each button does
Looking through the settings
there are no parking features like motion detection
or time lapse
not that it would be a good idea with the Drive Pro 520
What I like about Transcend
Is they made their emergency lock button distinct
and easy to find
Unlike Dome
You won't accidentally turn off the microphone
Transcend also added WiFi
which allows your smartphone to connect with the camera
using their iOS or Android app
You can stream videos and download saved videos
which can be useful after an accident
Compared to other WiFi cameras we’ve tested
it was slow
and couldn’t stream videos without frequently pausing
While we’re happy with Transcend’s cameras
we wanted to talk about two issues it has
First it uses lithium ion batteries
which means it’s not great for hot environments
but it’s been far from unreliable
The Transcend DrivePro 520
has nearly two years of trouble free reviews
If there was a problem
it would have surfaced after the first summer
If you do have issues there’s a full two year warranty
which is one more year over Dome’s
Transcend also has a more extensive support network
with offices in places like the United States
United Kingdom Germany and more
You won’t need to send your products back to China
for warranty purposes
The second issue is the error notifications with failed SD cards
as the 520 only detected three of the four failed cards
These cards had great on-screen warnings
which were noticeable and did not disappear
The other one was more concerning
It went undetected and the camera appeared to be recording
while nothing was actually written to the memory card
I’m hoping Transcend fixes this problem
with a firmware update
Aside from these issues
we’re happy recommending the Transcend 520
as a worthwhile upgrade from the Dome camera
for its added functionality protection and it’s history of reliability
If you’re looking for improved protection performance
and/or reliability in hot weather be sure to checkout
our review on the two premium cameras we recommend
So that’s our video guide on budget Taxi cameras
Hoped you liked it
Feel free to ask detailed questions
and I or a member of the team will get back to you
We’ll put updates and link to our in-depth article
where you can download raw video and audio
in the description below
We also use affiliate links
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And with that that’s the end of this guide
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