Mercedes Dash Cam

[gbCambridge]

HI,
I have finally got my head around the Mercedes Dash Cam offering for my B Class 250e. To say I was underwhelmed is an understatement. Tru it uses the built-in camera work..so no wires, etc, but for £200 you get what appears to be a very primitive system, which cannot even be viewed in the car, has to be manually started and appears quite uncompetitive with standard market offerings.
Have I got the wrong end of the stick with this..or are the market offerings superior? If so, I would be interested to know which units have been installed in members' cars and their views on the installation and performance of these products against Mercedes built-in.
Once again, thanks for the help

George

 

[liamt]

I agree, the functionality is very basic in comparison to third party offerings but I believe there are reasons behind this. For example, the manual start of the built in dash cam is intentional in order to comply with different regulations in different countries. If you took your car to Austria where dash cams are banned and it was automatically recording, you could argue it was a feature of the car you weren't aware was activated. The fact the driver has to start it manually before setting off absolves Mercedes of any blame. I imagine cars native to Austria won't be equipped with the dash camera.

Personally I would always go for a third party solution irrespective of the marque as they will no doubt have similar limited features, as small camera technology improves you can always upgrade. I currently use a Nextbase camera which has served me well and has lasted for about 5 years now. It has certainly lasted longer than the earlier Nextbase models which tend to have problems with the built in battery over time.

 

[TrueSpirit]

Does it manually have to be started every time you drive the car? Or just a one off activation for example

I've had dashcams for many years. From late 2016 my thinkware F770 still works to this day
I've moved it from car to car. I also have a thinkware F800 pro i got in 2018 i think which is a good camera. No issues with either apart from the very annoying American voice the system uses.

There's many other brands such and black Vue etc which are highly rated and a front and rear camera with installation should cost gb300 for the higher end ones (or that used to be the case back in the day )

 

[liamt]

Does it manually have to be started every time you drive the car? Or just a one off activation for example

I've had dashcams for many years. From late 2016 my thinkware F770 still works to this day
I've moved it from car to car. I also have a thinkware F800 pro i got in 2018 i think which is a good camera. No issues with either apart from the very annoying American voice the system uses.

There's many other brands such and black Vue etc which are highly rated and a front and rear camera with installation should cost gb300 for the higher end ones (or that used to be the case back in the day )

It has to be manually activated every time you start the car. As above this is to comply with regulations in various countries

 

[gbCambridge]

I agree, the functionality is very basic in comparison to third party offerings but I believe there are reasons behind this. For example, the manual start of the built in dash cam is intentional in order to comply with different regulations in different countries. If you took your car to Austria where dash cams are banned and it was automatically recording, you could argue it was a feature of the car you weren't aware was activated. The fact the driver has to start it manually before setting off absolves Mercedes of any blame. I imagine cars native to Austria won't be equipped with the dash camera.

Personally I would always go for a third party solution irrespective of the marque as they will no doubt have similar limited features, as small camera technology improves you can always upgrade. I currently use a Nextbase camera which has served me well and has lasted for about 5 years now. It has certainly lasted longer than the earlier Nextbase models which tend to have problems with the built in battery over time.

Hi, Thanks for the information..I shall look into Nextbase. The Merc. Dash Cam does not even let you review screen info on the built-in screen..you need to take the memory stick and convert it for viewing. All in all, it looks like they wanted to max out the potential profit on having a camera installed..but hoping the Mercedes brand would get them over the competition. Not for me it won't. But, thanks for the suggestion of the Nextbase.

 

[liamt]

Hi, Thanks for the information..I shall look into Nextbase. The Merc. Dash Cam does not even let you review screen info on the built-in screen..you need to take the memory stick and convert it for viewing. All in all, it looks like they wanted to max out the potential profit on having a camera installed..but hoping the Mercedes brand would get them over the competition. Not for me it won't. But, thanks for the suggestion of the Nextbase.

Again I think that is to comply with regulations (stop people messing with it whilst driving etc). I've used Nextbase cameras pretty much since dash cams came out because insurers used to recommend them although that is pretty much irrelevant now. I imagine there are a number of other dash cam manufacturers who have caught up and are on par with Nextbase so other options are available. I tend to stick with tried and tested.

 

[SpikyMikey]

Blackvue for me; no screens on them but I like 'em that way. Nice stealthy install.

 

[TrueSpirit]

There's some very decent brands depending on whether you want a live view screen or not. Viofo is good for 3 way. Vantrue ,.AZ dashcams ,.Focuway, garmin are also worth looking at. Blackvue has good cloud based features as do thinkware. Blackvue let's you use a sim card for this.


Most of them allow you to download the content to your phone or take out the micro SD
A Front and rear cam is worth thinking about
Parking mode
Cloud mode if you want clips / alerts sent to you
High quality night vision
Field of view
GPS and map tracking
Speed tracking
hard wiring vs cigarette lighter wiring options
Voice control etc features ?

Just depends on how geeky you want to get and how much you're prepared to spend.

 

[stubax]

Garmin for me, now had it 5 years with no issues, auto starts, has speed camera warnings too, comes with small screen. Unit is quite small but clear recordings.