Ever wish you could record a video of your next drive, capture footage as you zoom along on the highway or wind through the twisty passages on the way to your mountain retreat? That’s what dash cams are designed for, and one of the premier vendors in the space is Cobra Electronics. You know them for radar detectors, but as I find out, Cobra also now makes a line of terrific dash cams of their own, the Drive HD series.
In this video, I talk about the Cobra CDR-825 Dash Cam and offer a fun demonstration of its abilities:
You can learn more about the Drive HD series and the CDR-825E Dash Cam at Cobra.com.
I have been trying to use this as a web cam, I thought it would be excellent since it takes great 1080p HD video as a dash cam.
I have found it impossible to use as a web cam, so far.
Anyone found a way to use it as a web cam ??
Great post! I think I might get one just to have & record as I drive around because you never know what exciting footage it might record.
A only assume that the video can be downloaded/transferred to a computer.
Is it Wifi enable so I can post it on YouTube right from the device?
About how long does its battery hold charge?
How well does it record at night?
Is there another model or option that can allow more than one hour of recording?
Sounds like you might need a higher end unit, Nomar. This one doesn’t have wifi, can’t post directly to YouTube and doesn’t have night vision (though your car headlights can illuminate what’s on camera so it would work pretty well). Duration of recording is a function of the SDCard capacity. There are also really good commercial units for long-haul truckers, etc, that Cobra sells. Check it out on their Web site.
@Nomar seems to want to skip a simple step. How much longer would it take to download the video to a computer and then post to You Tube? You are going to have to download the video to something before pushing it to the Net. There is no viable reason for a simple tool like a Dash Cam to have Wifi.
I have a cheap Dash Cam that I bought here in Canada at “The Source” which is “Radio Shack” in Canada. It is only 720P but has the same 140 degree view but works beautifully for my purposes and got it on sale for $59 Canadian. If you want to spend several hundred dollars I am sure there are companies out there who would quite willingly take you hard earned cash!
Nomar, just buy a Go Pro Hero 3+ silver edition. It will technically blow this dash cam out of the water, and DOES have WiFi, and a free iPhone/android app, and “studio” (desktop, laptop) for further processing if desired. The video can immediately be transferred via WiFi to your phone’s app, then shared immediately to whatever social media your phone is capable of sharing to. You can ALSO 100% control the Go Pro from 600′ (if unobstructed line of sight allows) with your cell phone via WiFi. That entails: power on/off, all function of start, stop, settings, mode changes, sub menu settings, changing resolution, lens angle, frame rate, burst rate, etc. etc. etc., and if your phones processor is fast enough, it will even give you a preview of what is being recorded “real time”. so you can for instance….set up the go pro on your wheel well, and see what it sees on your phone sitting in your car dock. and control it 100%. It also does 10 shot/1sec HD bursts, 120 frame/sec 720P video. 1080P 60frame/sec. wide angle normal angle, and narrow angle, timelapse photos shot at .5, 1, 3, 10, 30 seconds, or 1 minute. waterproof to 130 foot. shock proof, etc. X 10 I think this is what you are looking for. I have one. $299 buy extra batteries, and a 32gig mini sd. and whatever attachments you want that don’t already come with it. Case closed.