Good Accident Camera
 

I was thinking of keeping a cheap digital camera in my car in case of an accident, and was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for a good one. I was thinking an old AA battery based one may make sense as good batteries have a long shelf life and I could keep a few spares in the car as a backup. Since the camera would sit around seldom used battery shelf life is key.

Maybe a disposable film camera would make more sense? Not sure how it'd hold up to the heat and cold of the seasons across years of sitting in the car. It's not like I get into many accidents. Thanks.

I've found that no type of camera does well just rotting in the car. Batteries die, film goes bad, neglected digital cameras bouncing around in a cold/hot car malfunction.

Replace your cell phone with a camera phone whose camera is decent, or get an inexpensive digital camera to keep in your car/bring everywhere and use it often. I do both; my phone has a camera good enough for accident documentation, and I have a quite nice digital camera that I keep with me almost all the time and I shoot pictures of interesting cars on the road.

Lousy cellphone coverage here and I don't really need one. Definitely the best solution for those who do have one though! Maybe I should just get in the habit of bringing along my main digital camera when I go out. Save me buying another one.

On a related note, I found this fantastic accident information exchange kit. I printed out a copy and filled in all my info for future use and keep it in the car.

https://www.encompassinsurance.com/co...cident_kit.pdf

I can give you my personal experience with your question.

I bought one of those cheep throw away plastic cameras and it sat in the jeep for at least 2+ years hardly being used in all seasons. So it froze in the winter and baked in the summer. I put it in a cheap camera case so it wouldn't bang around. Last fall I took some pictures of fall foliage and an off road excursion and finished the roll off purposely since it had been sitting in the vehicle so long. I figured the pictures would be trash but the camera seemed to be working ok. The pictures came out just fine so I guess I was surprised. So I bought another and threw it in there but have not used that one yet.

Anyway, I have a camera on my cell phone also that I never seem to have an occasion to use much.

That's great to know! Film still has its uses.

I used my cell phone camera when I was in an accident a few years ago. For those with this option its the best. My insurance company was pleased because the lady ended up trying to make a fraudulent claim on my insurance, and since I had photos of her car from the scene they were able to determine that I wasn't at fault.

I just upgraded to a Fuji subcompact digital camera. Its smaller size will make keeping it with me a lot easier. Keeping a camera on me all the time seems like a good idea anyway as I always feel like I don't take enough photos.

I have used my cell phone for accident photos. It wasn't great. My new phone is better.

The cameras are a lot better than they were a few years ago. When I was in that accident a few years ago my phone had a VGA camera. My current phone has a 3 megapixel camera, and the new one I'm looking at when my upgrade comes due soon will have even higher resolution. Nice thing about having high end cell phones, they usually come with nice cameras.

-Jay

I have a new camera now (a nice compact FujiFilm one). It has one of those small lithium rechargeables in it and keeping it in the charger all the time and removing it each time I go out is proving annoying. Since I almost never actually take pictures, I figure the simplest thing to do is set up a Google Calender event that send me reminders to put the battery on the charger every so often. Unfortunately I have little intuition as to how long a good period in between charges is likely to be. Right now I chose a week, bit that feels a little pessimistic. Does anyone have experience with the shelf life of lithium regargeables? In the worst case, I can just check the battery level every so often to determine when it starts to get low and then add a safety margin. Thanks for any info.

You can get a 2-pack of the disposables at Wal-mart for under $10. The film lasts for several years. Most phones have a 2 megapixel or greater camera now. If you haven't upgraded your cel in 2 years, you ought to be able to get one for free.

I don't need a cellphone and some people have had trouble with film cameras left in a car exposed to heat and cold. That's why I'm just bringing my camera with me. I have always meant to take more photos anyway.

For the neglected accident camera, instead of rechargable batteries I'd just keep some good quality alkalines in a package.

Lithium-ion batteries in larger applications don't like being constantly topped off; they work best if you discharge them most of the way before recharging. I don't know their charge shelf life.

I've realized all I have to do is consider my calendar reminder a "battery check" event, rather than a recharge one. If it ain't low, don't recharge it. I'll just adjust the length based on what I observe over time.

I had a bit of trouble remembering to actually bring my camera with me until I started putting it next to my keys. I could leave it in the car and just remove it in winter as it doesn't get too hot in my garage.

I know a few personal injury attorneys and they recommend keeping a disposable 35mm camera in your car. Digital photos can be retouched by just about anybody, so they aren't as trustworthy.

On a funnier note, a colleague had somebody with serious road rage behind him the other day. He pulled out his cell phone cam and pointed it at the car. The driver backed off. Great success story of winning by using your brains.

M

Digital photos can be retouched but if you take a lot of photos and submit them quickly there really is no disputing it. I happened to have my good camera with me when I got in my accident. I didn't even realize it was in the car until after the crash it was at my feet.

If you take a good quality photo or a photo with a lot of noise you will find it extremely difficult to photoshop any elements and have it come out looking untouched. I took my crash photos at ISO 100 for clarity and 800 for the noise but I didn't need them as it was completely obvious who was at fault on that one.

Maybe I'll keep both. I like knowing I got the shots with the digital. If I replace the disposable every year it should help with it going bad.

Just thought of a good way to make a digital camera's evidence more believable: take a ton of photos. Be hard to Photoshop a large number if you submit them quickly to your insurance company.

Another way: Use your camera phone to picture messages. Depending where you send them, they may be hosted by the cell phone company and unavailable for you to edit. They will confirm the more detailed hi-res photos you take with your camera.

No need for a cell phone, alas. Good suggestion, though.

The trouble with putting a high resolution camera in a cell phone is the size of the optics. You could stuff a 12 megapixel image sensor from a digital SLR into a cell phone body, but if you're taking pictures through a pinhead size plastic lens, they're going to come out blurry when you later blow up the image on a computer... You'll have no more detail than you would see with a 1 or 2 MP sensor, just more pixels dedicated to displaying a particular blurred feature of the image.

I heard there was this liquid lens technology that was going to help a bit. That was a few years ago.

As a former liability claim adjuster I can tell you that very few accident liabilities are decided upon details needed beyond the pictures a cell phone camera can typically take. I.e., if you can get skid marks, vehicle placement or orientation, and close-ups of the damage, that's usually covering 90% of it.

As an adjuster, there were times when I used more specialized equipment to capture faded/old skid marks, but I only really needed that twice in the two years I did that job.

Pictures like this usually suffice.

https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...a3af846a9f.jpg
https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...37ee95408d.jpg
https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...70c63ada94.jpg
https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...c092f9bd05.jpg

Not the best quality, but it's obvious what happened lol

Well, my new camera seems to have a very long battery shelf life. Been about a month and a half and with occasional use the battery level still reads 2/3. I'm sure it'll degrade with age, but I think a calendar reminder every two weeks ought to be more than enough. I'm having no troubles remembering to bring it along and I've gotten a few pictures (not accident related) I would've missed had it not been with me. The future will probably be a Google Android device, but for now the Fuji fits the bill. Got a nice cheap stretch case for it at Big Lots. No zipper to worry about scratching the screen.