What is the best radar detectors for speed cameras?

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#1090074 16-Jul-2014 16:05

tanivula: Wading in to this discussion... I've had an Escort 9500ix and it was pretty awesome. With built in GPS, it had the fixed camera positions and you could lock out K band falses (automatic opening doors at BP etc). Also, when driving slowly, ie not the open road/motorway, it would reduce its sensitivity so you get even less falses.

Nice. Where do you get it from?

Yabanize

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#1090148 16-Jul-2014 16:56

Navman GPS's tell you when there is a speed camera, although you cant guarantee that it will know about all of them

sdav

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#1090202 16-Jul-2014 19:19

To be honest, they are a waste of money when all you are trying to achieve is dodging fines and you might as well get a good one if you bother so you're starting at $1000 and going upwards from there. 1-10 km/h over is a $30 fine and demerits only matter if you are pulled over by police (and between 1-10 Km/h you don't always get a fine... and to be honest you're rarely pulled over in that window anyway - highway patrol look for the high speeds... leave the lower ones to cameras). You would have to be stopped 30 plus times (provided you weren't doing more than 10 km/h) to pay it off lol

But that doesn't answer your question... just my rational why they are a waste of money.

mentalinc

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#1090331 17-Jul-2014 06:36

I've used both the V1 and the old Escort 8500. I now have the x50 but haven't driven with it yet.
I've found the new camera's to be much harder to detect providing minimal warning time when I was using the V1. There was a change around 3-5 years ago to low strength K band (http://www.rapidradio.co.nz/News/1/56.asp) also http://www.radardirect.co.nz/FAQ/faq.html. "These latest Vans (2011) run a new Digital Low Powered Pulsed K band signal which is very difficult to detect. The operation frequency is 24.100GHz. ±100MHZ". Make sure you adjust speed then look for the threat not the other way around as it may be too late.

ALWAYS remove them from your windscreen and never leave them anywhere in your car. If the area looks dodge make sure you take the suction cup off and clean the windscreen to remove the telltale circle suction cup marks.

Also there is a difference between laser, i.e. cop on the side of the road with a gun out the window (basically you've got a ticket unless you're very lucky and got a bounce signal) and radar you have time to slow down...

Learn how your detector works then drive based on that.

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tanivula

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#1090370 17-Jul-2014 08:46

nakedmolerat:
tanivula: Wading in to this discussion... I've had an Escort 9500ix and it was pretty awesome. With built in GPS, it had the fixed camera positions and you could lock out K band falses (automatic opening doors at BP etc). Also, when driving slowly, ie not the open road/motorway, it would reduce its sensitivity so you get even less falses.

Nice. Where do you get it from?

From Radardirect if my memory serves me correctly. Still for sale it seems - I'm semi happy the price hasn't dropped, perhaps it's a good time to sell, hmmm.

nakedmolerat

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#1090388 17-Jul-2014 08:53

tanivula:
nakedmolerat:
tanivula: Wading in to this discussion... I've had an Escort 9500ix and it was pretty awesome. With built in GPS, it had the fixed camera positions and you could lock out K band falses (automatic opening doors at BP etc). Also, when driving slowly, ie not the open road/motorway, it would reduce its sensitivity so you get even less falses.

Nice. Where do you get it from?

From Radardirect if my memory serves me correctly. Still for sale it seems - I'm semi happy the price hasn't dropped, perhaps it's a good time to sell, hmmm.

That is a 2014 model (ixi) The 2014 Passport 9500ixi

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#1090390 17-Jul-2014 08:55

I have removed all off topic posts. This is not a moral debate, it's a simple question and answer topic: what is the best radar detector. There's no law breaking, there's no need to school anyone.

I am now watching this topic and will give a couple of days "holiday" to any off topic folks.

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#1090395 17-Jul-2014 09:03

I have some questions regarding these things, how useful are they? I have a couple of friends that have them and both have received tickets from cameras and Police with Radars etc. In 41 years of driving I have had only one ticket and that was at the entrance to Taupo, I have never used a detector. My friends have paid good money for their devices and a good chunk more in fines it just seems a bit of a scam

So are they suited for NZ conditions? is there now too much 'noise' that interferes with them?

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

kiwitrc

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#1090444 17-Jul-2014 09:46

KiwiNZ: I have some questions regarding these things, how useful are they? I have a couple of friends that have them and both have received tickets from cameras and Police with Radars etc. In 41 years of driving I have had only one ticket and that was at the entrance to Taupo, I have never used a detector. My friends have paid good money for their devices and a good chunk more in fines it just seems a bit of a scam

So are they suited for NZ conditions? is there now too much 'noise' that interferes with them?

There are detectors and there are detectors. Your friends may have bought cheap ones which are in most cases rubbish. My detector will trigger from the cheap ones occasionally because they emit a lot of noise (IF)

However any detector is only as useful as the person who is using it and how the police are using their radars. Also as stated earlier most detectors wont pick up the new fixed cameras or of course the fixed cameras. Also if Police are using Laser then they are virtually useless and most people don't know the difference between laser and radar.

So detectors do work but they are most certainly not a license to drive as you like with immunity.

tanivula

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#1090495 17-Jul-2014 10:17

nakedmolerat:
tanivula:
nakedmolerat:
tanivula: Wading in to this discussion... I've had an Escort 9500ix and it was pretty awesome. With built in GPS, it had the fixed camera positions and you could lock out K band falses (automatic opening doors at BP etc). Also, when driving slowly, ie not the open road/motorway, it would reduce its sensitivity so you get even less falses.

Nice. Where do you get it from?

From Radardirect if my memory serves me correctly. Still for sale it seems - I'm semi happy the price hasn't dropped, perhaps it's a good time to sell, hmmm.

That is a 2014 model (ixi) The 2014 Passport 9500ixi

Hmm, yeah it would be the newer model and I hit the radar direct guys about it who said there was minimal performance difference between the 2.
I would highly rate this though, the GPS functionality is brilliant.

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#1090530 17-Jul-2014 10:45

Hi guys I'll add a bit of info of mine and what I was looking for.

My new valentine 1 operates brillantly on patrol cars but the notification on speed camera vans is mossstttllyyy when im almost on it which doesnt give me enough time to react.

Im looking to see if theres a better performer for the speed camera vans.

I dont typically speed large, but I go to the bach each fortnight, and with 3km/h tolerances, occasions now where the speed cameras are parked in passing lanes, and night capable I need some help. (Rant & cops wonder why theres a decreasing respect re thecameras in passing lanes)

The options as I see it are
escort redline
escort max (new)
Escort 9500ix
Bel sti

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#1090537 17-Jul-2014 11:00

most radar detectors won't pickup digital camera vans until it's too because the radar beam is fired at an angle across the road and it's very low powered (K-band).

in perfect conditions the escorts seem to do a better job than the v1 but the advantage is slim.

best course of action is to slow down whenever you see a van parked on the roadside !

it helps that the latest vans are painted in the garish 'safety' colour scheme.

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#1091113 17-Jul-2014 23:21

ilovemusic: most radar detectors won't pickup digital camera vans until it's too because the radar beam is fired at an angle across the road and it's very low powered (K-band).

in perfect conditions the escorts seem to do a better job than the v1 but the advantage is slim.

best course of action is to slow down whenever you see a van parked on the roadside !

it helps that the latest vans are painted in the garish 'safety' colour scheme.

Ha I can prove you wrong, the only 2 speeding tickets I got was when I saw the van, going down hill. In my suspicion my brain forgot to tell the foot to brake, remember we are going down hill,

Each resulted in being ticketed for 11 km/h over the limit. That was a decade ago though :)

I heard that there are only 2 you should trust. Valentine 1 and belkin sti?str? The expensive one. But I wouldn't know I find it distracting enough to use a gps I thought to myself this is going to be as disruptive.

tradertim

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#1115311 25-Aug-2014 16:29

Hi an update.

I trialled the new Escort Max against my Valentine One both on in the car same time.

Escort Max has these great features like GPS, where it will lock out alarming when passing 2 signals from the exact same spot more than once, really nice display, voice alarming etc. UNFORTUNATELY it fails in its primary function as a sensitive radar detector.

My Valentine 1 consistently alarmed before the Escort Max on K band (camera vans). Ka band which isnt so important as you get a ton of notification anyway to a cop with always on radar.

Result Valentine 1 is consistently better.

The last few weeks I've been trialling my Valetine 1 against the Escort Redline.

At the moment its very close, however early indicators are that the Escort Redline might be marginally sooner on the K band Camera vans and possibly the Ka Radar. This is with TSR off, X off on the Redline and X off on the Valentine.

Marginally sooner might be useful where the K band cameras are concerned. There's still the further option on the Redline to remove some of the Ka bands that are not used in NZ to further improve its sensitivity, they say this is Redline-XR configuration.

I'll post some more after some further trips.

To some of the others, where it might save you is if your at front of traffic travelling, and the cops travelling toward you these will notify you around the bend, corner. Also laser if your not the car in front and they've laser the car in front of you, you'll get a warning.

Will post more when I know more through drive testing.

To the do gooders, I typically travel 100-110, every second weekend, lately i've seen camera vans in passing lanes, and I've been done by cops around the corner at the end of a passing lane, and last weekend I saw a cop lasering in a passing lane. Its getting pretty dirty on their part, I tend to loose some respect for the revenue generating cops when they are doing this type of thing.

s.joseph

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#1115314 25-Aug-2014 16:37

Surprised the whistlers haven't been mentioned, Ive got a Pro 78SE, one of the higher end models and thing has never let me down.
K Band Max sensitivity is very good, but I've disabled it as they go off for those electronic slow down signs.

Ka and Laser pulse are the 2 main ones I use with X band off, ive never received a ticket and have been using it for about 2 years now.

Unfortunately I haven't tried any other radar detectors to compare it with but im quite impressed with it.

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