I've been pondering installing a dashcam in one or both of our cars. For the most part, there's nothing really worth doing it, but then you see these spectacular videos out of people in Russia doing dumb things and you think, "wow, I'd love to be able to get videos like that".

Anyway, after an hour of poking around, I'm deeply lost in a world of twisty gadgets, stamped out in factories in China, offered by a plethora of no-name brands. One example of what I'm interested in is this thing. Small, easy to tuck behind your rear-view mirror, yet still adjust the aim of the camera. Common complaints across the whole genre seem to be poor-quality GPS, things melting in the heat (a real concern here in Texas), etc. A related concern, at least for me, is that these things use every different sort of external power connector. USB mini, USB micro, etc. If I'm going to pull a wire, I want to it once, and you see lots of people on various forums writing "this is my fourth dashcam, and I think I finally got a good one."

Thoughts on this? Do I really want one of these things?

I have looked at dash cams here and there as well. I also have no good reason to get one, so it's just a curiosity at this point.

I have noticed that Garmin have been putting some out there. I haven't looked too closely at them, but I certainly trust the brand's ability to produce electronics that get pounded by sunlight on your dashboard.

This one seems to have positive reviews, but that review is a little old at this point. Still, it's a decent price and I can't imagine that the tech has changed much. You're not usually looking for Red Epic-quality video from these things...

I've mounted my iPhone on my dashboard so that I can use Waze for GPS navigation. It has occurred to me on multiple occasions that a minor tweak to its mounting angle and it could double as a dashcam.

This chap has lots of interesting reviews and guides on dash cams (plus lots of other stuff), seems to be a pretty honest look at what is out there. Check out the techmoan YouTube channel...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5I2hjZYiW9gZPVkvzM8_Cw

Cheers

Cris

Techmoan is the encyclopaedia of dashcams. I really enjoy his reviews of vintage audio hardware too, look out for those on his channel.