[Joule]

I drive in NJ, so, well, I‘ve seen some crazy stuff on the roads (if you can drive here, you can drive anywhere in the world— I have seen folks parallel park on the Interstates at 75 mph).

I have almost been the victim of that crazy stuff at least 2x in the last month. I am thinking it is time for a dash cam. Suggestions on make & model, desired features, ease of mounting without marking up dash, etc.?

 

[Rainsux]

I use a Garmin GPS with a built in dash cam. Suction cup to the windshield
Sam

 

[Willie Williford]

Hot a direct link Sam?

 

[Joule]

They seem a little “spendy” as they say in Oregon.

 

[julianachos]

I remembered seeing an Insight at the meet in September that had a few cameras inside of their car. Virginia plates too, if I recall correctly. Would not be surprised if the owner was a victim of the wrath of I-495 or just plain North Virginia shenanigans.

Hopefully this person can chime in.

 

[Joule]

That was Ted. He sold his Insight since, like me, his aged knees couldn’t handle the clutch anymore.

 

[Phantom Z3]

I drive in NJ, so, well, I‘ve seen some crazy stuff on the roads (if you can drive here, you can drive anywhere in the world— I have seen folks parallel park on the Interstates at 75 mph).

I have almost been the victim of that crazy stuff at least 2x in the last month. I am thinking it is time for a dash cam. Suggestions on make & model, desired features, ease of mounting without marking up dash, etc.?

Good bang for buck is the Viofo cams. A119, A129, etc. I have an A129 Pro Duo (real 4k Sony sensor front, 1440 rear) I'm planning on installing. About $200-$250. They often go on sale on prime day as well. Also don't forget to get an SD card that's made for dash cam like the 256gb SanDisk High Endurance. Dash cams write and overwrite so much, the last thing you want is for it to die on you due to the excessive writing.

Vortex Radar has a few reviews on dashcams. Have a look.

 

[Joule]

Thanks.

 

[Zerodrag]

There are tons of dash cams available now. I think it really comes down to how much you want to spend on one as well as maybe picture quality. The latter really isn't much of an issue if you are just trying to prove liability in an accident.

I've used several G1W cams in my cars with good results. They are inexpensive and do their jobs. I would recommend getting the capacitor version though.

I recently installed a Garmin Mini 2 in one vehicle. It is very small and has no display. You need to use the phone app to pretty much do most things. It's on the more expense side though, but has some nice features.

On the Miata forum I frequent, one person used a motorcycle cam which was really nice since the lenses were separate from the main body so it opened up some cool possibilities for remote mounting purposes.

 

[thatdellguy]

I use a Mini 0906 in my SUV and two Mini 0905 in my Insight. The 0905 had issues early on but were fixed with a cheap battery upgrade. Probably going to upgrade to the 0906 in the Insight if those fail. Its been super reliable for a couple years now. Living in SoCal I'm to the point where I wont drive anything without a front and rear camera. You can buy more expensive cams but I don't see the point.

 

[mudder]

I used to offer for sale a dashcam specifically designed for the Insight. I only ever sold one, though, and so stopped selling them. After 8 years, mine is still working just fine; I've 'burned out' a couple uSD cards, but the camera itself is still chugging away.

The project is open source, so you can make your own if you want one. At this point it's probably cheaper to just buy an off-the-shelf camera... but I like how discrete my design is.