Industry analyst Ross Rubin knows of my interest in dash cams and turned me onto Garmin’s CES news, as the GPS manufacturer enter this space with two models — the Dash Cam 10 and 20. They run $220 and $250, respectively, and will ship by the end of the month with the only difference being the higher end unit incorporates GPS. Like most current dashboard-mounted video cameras, these units record 1080p video in a loop and ship with a microSD chip for storage – 4GB is provided but cards up to 32GB will be supported. Beyond video, Gamin also includes a 2.3″ display… something that’s pretty critical for proper alignment and sorely missed on my Blackvue.
I’m not quite sure why this product category hasn’t been exploited or taken off in the US, the way it has in other regions. For example, my Blackvue is a grey market import from Korea (with SquareTrade warranty, thank you). But I do believe there’s a market for dash cams here. And this product will surely go onto my post-CES gadget acquisition list. Stay tuned.
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Dave the Blackvue link made my anti virus program sit up and take notice.
Weird, wonder if it's a false positive or if they've been hacked. I swapped it for another link, but who knows.
I've looked into dash cams from time to time over the years. It's nice to see Garmin getting into it but that's a pretty big unit compared to others which are more lipstick-style.
The deal with dash cams is that they're of no use until you need one. If you are in an accident or just getting pulled over by a disgruntled cop then they can be of use. Day to day, it should just sit there doing it's thing and you should never think about it. That leads to the problem of you needing it, never checking it, and finding out, "oh, the SD card was fried," or, "Looks like the Korean made camera locked up."
Still seems like Garmin should have made a more attractive unit instead of something that bulky. You don't need a screen on it, just a camera, a micro SD card slot, and reliable firmware to do continuous recording and erase old recordings to make room for new ones.