Installing a dashcam in your car makes a lot of sense — having footage of an accident makes insurance claims a lot easier, and you never know when you’ll see something noteworthy on the road. While they may have been a novelty a few years ago, nowadays dashcams come in all price ranges from a lot of manufacturers. Fitness tracking company Garmin has a range of higher-end dashcams with some unique features, and they’re currently on sale at Amazon.
The Dash Cam 45, 55, and 65 are all on sale, but I find the Dash Cam 55 to be the most compelling combination of features and value. With a wide-angle 122 degrees lens, it captures 1440p video and 3.7MP still images. You get the standard range of features like wireless syncing of footage to your smartphone, loop recording, and incident detection (even while the car is parked, if you use a Parking Mode cable).
Additionally, Garmin has some pretty nifty features in these dashcams, like voice control for hands-free operation and a GPS radio so your footage gets geotagged — this can be useful for proving where you were, and what speed you were driving at. The camera also uses the video being recorded to give you lane-departure and forward-collision warnings. It can even use the footage to make a time-lapse video of your journey. Originally $200, the Garmin Dash Cam 55 is currently on sale for $149.
If you need ultra-wide-angle footage, consider the Dash Cam 65 — with a 180-degree lens, it can capture more of the road, and give you more flexibility in where you want to install the camera. The camera resolution does get bumped down to 1080p in this camera though. Originally $250, it’s currently on sale for $190.
Finally, we have the cheaper Dash Cam 45, which foregoes voice control and downgrades the sensor to 2.1MP/1080p with a 122-degree viewing angle. It’s on sale for $120 new, down from $150. You can save a pretty penny by getting the $60 refurbished version though.
Buy:
- Dash Cam 45 — $120 down from $150, “Amazon Renewed” for $60.
- Dash Cam 55 — $149 down from $200.
- Dash Cam 65 — $190 down from $250.