Remember that meteor that came blazing across the sky near Chelyabinsk, Russia a little more than 3 years ago? Within hours of it streaking over the Ural Mountains, dozens of dash cam videos like the one above popped up all over.
Why do so many Russian cars have dash cams? Well, lots of accidents, road rage, insurance fraud, and corrupt cops are just some of the reasons Russians don’t leave home without one, and dash cams are popular in China and some other countries as well. Here in the USA, dash cams videos are usually associated with law enforcement, as most civilians have faith in police and insurance in case of an accident.
You can get a dash cam and legally use it – although in some jurisdictions recording the audio portion might be a violation – but despite the pervasiveness of selfies, Instagram, and Snapchat, especially among those half our age (at least!), the dash cam has not caught on here.
Maybe the Magellan MiVue 658 will change your mind. It’s an HD dash cam that attaches to the inside of your windshield and by default automatically starts recording when you start to drive (audio too unless you turn it off), and can also automatically start recording when there’s a sudden “event” like an impact or sharp turn. You can enable a parking mode which starts recording if it detects sudden movement or an “event.” The Magellan can even take still photos, if you need them, and be turned around to video the driver and passengers instead of the road. The 2.4 inch display is a touchscreen.
All images are recorded on a MicroSD card and each video is less than 5 minutes long – the camera starts fresh ones as you continue driving and none are replaced as long as there’s space on the SD card. The Magellan has a built-in Wi-Fi radio so you can transmit the videos to your smartphone – there’s an app for it – or you can remove the SD card, insert it in a laptop, and copy the videos that way. Unfortunately, you cannot simply plug in a USB cable to copy the videos, as is common with most cameras.
The Magellan is a GPS device, but not to show you a map or route, but to include the changing GPS location in each video, as well as time, date, and speed. Here’s my car returning home after a run to pick up some Thai food for dinner – for me, not the car:
Sorry, no meteors!
While it was fun to try the Magellan a few times, I see why being an everyday user might be too much trouble. First of all, you can only attach the mount by suction to the window (I put mine slightly behind the rear view mirror) and to remove the camera, you have to lift the whole thing off because it’s not in a holder that you can leave attached and just release the camera. Second, there’s the long power cable, which must be plugged into the camera for it to operate. You have to run the cable to your auxiliary power outlet – you know, the former cigarette lighter outlet – which means it likely goes over the mirror mount, tucked in back of the passenger side sun visor, down the side, across the floor… you get it. And when you remove the camera, the power doesn’t just unplug from it easily, you basically have to undo the whole thing.
Sure you could mount the camera lower and just run the cable straight down the dashboard, but that way you’ll get more of your car’s hood than the road and, depending on where you place it, the camera might be considered an obstruction to your view and might get you a ticket.
There is a way to snap the camera and power connection off the window mount, but it’s clumsy and putting it back on, for me, meant putting the mount off and back on. It’s too easy to steal in a smash and grab to leave the dash cam mounted in parking lot – at least most places I know – we lock our car doors around here.
If you’re still intrigued the Magellan MiVue 658 is less than $200 at Amazon.com and there are other slightly less expensive models available, without Wi-Fi or touchscreen.
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