My parents are both in their seventies and still need to drive their shared car around a medium-sized city in the Los Angeles area for errands, church, and nearby family visits. I'd like to install a dashcam that requires almost no interaction: it should start recording automatically when the ignition is turned on and stop when the car is switched off. If there's an incident, they should only need to remove the microSD card to preserve the footage. Ideally, I'd like front and rear cameras, although a reliable front-facing model would be fine. My brother and I can probably handle a non-professional installation, and I'm looking for an affordable option without sacrificing ease of use or reliability. Any recommendations?
4 Answers
The VIOFO A229 is worth considering. It’s available as a front-and-rear setup and has been reliable in my experience. You could install it yourself or have it hardwired if you want the cleanest setup.
FitcamX makes cameras designed to blend into the vehicle’s factory trim, so they’re much less noticeable than a typical suction-mounted unit. Installation is relatively straightforward, but you’ll need to choose the model made for the specific car. Their site is https://fitcamx.com/.
The key issue is whether the car’s 12-volt outlet is switched with the ignition. Most dashcams start recording as soon as they receive power and stop when power is removed, but some vehicles keep the outlet powered even after the car is parked. In that case, the camera could keep recording overnight and eventually drain the battery or overwrite an important clip.
Check the car’s power behavior first. A hardwire kit connected to a switched fuse is another option, though routing the wiring behind the trim takes a little more work. Also, give your parents a spare microSD card and keep it attached to the camera or stored somewhere obvious. Dashcams continuously overwrite old footage, and the cards wear out over time from constant recording.
A simple front-facing option is the ROAV DashCam A1. When installed with the appropriate wiring, it turns on with the ignition and shuts off when the car is turned off. It also has a prominent button for quickly protecting a clip after a collision. A professional hardwire installation worked well for me, although a technically confident person could probably install it themselves.
For a newer vehicle, the Redtiger F77 is another front-and-rear option. It can be hardwired to start automatically with the car and offers a way to save or download recordings when needed.
A spare card is especially useful because continuous video recording puts a lot of wear on flash storage. It’s a good idea to replace the card periodically rather than relying on one indefinitely.