Navman MiVue 560 dash cam ($200)

Having a dash cam for my car isn’t something that I’ve really considered having but there will be a segment of the driving fraternity that will find a windscreen mounted dash cam an invaluable item.

Navman have been around for a while and the MiVue 560 packs a lot of features into its small package. It has a 2.5-inch touch screen, can record during both day and night with its 130 degree wide-angle lens that records in 1080p high-definition to a microSD card (which you have to buy separately) and also lets you take snap shots at the press on an on-screen icon. It also has a parking mode that starts recording if your car is hit or damaged while parked. According to Navman, the camera has six glass lens to optimise the quality of the video in all light conditions and attaches to the inside of your windscreen using a suction cup. It held it in place securely.

The dash cam saves videos in H.265 format but it’s not a in-car GPS, though (although it does use GPS tracking) so you can’t plot your route and get it to give you turn-by-turn direction.

Oh, and it also records audio from inside the car so be warned: Playing back a video I heard my voice singing along to a song on the radio!

I used the dash cam quite a bit over the past few weeks and yeah, it does what it says on the box: It records your journey from A to B. It seemed to start recording as soon as I plugged it into the cigarette lighter (that powers it)  and, thankfully,  the videos it recorded were boring and uneventful. Just how it should be. No road rage. No parking mishaps. No irrate horn tooters.

The MiVue 560 is one of those pieces of kit that you don’t have to have and isn’t a necessity for every driver. I don’t see it as a must-have but if you’re professional driver, a travelling sales person or someone who drives a lot for their work, I can really see the benefits of having one of these in your car.

If you rely on driving for your living (ie taxi driver, truck driver, courier), I can see a dash cam like the MiVue 660 being worth its weight in gold, especially if you are involved in an accident or altercation and need video evidence that you weren’t at fault.

I see a dash cam being like the rear camera I have for my bicycle: You hope that they don’t capture an incident but it’s an insurance policy just in case something does happen.