Garmin Dash Cam
Verified45 reviews
Just an awful dashcam. Trying to download footage is a nightmare, avoid unless you want to spend hours downloading at a speed that took mer back to the bad days of the 90s Show details
Faulty Garmin dashcam 56 – The dashcam is crap, the screen flashes Garmin and and screen saying don’t adjust while driving over and over, can’t do anything with it, support said nothing can be done but replace it, offered me a discount on another model, I don’t think so. This is typical, a company that used to have good products, now being made by the hundreds in China with… Read more
no quality control, but still asking the big bucks, I’m not paying for a name when their products are junk, I should have checked the feedback
New Dash Cam - Not Quite – Was given Garmin Dash Cam Mini 2 for Xmas, worked great for 2 weeks then started flashing yellow lights, look up the manual and it stares SD card not recognised, and this was a brand new SD card. So I buy another SD card a well known brand, dashcam stil flashes yellow lights. I ring Garmin support they attempt to troubleshoot the issue, no the… Read more
dashcam is faulty. Solution send it back at my expense $10.95 and then they send not a new one a refurbished product. So after 2 weeks of working I have been waiting for the new SD card more money and postage and I will end up with a second hand product. Not impressed at all and how long until the secondhand one arrives.
Reviews with attachments
Discrete, easy to install and simple to operate – Having purchased various dashcams over the last 7 years I now wanted a discrete camera and did not require a screen preferring a Bluetooth link to smart phones. I also had a problem with the large diameter rear view mirror windscreen mount on the 2008 BMW 1 series cabriolet which precludes some of the other concealed dashcams which affix to the… Read more
mirror mount. The Garmin is a known Brand with easy set up and the advantage of a constant power supply option taken from the OBD2 output (BMW, amongst many others have power cut out to the power / cigarette outlets when the engine is not running). The OBD is also in the drivers side footwell so the cables can be more easily concealed. There are many 4K advertised cameras out there but if the image sensor is not 8MP then it is not true 4K. However a good 1080p HD is sufficient for reading number plates. With the benefit of having previously bought quite a few dashcams I know the things that are superfluous, like an onboard screen (distracting and makes the unit too wide), super wide angle (distorts the image) and dual camera for inside the cabin (but this may be useful for Uber drivers). The Garmin Dash Cam Mini 2 has a lens view angle of 140 degrees. An external rear mounted camera is handy if one is rear ended but many of the cameras to mount around the rear number plate are of 720p quality and of course need to be waterproof which is why there are now more dual cameras designed that mount the rear view camera on the rear windscreen inside the cabin. The problem is I wanted to fit the Garmin to a cabriolet. The VIOFO, Thinkware and BlackVue were amongst my short list but the Garmin won being small, reasonably priced and capable of linking up to 3 more Garmin Mini modules using the Garmin Drive App for rear view (or side views!). It also had the dedicated OBDII constant power supply, although when after installation I realised it has a fly lead with 2 USB outlets so would work with any USB accessory. This incidentally proved useful as I have a solar panel trickle battery charger that sits on the dash when the car is unused for extensive periods and this does not work when plugged into accessory outlets which disconnect when the car ignition is off like this BMW 1 series. It now works when plugged in to the Garmin power lead. Easy cable run, easy set-up, easy to operate - only 2 buttons, the varying coloured LED lights advise if the memory card is being formatted, if it is pairing to your smartphone or if it is recording etc. Connectivity is fast and you do not need to be within your house wifi zone for most features as of course the micro SD card can be removed. If you subscribe with a monthly Garmin Vault fee, the footage is stored in the “cloud”. I don’t bother. Quality of the recording is good and better than many of the Chinese Dashcams I have previously used. Things to consider :- Use at least a Class 10 125GB MicroSD memory card as the constant overwriting will wear out the card and obviously the larger the capacity of the SD card the less overwriting.
Average dashcam and service – Updated 09/03/20: After so much hassle in the beginning in claiming the warranty, RYDA reps contacted me to resolve the issues by offering full refund provided I can send the unit back. Why hasn't this been done in the first place, I have no clue. The whole process is very time consuming. The dashcam itself is generally pretty average without the… Read more
WiFi downloading capability. Considering the pricepoint and the overall experience, I would give 3/5 stars.
Original review: It's intriguing to know the strategy they used to deny the warranty process. Unsurprisingly, the same goes with RYDA.COM where I bought this unit, whose also stop contacting me after I provided the proof of purchase.
Let me explain,... I contacted them for warranty because the device has failed. My device is 1 year and 8 months old as of the time of contact, which under Australian consumer law should still be valid. They first asked me to follow their instructions to reset the device and it doesn't work. I asked them, I would like to return the unit. They responded to me by requesting the proof of purchase which I did provide. After that, they remain silent even after many attempts to contact them. What they didn't know is, I was going to get another garmin for my second car. But I am really glad this happen before I bought another one.
I don't gain anything either, $250 down the drain, shame... I should have gone with a reputable company who honour their promise in the first place. This is a disgrace because for a company this size, I bet they have many refurbished unit laying around which only cost a peanut for them. It's very cheap considering the future sales they could make.
Very poor performance and not worth the money – Physically this is a very attractive camera. The images look very nice at a glance but when it comes down to detail in the images it is just not there. Specifications look good on paper but performance I have found it to be very poor, let me list my experience. I have two vehicles, these comments relate to use of the camera in both vehicles and… Read more
my comments are after three months of use.
1. - Cables, why do Garmin persist with having to use their proprietary USB cables to make things work? This is a pain. 2. - Voice Commands - they work if you are parked with the engine and radio off, I found using it while driving to be almost always unsuccessful, very frustrating. As my wife said "the incident has past before you can get it to respond at all". 3. - Red Light Camera - Same Red Light Camera, day 1 it warned me, day 2 no warning, day 3 it warned me. I guess this just shows it is unreliable (but I am not in need of this functionality). Just can not be relied upon at all. 4. - Lane Departure - very erratic, my wife says “turn that stupid thing off” so as a result I would have to say in my case it is useless. 5. - Camera Quality - I have it set on the highest resolution (144p, 30fps, HDR) but you cannot read the number plate of the car more than one car length from you. If you want the number plate of the vehicle in front of you good luck, you might get it but most likely not. My mobile phone camera from 10yrs ago takes far superior images. I did try the Garmin on lower quality settings and you could not even tell the colour of traffic lights!
If you were in an accident and there was a dispute (assuming the Dash Cam was on the highest resolution) I guess you should be able to tell the colour of traffic lights and the direction or position of vehicles.
Maybe my expectations are too high? If this is a high end Dash Cam I am thinking any lower than this would be near useless?
Overall value for money, it is near useless.
Positive reviews
Could improve their documentation a little – This is a physically well built dash cam with features such as monitoring whilst parking and red light camera alerts. It is probably one of the smallest dash cams on the market and is robustly built. It has collision warning and lane departure features which are pretty handy if you car does not have them already. The video looks pretty clear, but… Read more
I am not so sure of night performance. I will come back and update this review once I have enough experience.
The 320 x240 pixel display is small, but I would say it is adequate for status indications considering the size of the device.
Like most dash cams it needs permanent power as the internal battery lasts 30 minutes.
All the problems I have encountered so far have been to do with the documentation or lack of explanations.
The major one, that many people have complained about on various versions of the Dash Cam is the locale setting not being stored. Each time the device turns on it requests the locale. Many people will initially set up the device indoors. Dee Dow! Incorrect! The Dash Cam needs GPS signal to set the locale up correctly amongst other things. If you set it up indoors you'll be forever cursing it and thinking it is faulty.
** You must wait a few minutes outdoors or near a window to get all bars showing on the GPS signal before you set the locale. NONE of this is explained anywhere. So you end up with a lot of frustrated people giving the device 2 stars. **
This version of the comes with a magnetic mount which is not really clearly explained in the documentation. It also comes with a spare metal windscreen disc (for the magnet to attach to). They don't tell you that there are TWO windscreen discs, one spare and one inserted into the cameras plastic mount. This caused a lot of confusion when mounting (OK maybe it's just me).
Note, try and mount it somewhere that gives you a clear view of the little screen as it does pop up warnings such as lane departure and traffic moving. My initial setup was behind the rear vision mirror which blocked my view of the screen.
The Garmin Drive App is pretty simple to setup and can update the software on the camera, configure settings such as WiFi and remotely monitor your vehicle whilst it is parked. The ability to remote monitor requires you have a cellular dongle in your car the that Dash Cam can connect to via WiFi. A cool feature but I'm not sure it is worth the hassle.
The camera comes with a accessory/cigarette lighter USB adapter and two cables on for long runs and a shorter one. The long cable's connector points up (towards the roof) when connecting to the camera so you can run it via the ceiling lining. The shorter cable points down so you can connect it to a USB possibly in your centre console.
I connected my camera to a fuse tap adapter directly to the fuse box. It is a neater way to go although requires a little know-how.
There are certainly better Dash Cams on the market, but if you are looking for something that is unobtrusive and does the job its a good choice. I am happy with it.
A reliable dash cam – This was a Christmas present in 2017 and it was part of my daily 150 km commute until I stopped doing it. It's been out in all conditions from -5 to +40 of degrees and has never failed to work. The footage is decent quality (1080p) and with a 32 Gb card in it I get 350 minutes captured before it starts to overwrite. Overall, I'd say it has done the job admirably. Show details
Feature packed great value dashcam – I bought two of these dashcams, have been very impressed with the features and video quality which is as good, even better than a BlackVue 650s which I also have, this is due to the 1440p/30 or 1080p/60 modes it offers. There are a few negative things such as, it runs hot, the lack of any decent software for video review & analysis of the… Read more
recorded video which the BlackVue includes, so you have to use media player or your preferred video player/editor. It also uses more memory for video files than the BlackVue (ie only 6.5 hrs on 64gb compared the BV which can do over 13hrs of same format video) so I guess you pay for the better smarts of the BVs. Setup is like any other dashcam really, spend the time mounting it and hiding the cable and it looks great. I haven’t had any issues with powering it with a standard USB like others have mentioned. The driver assist features are good but I didn’t have high expectations since they are based on video and not radar, although they work and you can disable the alerts individually if one annoys you more than the other. Lastly, they seem to be tough and function when really needed. Within two weeks of installing it in my daughter’s car, some idiot using his mobile collided head-on with her (she survived). The camera proved she did nothing wrong and and that he drove onto the wrong side of the road which saved us having to pay the insurance excess and interviews with the police were easier too. The impact of the crash ripped the camera off of the windscreen and from it’s power cord. I found it in the back of the wreck and was able to retrieve the footage. The camera was unscathed & still powers on, although I don’t have a power cord for it anymore because that became a permanent part of the wreck. One other thing to know is the claim of a 30 minute battery seems wrong, as both cameras power down within 15 seconds after the power is removed, which was the only letdown from the crash as it would have caught conversations after the crash. I’m now looking for a replacement but looks like this model has been updated/replaced by the Dash Cam 56. Great dash cam for the money though, I recommend them and hopefully the replacement model will be as good.
Negative reviews
Persistent Power up and down cycle – I purchased two of the 55's in 2017. Updating both were always a problem with the connection via USB to my laptop for updating. They kept killing the SD cards. Now for some reason both devices within a couple of days started shutting down and startup up and continues that cycle until I disconnect from the 12v in my cars. Contacted Garmin… Read more
support here in Canada; they keep pointing me to the support site to reset them. I have reset both sever times and updated successfully, but the device still go into a permanent cycle of powering up and then down. I concluded that Garmin support is there to help as long as the device works.
GARMIN 67W...Good camera, terrible buggy software – Garmin 67W , purchased online via Amazon, $329, April 2023. Great quality camera, excellent picture when shown on a computer or tablet or phone. Intuitive camera software once you know what the buttons do. Tiny form factor, half the size of my GoPro, means it won't block your driving vision. I have inserted a 128gb SanDisk Endurance micro sd card,… Read more
which works well. I have bought the Direct Power cable to allow continuous Parking Guard, but this is not wired to my car fuse box yet.
I can give only 3 stars as the camera is great, but all the software , (the downloaded Garmin Drive app), for my Android phone and tablet, is almost unusable and frustrating. So many features, aside from the camera itself, are unusable.
Drive app is so buggy, slow, and unreliable, it should win an award for worst software. Live Update almost doesn't work at all, and with massive delays when it does, connections simply drop out all the time, even for simple changes to the camera settings. Luckily you can change all settings just with the camera itself, and forget about the app software on your phone. And luckily you can transfer videos and photos to your phone or tablet by taking out the sd card and sticking it into your device, or with the supplied data cable. But this is time consuming and a black mark on the product.
I will explore this tiny complicated camera, and it's brutal software app further, but I would not recommend it, as it stands.
Completely useless – The storage issue of this dash cam makes it completely useless. The same issue has happened twice. The first time was quite a while ago when my car was hit by someone else’s car in a parking lot (my car was switched on at that time). A few days later when I tried to find the footage, I could not find it at all. Today, it happened again. I… Read more
didn’t have a car incident, but there was something that I came across on the road that I really needed to save the footage of in order to protect myself just in case. This thing occurred at roughly 9:20 am. At 11 am, I tried to find the footage, and guess what? I could not find it AT ALL! I’ve thrown the completely useless dash cam away, and I’ll never buy any Garmin product and will also tell everyone I know to avoid buying Garmin product.
Recent reviews
Poor customer service in Australia – My dash cam 55 doesn't turn ON, I tried all the steps as mentioned in their website. Contacted customer service, they said they only support USA and Canada. Now I am left with no support, and the dash cam is of no use to me. Show details
Find out how Garmin Dash Cam compares to other Dash Cams
Know better, choose better.
Faulty out of the box, a known issue, no fix available – This device won't store the locale - asks for it every time the unit is started. Rang Garmin support - known issue, no fix available, other than return for exchange or refund. If exchanged, and new unit has the same issue, refund. Seriously????? Show details
What a disaster – Worked OK for about 12 months, then the problems started, had to reset each time I started the car even after updating the program ? Eventually Garmin admitted that it was faulty and offered to replace it with a reconditioned model, I sent it back as requested with Aust Post tracking, it was delivered to their facility on the 28th May. I have… Read more
requested an update re replacement (3 e'mails) but no answers, just silence, very POOR PR. I just wish that I had read the reviews before I bought this piece of junk
I would look for something better – For the price I paid for this camera I would've expected something that was more user friendly. Before you even use the dashcam it needs an update and the update doesn't work. The camera constantly needs to be reset to Australian locale everytime you switch it on. I downloaded the software update on my windows PC and the device won't accept it.… Read more
This dashcam should definitely not be on the "best rated" cameras for 2021 as I read. I would be looking at other brands.
Software updates always cause problems, and some feature are useless – After the last software update it needs the initial setting up, such as language, position, measurement units, etc, after each start up (every time the car is started!). Moreover, it will not connect to the phone app: the app says "connected" and then immediately starts "searching" for the camera again - ad infinitum. After every software update… Read more
there's usually been bugs that I've eventually sorted after wasting valuable time but, after weeks of trying to fix this one, I'm giving up, as the latest updates don't help. The Garmin help centre say they are "not aware of this problem," and yet their own website has recorded this issue dating back to software Version 3.50 (I have V4.40). "The lane departure" feature is useless, and some of the other features are marginal. The best thing to do with this dash camera is to package it and ship it off to a terrorist! Rubbish software - I'll be buying another brand and I'll never buy Garmin again.
Disappointing – I purchased today, and I returned it back today. Every time when you turn it off and on, It is asking you to re-setup. it is annoying, even if I updated its latest firmware nothing was changed. Show details
Night quality – If you are looking for reliable dash-cam, Garmin is not your product. The worst camera ever. The camera costs 266 $ by the time i bought it however, I would not give a single cent if I knew how bad actually it is. Take a look over the video. Thanks Garmin I can't report the crap, because of your crap product. Show details
Nice Brick – Had it one day, did Firmware upgrade via the App. It is now a brick. No ability to recover from brick mode, wish I had read all the negative reviews first! Show details
Another piece of junk from Garmin – I am not reviewing the technical aspects of the camera. The camera itself looks OK. I am not sure about the video quality because I never got to use it. The initial setup questions every time it is powered on make it unusable. Even after the software upgrade, which is meant to fix the issue. Who wants to spend a minute or two before every drive to… Read more
set up the dash cam over and over? Garmin Drive App which is used for the camera to connects to your phone to view the images is more often not working than working. You have to keep trying a number of times to connect. If you are lucky it connects. Most of the times it doesn't. It is just not good enough. You expect the product to work when you pay for it.
The worst dash cam i have ever owned – The Good- High quality footage, good mounting point easy to mount in the car. The Bad- the camera constantly detects a crash/event and fills the event folder (this is on each of sensitivity settings, so lets say that function is useless). My camera is wired into my electrical system to record car park events- the camera stays in car park mode and… Read more
does not film continuous footage. I have never successfully captured an event. Garmin offered to replace the item. Its been 2 years with constant emails, nothing received yet. DONT BUY A GARMIN DASHCAM.
Find out how Garmin Dash Cam compares to other Dash Cams
Know better, choose better.
Do not buy Garmin dash cam – Dash camera video quality is good. All Garmin dash cameras are advertised as having Bluetooth / wireless access via an app. This app is unusable. It will not locate an Android phone by Bluetooth. When it is located on an Apple device it refuses to download footage. These problems have been long term problems for Garmin an so far they have… Read more
refused to rectify these problems. Subsequently if you choose to purchase a Garmin dash camera the claim of wireless access is false.
Disappointed, Garmin could do better – No problems with the picture quality, the red light and speed camera work as they should but the lane departure is completely useless. Have had the camera exchanged for a new and both have been the same. Own a Mazda BT50 and it matters not a jot if I program the Garmin for high or low. Very disappointing. Show details
Refunded same day – I bought from jb hi fi Went home to set up saved settings and soon as you power off and on loses the settings and will ask to set again and wont record .i did this few times and didnt work and got refund. I thought garmin was good brand but at least cheaper brand i had lasted 6months I will not buy garmin dash cam again. Show details
Absolute rubbish. Ive had this camera for 12months.. Ready to trash it and get something decent – If you want to power this camera up using a standard USB cable..forget it. Garmin have used the fourth pin in their 12volt power supply to check the cable out. The Camera will not charge if you want to run multiple devices from your cig lighter/ 12 volt power supply. You are forced to use the proprietary Garmin car charging cable which allows for only one device to be plugged into the cig socket... One word..Lemon
I got a lemon – Out of the box voice control didn't even feature on the menu. Also it failed to pick up the satellite signal. Garmin took an average of about 2 full days to respond to the support requests, but every time they responded they wanted more information. It took two weeks and still no solution, still no offer of replacement, so I just sent it back and… Read more
got a full refund. I don't know where the 5 star ratings came from - it certainly wasn't my experience with the product, or with Garmin support.
Rubbish, at best – Owned this for about 11 months now, and in that time I've had it swapped once, and today is the second time it's going to be replaced. Constantly freezing while trying to remove videos from it, 1 out of every 10 trips the camera is not on, I had an incident where a pedestrian walked out Infront of my car and when I went to get the footage..guess… Read more
what wasn't on?
The download speed is horrendous, the app takes several minutes to recognise you've connected to the dash cam wifi, and when it does connect the video info takes a good 30 seconds after that to load, then you may click on it to open it, but beware, if it's a large file, the dash cam will crash the app because the camera freezes up.
There is no point in having a dash cam that works SOMETIMES.
The ONLY benefit to this cam is the fact that it's daytime picture quality is good, night time not so much.
Beware software downloads using Mac – I bought this as I have 2 Garmin GPS units, both of which are great. However, this unit failed the first day. I set up as per instructions ( which by the way are very vague ), added it to Garmin Express and did a software update, thats when it all turned bad. The download froze the unit. After 2 days of searching Garmin troubleshooting and reading… Read more
blogs, I came to the conclusion Mac software does not work very well. Even Garmin advise using windows on updates. Thats something not in the instructions. I did eventually get it working, but adding it again to Garmin Express really killed it. Its now winging its way back to Johnny Appleseed where I bought it, am getting a refund !
Problems within weeks of purchase. Very disappointing – The quality of the footage is good, however, started having problems immediately after the first software update within weeks of purchase, with certain dash cam functions not working any longer. After much wasted time trying to get a software update to fix the problem and emails to Garmin I was asked to return it to them for replacement. I… Read more
suggest Garmin should thoroughly test their software and updates BEFORE release - and not expect clients to do the testing for them
So disappointed – I did lots of research before buying a Garmin 55 dash cam. Initially everything worked fine, then within 2 weeks the voice command stopped working. And things got worse from there. Now whenever I turn it on I have to go through all the steps to set it up. I've tried to restore it many times but it refuses to restore. I even tried running the… Read more
battery flat in the hope of causing it to re-set. All to no avail.
And now the latest version of Garmin Express v6.9.1.0 will not open on my Mac nor on my PC laptop. I'm in the process of looking for a different dash cam. This one is for the garbage bin.
One of the worst products I have ever owned.
very satisfied – easy to use and set up,have had a few cam's put them in front and rear of car,very indiscriminate,although I do make sure the rear cam' can be seen by tailgaters,which I don't get now,also have aged but still working perfectly a garmin gps never lets me down and if and when needed updates are quick and easy,hope I don't hex myself ,,,garmin is good
Disappointment with a star – Found this product difficult to operate and it only works with the supplied cable? So do not loose it. Operation is not that easy and Garmin support failing. Windscreen mount was good but expensive for a magnet if you want to install in two vehicles. Would suggest looking elsewhere. Selling my unit as a major disappointment
Doesn't work I tried to return it for a refund and they lied and said it was damaged which it isn't. NEVER TRUST THIS COMPANY!!!! Show details
4, 5 years constant use perfect performance – Just updated with Dash 57 after 4 and half years 55 use My 55 performed perfectly the whole time I had it. Show details
ProductReview.com.au has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence our content moderation policies in any way, though ProductReview.com.au may earn commissions for products/services purchased via affiliate links.