Garmin has just announce that its new Dash Cam 30 and Dash Cam 35, their high-definition standalone driving recorders are now available in South Africa. According to the company, these Dash Cams easily mount to a windshield and record footage in a continuous loop. Furthermore, Garmin says its Dash Cam starts recording when the vehicle is turned on and stops when it is turned off. Added to this, is Incident Detection, powered by G-sensor, video footage will automatically be saved should an impact occur. Also, new driver alerts are designed to offer helpful alerts that encourage safer driving behavior for customers while Dash Cam records the drive ahead. 

“Vehicle owners who use a Dash Cam can have peace of mind as they travel along roads should they encounter an accident,” says Matthys Thompson, Garmin Southern Africa’s automotive category manager. “Garmin Dash Cams provide footage of incidence that occur, so whether a driver is involved in an accident or a crime of intimidation, the incident will be filmed and recorded as proof. With new driver alerts to the Garmin Dash Cam, we can proudly promote safer driving behavior,” Thompson adds. 

Driver alerts are available only on the Dash Cam 35 model. These features include Forward Collision Warnings, which alerts users when they are driving too closely to the vehicle ahead of them. Plus safety camera warning alerts, which gives drivers the advantage of knowing where red light or safety cameras zones are located, accordign to Garmin. 

Garmin Dash Cam models are available to purchase both with and without GPS. The GPS-enabled Dash Cam 35 allows the camera to label footage with date, time, latitude, longitude and speed so that drivers know exactly when and where events take place. The date and time may be manually set on Dash Cam 30. 

Dash Cam 30 has a compact 1.4" LCD display and Dash Cam 35 offers a larger 3.0" LCD display. Both Dash Cam 30 and 35 have excellent fields of view and capture video in 1080p or 720p. 

With the inclusion of the ‘snapshot feature’, drivers can remove the Dash Cam from the mount and snap close-up shots of their vehicles or property damage. Additionally, users can conveniently play back video footage directly on the display of the device, or download the free Garmin software at garmin.com/dashcamplayer to review and organise video files at a later time on a computer.

Video footage is stored on the replaceable microSD memory card, which is included with purchase of the Garmin Dash Cam. Both Dash Cam 30 and 35 accept microSD cards (Class 4 required) of up to 64GB.

Garmin Dash Cam 30 (without GPS or driver alerts) has a suggested retail price of R2 700 and Garmin Dash Cam 35 (with GPS and driver alerts) has a suggested retail price of R3 000.