Garmin Dash Cam 56 Wide 140-Degree Field of View in 1440P HD 2 LCD Screen and Voice Control

To start off, I bought the Garmin Dash Cam 56. I wanted to write this review because no one seemed to be talking about the driver assist functionality. So if you're expecting the same level of performance you will get from a built in system you are going to be disappointed. But overall it's pretty good. The "go" alert to tell you the car ahead of you started to move is far too hyperactive; I disabled that. But the lane departure is very good; it can even see broken lines. It too can be a little hyperactive; if they just resealed the center of the road it can see that as a line at times and sometimes exit lanes (with their smaller dashes) are mistaken for broken side lines, but it's good too. And the forward collision warning, while a little sensitive for city driving, generally only fires if you are legitimately too close to the car ahead of you. Each of the warnings I described come with their own sounds, so even if you position the dash cam so you can't see the screen (as I did) you can still tell exactly what it's upset about after about a week. They also seem to be undeterred by rain or darkness night driving. The app is great, camera quality is good, mounting process is easy, cord is long and thin and easy to hide, and the incident detection feature works well with only detecting excessively hard braking (like full-on panic braking). And the fact that you don't have to pair your phone for it to track your speed and position is great, though the coordinate readout on the video is less intuitive than what you would get with, say, a Nexar. That said I got the Garmin because I didn't want to deal with the battery drain issues I saw in some Nexar reviews or risk having my phone not connect to it and then not getting location data on my video. Biggest caution I can give is it has no Micro SD card so you have to get your own, and it needs a few seconds to turn on. I know that is a lot but it's what I would've liked to read before I purchased this. I hope it helps you! Read more

The camera quality is excellent, in terms of video + audio. The only issue I have is the "Hey Garmin" feature is a little finicky and doesn't work most of the time. However, taking a picture or recording a video is super simple. I also like the fact that you can disconnect the camera from the holder and take it around your car to click more detailed pictures when you meet with an accident for insurance purposes. Will definitely recommend this version over the cheaper 40 series and the 60 series. 40 - doesn't have HDR, night mode and 1440p. 66 - way too expensive just for 180 viewing angle. This one is perfect in size. Beware that WiFi transfer times through your phone app might be long. Took me about 2 minutes for a 30 second video clip. Took about 10 seconds per picture. So it might just be less frustrating to remove the SD card and download them directly on to your computer. If needed, you can add additional garmin cams and sync them all together! Read more

I purchased the Dashcam 56. This is a great camera & does everything it’s supposed to. The app on your phone is great & easy to view videos right from your phone. However, one of the main reasons I chose this camera was for the red light/speed camera alerts. This camera is supposed to come with a free 30 day subscription for the North American alerts, and then at some point if you want updates, you can purchase a year of updates for 24.99. However this did not come with the free subscription, or any alert info installed. I contacted Garmin and they informed me that I had the international version...basically the version for everywhere except the US & Canada. This is denoted by an “11” as the last two digits of the part number instead of a “10” for the North American version (this number is on the box over the barcode, but was hard to find because Amazon has a sticker over the number). They said that that version does not come with a subscription in the US. I contacted Amazon & they sent a replacement that was supposed to be the correct one, but it was still the wrong one, so I returned & purchased from a different vendor. If this feature isn’t important to you, or you don’t mind paying 24.99 for the subscription, then by all means, buy here, but if it’s something you’re looking for, spend the extra $8 and buy elsewhere:) Read more