On Dec 27, 7:10 pm, necromancer

My recommendation: get one with an internal hard drive and a fold-out
display window (the window is needed to check the camera aim).

I use a JVC GZ-MG130U camera.  IIRC it ran about 3 C-notes.  It has a
30GB internal hard drive good for 7 to 37 hours of video depending on
the video settings.  It included a cord for connection to USB and a
battery charger.

Choice of tripod will depend on the dashboard setup in the vehicle, as
you will not want to have the camera any further a reach than the
radio or HVAC controls.  I use a flexible tripod with my cam, which
allows for stable placement via two points on the dash and the third
on the handle above the glovebox, while being easily removable.  It's
a FlexPod Pro which ran about $30.

Good luck with the future cam choice.

On one road trip years ago, I put my RCA VHC camera on the dashboard
of the pickup right in front of me. Pressed the record button and let
it do it's thing.

Now, you could do it with a dvd recording camera or an on dash lens
and a seperate recorder.

Even some digital still cameras will do videos.

It depends on what you are wanting to achieve in image quality. Being a
professional graphic artist and experienced professional videographer
I'll offer a view hardware features you may want to look for in a camera.

1. 3 chip 3CCD imaging chipset.
If you want really good color quality absolutely NOTHING will ever beat
a 3 chip 3-CCD video camera. ALL professional level video cameras have
3CCD imaging arrays. Absolutely none use a single imaging chip for
capturing video. There is a number of 3CCD video cameras you can buy for
under $1000, with Panasonic being one of the most prominent vendors.

2. Tape, DVD or hard disc.
If you have a computer and access to any video editing software, by all
means go with MiniDV format! I absolutely implore you to do this. I have
examined plenty of hard disc-based video cameras and others that record
to rewritable DVD media. They all suck it pretty badly. The main problem
is that they all use very crude, single pass, severe video compression
systems. You end up with video that will only look good in a tiny video
window on a web page. Blow it up to a NTSC TV set and it will look like
a.s. Stick with the MiniDV tape systems. They're still better. MiniDV
records 3.7 million bits per second. You can stream that into just about
any modern computer pretty easily and edit it pretty easily. You're
going to have problems with the more severely compressed video from
optical disc based and hard disc based video cameras.

3. Good Optical Image Stabilization.
If you're going to try to shoot video from the dash of a moving vehicle
you really need a camera with optical image stabilization. "EIS"
electronic image stabilization sucks a.s. It's just jitter-ville. The
optical hardware-based stuff will deliver much smoother video clips.

4. The bigger the imaging chip, the better quality the video.
Lots of consumer level video cameras have very puny sized CCD chips for
capturing video imagery. We're talking imaging chips of only 1/8" or
1/6" in size. The "pro-sumer" enthusiast category deals with $2000 to
$5000 cameras boasting 1/3" CCD arrays. High end professional video
cameras have 2/3" diameter CCDs or even ones bigger than 1". In general,
the larger the CCD is the better you will be at capturing brilliant
color, deep contrast and sharp detail.

Outside of those properties you may want to look into the optical zoom
strength of the camera's lens. Features like native 16:9 recording might
seem pretty cool, but aren't a huge requirement for web-based stuff.

I've purposefully kept my comments somewhat brand-agnostic to keep the
specific features in the greater focus of importance.

Are all you going to do is use it for recording yourself driving
around?    Do you have a laptop?

If yes to both, you might want to just get a really tiny security
camera with a firewire output.  Then you can just record directly to
your laptop, and hook it up semi-permanently to your vehicle.

If you want to use it for other stuff, you'll need to tell us for
what, and then I can give suggestions.

If you want to stay legal you will need to become a member of SAG,
Society of Anonymous Goofballs, as well as get a permit from the local
police.  You will also need to get signed releases from all the people
in all the cars that you video.  And it is illegal to record the
sound, you can only record the video.  All video that remains unedited
for more then 30 days must either be bulk erased (hard on your hard
drive) or submitted to the local Grand Jury Foreman.  Enjoy your new
hobby.