Camera Options

I haven't found a good answer for this yet.

Of all the dash cams. Do any take good high res panorama shots?

We get these amazing views almost daily, and holding up a cell phone and snapping blind is a nono and leads to lousy shots.

Any options for a permanent mount driver Vista view that you would only have to reach up and tap since it's pre-aimed?

If you have an old cell phone, you could use that as a dedicated camera. Many people use Go Pros. If you just want something to capture the views, you may be better with some kind of video camera. You can check YouTube for reviews. Hope that helps.

What's your idea of high resolution, 1080p, 1440p, higher? A lot of them have viewing angles between 160 and 180 degrees, is that enough?

https://dashcamtalk.com/best-dash-cams-of-2017/

No matter which camera you use, you're going to need some sort of optical image stabilization or the footage will be garbage. So using a GoPro, for instance, isn't going to give you much in the way of what I would consider usable footage without a gimbal to stabilize the camera.

The Sony FDR-X3000 is a small action cam like GoPro but it has built in optical image stabilization, shoots in 4k, has a wide angle lens, and retails for about $350. That would be a great candidate.

Also make sure any camera you get accepts an SD card because shooting in high res makes for enormous files. Shooting in 4k can approach 1GB per minute.

I don't own a dedicated dash cam but I'm sure the better ones do have image stabilization and a wide angle lens.

Sorry wasn't clear. Just something for snapping stills.

1080 quality. Pretty much what you can get from a decent phone these days.

Not looking to do art, just share the views with family and friends without endangering the motoring public

I think most of them have a snapshot button.

The Spytec A119 (get the real one, there are cheap copies out there) shoots 1080 at 30 or 60 fps or 1440 at 30 fps, has 160 degree field of view. If you hit the menu button once while it's recording, it takes a snapshot. Or you can just take screen shots out of the video later.

Brett mentions stabilization which is probably necessary for viewable video, either built into the camera or post processed with a video editor.

I'm not sure if individual frames from a dash cam would be sharp or blurred if the video was shot from a semi galloping down the freeway. (on some stretches of I-69 near me, the trucks actually appear to gallop like horses, it's definitely not a smooth ride)

I'm not sure if individual frames from a dash cam would be sharp or blurred if the video was shot from a semi galloping down the freeway

Even on a bumpy highway, if you take some video and then go through it with any free video editing software you'll certainly be able to pull out some really nice shots, as long as you have plenty of light so the shutter speed is fast. If you're hoping to take sunrise/sunset shots in lower light you're going to have to pull over and make sure the camera is real still. The more light you have to work with the less motion blur you'll get.

You can easily do what you want to do with your phone if you want, or a relatively inexpensive dash cam. Getting sharp images in low light or fast motion situations is trickiest.

Personal favorite was the Falcon Zero Touch. But I had a problem with it freezing up after a while. It was a shame, because it's the best in my opinion. I now have a Rand McNalley 300 and it's pretty awesome. You might want to take a look at that. It takes stills as well as does loop recording, and is set at a wide angle when recording.