As a recent uptaker of dash cams and a complete idiot when it comes to electronics, let me share some my experiences while I ummed and ahhed before finally deciding to fit it into my Calais V, and then pretty much straight away when I got my Director:
1. Thread linked by
dgp in post 10, and this one:
https://forums.justcommodores.com.au/threads/vf-commodore-doc-connector.227006/ were the two that I used to gain enough confidence to install this myself so take a read of those threads.
I only know how to do basic soldering and I am sh!t scared of damaging anything in my car, let alone removing trim. If you don't feel comfortable fitting it yourself, installation details tend to be found at dash cam retailers (eg. Autobarn, and those in Sydney such as Strathfield Car Radio), and it's around $200. If you want to give it a go, I as a newbie still didn't find this hard - you have all the pics on
dgp to go by, and I'm happy to post photos of my install too if anyone needs more guidance. You just need daylight and patience!
I think what gives us VF Commodore owners a huge advantage is the DOC connector. That gives all of the power outputs we need if you were to hard wire this to the car's battery instead of needing to go to the fuse box and getting wires out of that. It's at a convenient and accessible location that makes the wiring much easier, and it's all hidden away and you don't need to be drilling holes.
2. Videos like the ones by
kleanphil shows how important it is to have dash cams... it's very common in Korea and China, and now getting quite common in Australia. A good insurance policy for the times when you don't know what's going on. The other thing is that we decide to keep our VF Commodores as assets for the long term, so fitting a dash cam is a great way for protection. As he said, 2 channel is definitely the way to go (it adds only 5-10 mins installation time!!) - especially if you get rear ended at an intersection and that driver does a runner and doesn't necessarily come into the view of your front camera, well you're not going to have that footage recorded!
3. Thinkware and Blackvue are the probably the best, but the priciest manufacturers out there. If you wait for an Autobarn 30% off dash cam sale, that will bring the price right down (it happens around 2 times a year). Garmins are great too and I have a 55 in the old VX Commodore but have never bothered with doing a parking mode on that. The quality of it, especially at night, isn't as clear as the Blackvue DR750S I have.
Note that Thinkware and Blackvue dash cams will likely require 'better' SD cards than your stock standard cheap ones which you could use in a Garmin or cheaper dash cam brand, and thus the outlay will be more expensive. I went with 128GB SD cards to make sure I'd have at minimum most of a day's recordings if I had to leave my car outside for the day. 16 and 32GB are definitely not useful at all for parking mode if you know your car is parked for the day.
4. Some people have a preference for a separate battery fitted in the car to power the dash cam during parking mode rather than use the Power Magic Pro which links up to the car's battery ... my preference is to use the car's battery and use the Power Magic Pro. Why? Provided your car is driven at least once every day / two days (and if not, you use an appropriate trickle charger), the battery's health will always be strong and be in that 14V vicinity. The Power Magic Pro gives you options to have the dash cam power off either at 12.5V or 12V, and after a certain time. I have set mine up to record at infinity hours, and 12V cutout. It will take a couple of days of non-stop dash cam operations in a parked car to run your battery down to 12V (which I highly doubt will occur in 99.9% of our circumstances) and you'll still be able to start your car with the volts.
A replacement factory AC Delco battery for our cars is around $175. A Cellink NEO internal battery which at the most can do around 8 hours at full charge, is $320+ from Ebay. If my car battery dies, it would be far cheaper to replace that than to get a new Cellink NEO... and the Power Magic Pro also lets you cut off at say, 12 hours. So even if your voltage doesn't go down to 12.5V or 12V, it will still cut out. It's very hard to go wrong with the device. I have had my Calais V parked out at a hotel at 6pm, returned to it the next morning at 10am, and she was still recording away, and at startup the trip computer has a battery voltage reading of 13.1 Volts. All good.
Also if you don't drive your car much (say, your commute is 15-30mins one way) then the Cellink NEO isn't going to charge up fully to let the dash cam record for many hours.
5. You also need to have two considerations for parking mode:
* Australian summer. Unfortunately even my BlackVue 750-2ch at 70 degree cutout can't stand an Australian summer's day parked under the sun after a few hours. So be aware that parking mode may be useless regardless of dash cam when it's summer time. And that's with the sunshade up and tinted windows at darkest legal using 3M Crystalline.
* Front windshield sunshade. You won't be able to use those standard sunshades anymore at $15 each, as the silver or other colours are too reflective when you put it up on the windscreen. The dash cam will just show you a reflection of the sunshade. The Covercraft one, at $149, is extremely expensive, but is designed to fit the windscreen and gives you enough room around the rear-view-mirror to not only mount your dash cam but to also let it breathe. The colour is silver and isn't reflective, so when light comes down onto your windshield, the dash cam still records the outside scene clearly.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2013-2017-HSV-Holden-VF-GEN-F-w-o-Logo-Custom-Heatshield-by-Covercraft/254063612759?fits=Model:Commodore|Plat_Gen:VF&epid=4027907801&hash=item3b275f1357:g1MAAOSwV1Vb16cR&frcectupt=true
6. I let people know my dashcam is recording with the flashing LED and Wifi-on lighting. Sort of gives a good warning of people around if they see a flashing white light on your screen. You can turn that feature off if you want. The Blackvues will tell you 'An impact was detected during parking mode' if you did get something of note come up, and you set its sensitivity level through the app. Mine is set to the fullest sensitivity so even those loud Harley Davidsons going past will get picked up as an impact.