Ever since we bought our new car in 2012 I have been completely converted to the sue of rear-view cameras. The new car comes with an included one, and that little device has single handedly dramatically improved my safety in parking lots and all other situations where careful backing out is necessary. After you’ve used the rear-view camera it becomes hard to go back to driving a car without one. That’s why I was happy to give this TaoTronics license plate cam a try. And so far I can say I am really happy that I did.

The license plate frame makes this camera really easy to attach to your vehicle. There is no need to drill holes or add awkward mounts. However, connecting it to the car’s power system and getting a proper video cable through is still pretty tricky. If you are not used to modding your car you may want to leave this step to a professional.

I have hooked up the camera to a small 4.5″ screen that I got from another vendor. The screen came to life immediately as soon as I had turned everything on, and it gave me a really nice view of the scene behind my car. The video quality is pretty decent, but I would definitely not want to use it with screens that are 7″ or larger.

One of the biggest advantages of installing your own rear view camera is that you can modify it any way you want and adjust the settings to suit your needs. You are not limited to your car’s hardware or “operating system.” If you are tech savvy you could add all sorts of useful info on the screen in addition to the plain video feed.

The mount and the camera so far seem to be very durable. They have withstood several torrential downpours we’ve had in the late summer this year. This definitely seems like a reliable product that will serve me well for the years to come.

***** Product provided for review purposes. *****