I like your word belligerent but your attempt to generalize me is misguided
Again, your photography expertise is noted and maybe even now overstated regardless of your post count............. There are limits you know and again............ You are not a camera manufacturer but just a mouth piece
I know the difference between an actual camera and a gadget that acts like one, that's all.
It's simple.......on a daily basis this forum is flooded with reports of all kinds of issues both minor and serious with their dash cameras. For just one example, the otherwise excellent SG9665GC has had a long term issue with numerous reports of the camera going out of focus going all the way back to the V1 version (not the only brand of camera with this issue, of course). (I've had 3 GCs with focus problems, btw.) Yet we hear all kinds of claims from Ric and Jon about the metal lens module, etc., etc, and dubious statements such as
"We've shipped plenty of these to Texas and have nothing but happy customers.- no heat warping, no heat focus shift, no problems."
Leaving aside the hype and spin factor for the time being, the focus shift issue is an example of why I don't consider dash cams to be other than plastic gadgets. When you screw some components on a PCB into a plastic shell you have a gadget whose components will eventually warp in the heat and shrink in the cold regardless of a metal lens module.
"Real" cameras are generally built around a rigid metal chassis that holds the components in place securely. Even the cheapest video surveillance cameras are built to be extremely rigid because they must endure dramatic temperature and weather extremes without going out of focus. Most of them have a sleeve surrounding the lens that prevents it from shifting around during expansion and contraction and the PCBs are built into a rigid cage which is then screwed to a rigid housing. Interestingly, today's video surveillance cameras use many of the exact same sensors, DSPs and S-mount (M12) lenses we see in dash cams.
I advocate for dash cams to be built more like miniature video surveillance cameras. That's what they are actually if you stop to think about it, yet that's not how they are made. Unfortunately, for now, dash cams are put together like cheap gadgets. As I've said before, dash cams are like Gameboys. That means they consist of a circuit board, with a screen and some plastic buttons screwed into molded stand-offs inside a thin plastic housing. That's a gadget, not a camera. If and when that were to happen and build standards for dash cams were raised to the level of true cameras we would no longer see such constant reports of focus shift issues. My (dark gray) surveillance cameras can sit all day baking in the hot sun in 95 degree F weather and run 24/7/365 with no focus shifts. Also, all my surveillance cameras happen to have been in the same general price range of a decent dash camera, in the $150.00 range, give or take.
This is but one example of the difference between a camera and a gadget, even cheap point and shoot cameras. And BTW, when I was shopping for a new surveillance camera recently most of them I looked at provide the
focal lengths, and aperture (and all the other detailed specs) so that the buyer can make an informed purchasing decision according to his requirements.
And,
@Hombré, my friend, when you go around telling members on this forum to "shut up", you are being belligerent.