To get a useful view of what's going on behind you, a dash cam must be fitted to the rear hatch. A dash cam has a very wide angle lens, in order to record a panoramic scene. A rear facing dash cam, fitted to the front screen would record the car's interior, and passengers etc, with the view through the rear screen comprising a very small part.
Separate cameras are the only solution imo.
Mac.
I've fitted countless dashcam systems for fellow A2 owners, though the camera itself has always been supplied by the owner of the car. As such, I have little familiarity with the products that are available.
Some of the cameras that I've installed have had two lenses; one pointing forwards and one pointing backwards. The rear-facing camera had a narrower field of view, such that it mostly recorded what was happening through the rear windscreen rather than what was happening in the interior. The designers of the system hadn't simply used the same lens for the rear-facing camera as they had for the front-facing camera, as otherwise it would've mostly recorded the happenings on the back seats.
By mounting a single camera on the windscreen, near the rear-view mirror, the physical and electrical installation is kept simple and elegant. Whilst a split two-camera system would be ideal, this presents two difficulties; you either need to run additional wiring into the tailgate, which is a huge undertaking, or you have to mount the camera towards the back of the headlining, where there's nothing especially solid.
Whilst I can conceive of many different ways of mounting a rear-view camera, the end result needs to be elegant and unobtrusive. A solution that requires days of my time makes it financially unfeasible. Whilst it's possible for self-installers to put up with the nuisances caused by their choices, I don't have the luxury of being able to make those decisions on behalf of others. As a self-confessed perfectionist, I can't put my name to something that's a bit of a bodge. The final solution cannot mean that cables have to be rerouted to take the rear seats out, or that the rear-facing camera blocks the view through the rear-view mirror, or that the rear-facing camera gets knocked when items are loaded into the boot, or that the use of the rear interior light is obstructed by the rear-facing camera, or that wires can be seen/caught. This is the fundamental problem with aftermarket stuff; what is acceptable to one person is sacrilege to another.
With the above in mind, which products can the wider community recommend, please?
Cheers,
Tom
