Wired vs. wireless rearview cameras: essential gear for New Mexico adventures

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ESSENTIAL OVERLAND GEAR: Look back, something may be gaining on you

A rear-facing video camera gives you a better view than mirrors alone

Two screens on a vehicle dashboard show a rear-view camera image of a road behind the vehicle.

A dashboard-mounted screen displays a rear-view camera feed in a vehicle, helping the driver see behind a cargo-filled back area. This was my setup to test wireless vs. wired cameras.

Donn Friedman/GO NEW MEXICO

Donn Friedman GO New Mexico

Published June 24, 2026 - 6:26 p.m.

Wireless cameras are slightly more expensive. This one was about $70 at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DVNWNDH?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share&th=1

After piling gear up in the back of your rig, sometimes you need a better view out the back. Mirrors provide some relief, but a camera is even better.

I recently went wireless after snapping the connection between the video monitor in front and the camera in back too many times. I know I should have correctly wired it and hid the wires, but it was just a temporary solution. Almost seven years later, the wire severed at the worst possible time: when we were heading onto the freeways of Los Angeles.

Sitting at the kitchen table in my niece鈥檚 Van Nuys bungalow, I stripped wires with a kitchen knife and brought the camera back to life for the escape from LA.

Safely out of the big city traffic, I knew it was time to replace that camera and decided wireless was the way to go. So I purchased the 5-inch monitor and camera for just under $70.

I also bought with all wires and cables and a slightly larger monitor for less than $30.

The video from the wireless camera seems to have some unpleasant differences to the wired camera in testing I did. It has a herky-jerky video display that makes it seem to lag ever-so-slightly behind reality. Remember that like mirrors that have warnings that say items may appear further or closer, video from the back is not the same as turning and looking. That distraction may not be something I want in my field of vision.

The may be caused by the distance between the camera and monitor, the metal of the vehicle, or the power supply 鈥� all issues that can be resolved with a wired system.

Much more expensive camera systems, such as a that fits over your rear-view mirror, may provide better recordings and experience, but the cheap, some-under-$30 wired kits have served me well the past decade. For now I will probably leave the wireless in place so I don鈥檛 sever any wires while on the road and use the wired setup in my other vehicles.

I disagree with famous baseball player Satchel Paige, who was quoted in a 1953 Collier鈥檚 Magazine article: 鈥淒on鈥檛 look back. Something might be gaining on you.鈥�

Instead, ways to look back help make your adventure safer as long as you don鈥檛 spend too much time staring at the view of the rear. Be sure to check, some countries may not allow rear-facing cameras to be on at all times, but the setup in the United States, and Teslas have these as standard equipment.

Share your New Mexico adventure channel, rigs and panorama photos with us at go@abqjournal.com. They could appear in an edition of the Sunday Journal in the GO! New Mexico weekly outdoors section.