I bought a dashcam back in 2012 before it was "cool" on amazon for $100...it works pretty good and records in 1080p and it was from China.
i bought it mostly because of all the chinese people in china using dashcams to catch insurance scams and posting them on liveleak....but ive seen them in costco now and im sure theyre a lot cheaper now for something of really good quality..like supermegaultra HD or whatever the fuck the best quality HD is called now adays.
but if you want to capture good shit, use a go pro....i dont know about austin, but here in sacramento you can check out gopros from the local public library...if you can do that, that might be a good way to check the quality of it before buying it.
btw, visiting austin has been on my bucket list for 10+ years now....one day.