Your insurance covers you for your car and anything you might hit, potentially tens of thousands or even more for a relatively small premium. It's a risk decision. Small premium vs large bill is easy to rationalise.
When it comes to a camera I'm saying that you're paying $600 for a camera to potentially avoid a $600 excess.
The camera is only useful if you:
1. Have a not at fault accident; AND
2. The other party does a runner or says you are at fault; AND
3. Your insurer accepts the dash cam footage as proof.
Now if you said your premium was reduced by $50 / year by having a camera, at least then you could consider that it's an upfront investment in future savings as well as the potentially avoided excess... although even so it would take 12 years to recoupe the investment (assuming the camera last
ed that long).
Like I said before, I like toys, having video to look back and check for a red light or something is nice. Piece of mind is nice. Sending stuff to
DashCamOwnersAustralia is even more fun ;) But unless someone is crashing into you every other week and running away you might as well save your money and cough up the excess if you ever need to.