Dash cameras can, at the best of times, capture something incredible that you otherwise may not have recorded (remember the Chelyabinsk meteor in Russia, that was captured on film thanks to the popularity of dash cams in that area?). And in a more unfortunate turn of events, these cameras can capture footage of an accident or encounter that can help for potential legal reasons. It's important to note that sometimes video is not enough evidence in a court of law, but regardless of whether you are looking into these dash cams for business, pleasure, or both, we can help you find the right model. To that end, we've put together a step-by-step guide for figuring out what you should be looking for in a digital driving documentarian.
Step 1: Who Could Benefit From a Dash Cam?
Likely the most common group of people that can derive some value from a dashboard camera is those who are looking to ease their mind regarding a vehicle-related lawsuit. If you end up in a fender bender or worse, having footage proving your innocence can be key in avoiding any legal damages and in reaping the proper compensation from your insurance company or the party at fault. If you live in a rural area, the lower risk of such an occurrence may not warrant the investment in a dash cam, but if you live in a city full of distracted drivers and pedestrians that are constantly causing stress, one of these systems may be able to alleviate at least some of that worry.
Rideshare drivers are another growing group of people who rely on footage of their driving and of what's happening inside their cars. Whether you're driving for Uber, Lyft, or another rideshare program, a dash cam can help protect you from some of the liability associated with using your personal vehicle as a taxi. Some models even have cameras that record the cabin of a vehicle.
Another group of people who may like to have a camera semi-permanently installed in their car are those who want a record of their scenic cruises or who often are met with looks of disbelief when sharing the crazy thing that happened on their commute.
Step 2: Do You Need a Rear Camera?
Many models are dual-camera systems these days. Depending on the system, they sometimes double as a backup camera, so if you've already decided to get a dash cam and you've got an older vehicle without a built-in backup cam, this is a worthwhile addition. As far as capturing traffic accidents goes, we will say that if you're rear-ended, that's not usually legally your fault. But it's an important consideration anyway; stories change when someone's in front of a judge, and hit-and-runs are an unfortunate fact of life. Plus, you never know what else you'll capture.
Step 3: Do You Need to Record What's Happening Inside Your Car?
All sorts of professional drivers may want a view of their cabin, but for rideshare drivers specifically, we'd consider this damn near a required tool of the job. Cabin footage can provide proof of any poor behavior, or worse, from passengers that you may need to report, or proof against a negative report against yourself.
Doting parents of a freshly minted 16-year-old driver on their own for the first time may want to keep an eye on things too.
Step 4: Consider Mounting the Camera
Most dash cams mount in one of two ways: via a suction cup on the windshield or with an adhesive mount that can be stuck to the windshield or dashboard. Suction cups tend to be larger and hold more weight, and can be easily moved or transferred from car to car. However, depending on the quality, they also tend to fall off in the presence of moisture or heat. Remember too that you must be careful not to obscure your field of view, considering our dash and windshields are ever cluttered with things like phone mounts. Each state has its own laws regarding the location of mounts, so be sure to research your own situation.
Adhesive mount types tend to be smaller and more reliable in the heat, but they can leave residue on the windshield if you ever decide to remove them, and they can't be moved between cars as easily (you'll have to buy a second mount if you want to do this). Thankfully, manufacturers have started to include larger, transparent electrostatic films with adhesive mounts—these help the grip strength and eliminate residue when removing.
Step 5: On-Camera Displays Are Useful
Almost all of the cameras on the market have some sort of in-unit display, but there are some exceptions. Overall, we think these displays are useful. Not only do they let you quickly check that the camera is oriented correctly, but they also let you change settings and review or manage footage without hooking the camera up to an app (which can be a pain!) You can certainly get by without one, but in most cases, not having a display makes a camera less user-friendly.
Step 6: Consider Field of View
Most cameras have a field of view of around 140°, which strikes a nice balance between being able to see much of the road in front of you without warping the picture too much. However, some cameras claim to go wider or narrower. Narrower fields of view lose much of the side view from the windshield, but can register things in front of the car with a bit more clarity. Wider views can capture more area, but can be less detailed, making it less likely that you'll be able to make out the license plate number of the car ahead of you. You'll want to weigh how these pros and cons relate to your intended dash cam use.
We'll also mention here that this is the spec we often see makers overadvertising. Our in-house testing confirms that most units actually measure at least 15% narrower than advertised, sometimes as much as 50% narrower. Still, the points above stand: too wide can be just as detrimental as too narrow.
Step 7: Consider Storage
Industry standard is that models write their footage to a microSD memory card, but some can accept larger cards than others, and not every camera comes with a memory card included. Most cameras record in 1-3 minute segments until the storage is full, and then automatically start overwriting the oldest footage to make way for the new. For example, if you have your loop recording clip length set to three minutes, the memory card is going to be filled up with a bunch of distinct three-minute video clips. Once the card is full, it will start recording over the earliest 3-minute clips, as long as they weren't saved to a 'protected' folder.
Almost all cameras also have an accelerometer or G-sensor that can detect the sudden acceleration or deceleration inherent in a driving accident. When it detects a 'crash event,' it saves the clip to a protected folder that won't be overwritten.
You'll have to decide what loop recording clip length is right for you. Short, one-minute clips keep the memory card from filling up with protected clips every time you hit a bump too fast and trigger a false alarm crash event. However, this also increases the chance that an event could occur 57 seconds into a clip, meaning most of the action is going to be contained in the following clip, which won't be protected from overwriting. Longer clips may fill up a memory card faster and could require you to manually free up space more often, but increase the chances that the entire accident event will be encompassed in a single clip. While the length of protected clips is certainly a consideration, it won't matter too much if you offload and save the footage to a camera right after an accident, which is what most people are likely to do.
You'll have to consider how much footage you need to keep handy and how often you'll be offloading footage that you want to save when deciding how much storage you need from your dash cam. For reference, most cameras fill up an 8GB memory card with about an hour of 1080p footage, or about three hours of 720p footage.
Step 8: Do You Need Any Special Features?
In general, we don't find the extra bells and whistles offered by some cameras useful, but in some instances, they may improve your dash cam experience.
Lane Departure Warnings
Some models can use their cameras to warn you when you're drifting out of your lane, or even warn you of red lights up ahead. However, we found these features to be less reliable than the versions that come built-in to newer cars, and they didn't inspire much confidence during our testing. It certainly can't hurt to have these features, but they aren't on our list of reasons to consider buying a dash cam.
Parking Surveillance
Some models use an internal battery to activate a motion sensor while your car is parked, ideally springing to life if someone tries to break into the car. However, unless you have ideal temperature conditions or add an extra external battery, it's unlikely the battery will last long enough for times when a feature like this would be useful (i.e., leaving your car in an airport parking garage for a week). Also, we found the triggers for these cameras to be unreliable when in parking surveillance mode, and it is quite unlikely that any footage of a thief will lead to you being reunited with your belongings.
Associated Apps
Some cameras can beam short segments of footage straight to your phone. This can be quite a useful feature if you often like to share clips of your drives with friends. For those who just want to have the footage in case they get into an accident, pulling the SD card and plugging it into a computer is a more reliable route.
GPS
This isn't the turn-by-turn directions type of GPS system. Having a GPS included in your dash cam means that coordinates will be overlaid on the video in real time. We think this is one of the most useful features that dash cams include these days: being able to prove an exact location can break a fraudster's story, and help eliminate doubt in a judge or jury's mind.
Conclusion
Most dash cams are very similar, but subtle differences can make some much better for specific uses than others. We hope this guide has helped you narrow the field of dash cameras you're considering and has helped lead you to a product that you'll be pleased with.
