Buying A New Dash Camera: Guide On The Features

1. Quality Of The Camera

The quality of the camera is the most important feature to check out when getting your dash camera. A dash camera is, in essence, a camera; if the overall quality is poor, the quality of the pictures/videos produced will be poor. A camera with a higher quality ensures that the camera carries out its purpose, which is to record high-quality media that will be helpful when necessary.

There are three factors to consider when checking for a dash cam’s camera quality: resolution, frame rates, and field of view.

The camera resolution is essentially the number of vertical pixels in any image taken with that camera. When you take a picture and see 1080p, the implication is that the resolution of your camera is 1080p. The higher the pixels, the better the camera is.

Frame rates are important because your dash cam doesn’t just take pictures. It also makes videos. The frame rate is the rate at which a camera captures different consecutive frames. While getting a camera with a good frame rate is important, the frame rate you get is inversely proportional to your storage. So the higher the frame rate, the quicker your storage will fill up.

Finally, the field of view is how wide your camera can record. This is different for each camera so pay attention and ensure you get the best. This is often difficult to do because there is no standard way to measure the field of view except you look at the pictures taken by the camera.

Our Recommendation: Look for a dash camera with at least a resolution of 1080p. The higher the pixel, the better. We advise you to go for a frame rate of 30fps, which is the standard for most dash cams. If you think you might need smoother videos, then you can go for 60fps, but this is rarely necessary. Most importantly, check out pictures taken with this dashcam to see how good the camera quality is.

2. Storage

When looking for a dashcam, ensure you check the storage capacity. While dash cams usually come with a MicroSD card slot, it would be good if your dash cam came with a bit of internal storage so that you do not have to worry about managing storage, especially if you are not the type to pay attention to such things.

Our Recommendation: Find a dash cam with at least 4GB of internal storage. This might serve you for a couple of days, so if you do not intend to delete media on your dash cam every few days, you might have to get a MicroSD card to help you. Fortunately, there are dash cameras that come with MicroSD cards.

3. Auto-Start And Loop Recording

If you are on your way to work and in a hurry, you won’t have the time or the thought to turn on your dash cam. This is why the auto-start and loop recording features are important.

If your dash cam has the auto-start feature, it will turn on and start recording once you start your car and turn off when you park the car.

While we have already mentioned the importance of getting enough memory, it is also probable that we might not realize how quickly the storage fills up. With loop recording, newer footage is recorded over older footage when your storage is full. If you realize and get bigger storage, you can save both the old and new footage.

Our Recommendations: These two features are a matter of convenience. If you are meticulous and will remember to turn your dash cam on and off and check your storage from time to time, this feature might not be necessary. But it is a very convenient addition to your dash camera.

4. Wireless Connectivity and GPS

There are a lot of smart dash cams out there. These dash cams come with the option of wireless connectivity. The implication is that your dash camera can connect to the Bluetooth of your phone or the internet. These features come with various benefits, like managing storage and dash cam settings from your phone. You can upload and stream media captured on your dash cam. 

Our Recommendation: We recommend that you consider your needs before choosing. These features might add to your convenience, but they might not have that much effect on most people. However, it is always better to have more options.