Dashcams
Record the road ahead with a dashcam.
Record the road ahead with a dashcam.
In the event of a road accident, a dashboard camera (or dashcam) might provide evidence to help smooth over your insurance claim or identify an uninsured driver or rider.
Road accidents happen, and they are never our fault, because we’re all perfect drivers, right? Dashcam footage could provide proof of fault or dangerous driving to your insurer or the police. If the other party isn’t insured or leaves the scene, the recording could be all you have to identify them.
If you’re on the fence about buying a dashcam, think back to when you were last involved in a road incident. Would you have benefitted from having dashcam?
A forward-facing dash cam captures the road ahead. It can’t record anything behind your car.
A front-and-rear system has two or more cameras. The front-facing camera captures the road ahead, but the rear-facing camera doesn’t necessarily record the road behind. There are three main types of rear-facing cameras:
Front-and-rear systems can be tricky to set up and may need to be professionally hardwired in. They also tend to cost more than forward-facing dash cams. However, some front-and-rear systems can be bought as separate components, allowing you to buy the forward-facing camera first and the rear-facing camera later.
It doesn’t matter how many lenses are installed if the footage is grainy, so make sure you buy a dashcam that records good quality pictures. Our test assesses picture quality under various conditions. We also note vertical resolution and image quality details under Specifications, but be aware that a higher resolution doesn’t always mean better quality.
Here are some things to consider before you go shopping.
To get the most from your dashcam, it must be positioned to have the broadest possible view of the road ahead. Dashcams come with either a suction mount for sticking to the windscreen or an adhesive mount for sticking to the dashboard.
Wherever you place it, it shouldn’t obstruct your vision - especially not the “critical vision area” defined in WOF guidelines. The rules allow “radio antennae” to be placed wholly within 100mm of any edge of the windscreen.
We've tested 25 dashcams.
Find the right one for you.
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