Dashcams

Why buy one?

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?

Types

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:

• An interior lens or cabin-view camera is mounted on the windscreen. It might capture some of the exterior surrounds, but its purpose is to record the car’s interior. You’ll often see such systems in taxis.
• A rear-window dash cam is mounted on the rear window and records the road behind you.
• A rear-view camera records the road as well as the surrounding area behind your car. This type of lens is not a separate unit but is incorporated in the device that houses the forward-facing lens. As such, it’s attached to the windscreen and will also capture the car’s interior.

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.

Picture quality

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.

Features to consider

Here are some things to consider before you go shopping.

• Built-in display: This lets you check the camera alignment and review recordings without a computer. Some models use your smartphone as a display, via an app.
• GPS: Automatically adds your location, speed, and time to the video footage.
• Power/battery: A dashcam that plugs in to your car’s 12V power socket will work only when the car is on. A dashcam that’s wired into the car will record even when the car is off. Most dashcams have an internal battery that lets the camera run without an external power connection, but usually for not much longer than an hour.
• Continuous-loop recording: A bigger, faster memory card allows more video to be stored. We recommend a Class 6 or 10 card of at least 16GB for HD and 4K recordings.
• WiFi: With a connection to the cloud, you won’t need to remove the camera to access the memory card. You’ll be able to stream footage wirelessly from the camera to your device (computer or phone).
• Impact detection: Sensors can detect impacts or heavy braking. Some dashcams automatically save the related video as a separate file that won’t be deleted. Some also record data about the impact’s force and direction.
• Parking mode: Some cameras can keep running and detect impacts when the car is parked. Recording time is limited by battery capacity unless the cam is permanently wired in.

Where to position a dashcam

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.