Must-Have Features for Your Next Vehicle Dashcam

When it comes to vehicle safety, it’s also important to add a dashcam on top of the usual standard safety features. The dash camera or event data recorder (EDR) is an onboard camera that’s designed to record the view through your vehicle’s front windscreen. Some designs allow the camera to capture the view from the side or the inside of the vehicle. Whatever the design intention is, a dash cam has become a helpful add-on that can promote safety on the road. But before you buy a dashcam for your vehicle, make sure you know what you are looking for. Here are the top features that you should consider when shopping for a dashcam.

Battery-powered. You need a dash camera that continues to record the events even after the 12-volt power supply has been lost.

Incident reporting. This feature can be triggered by impact sensors, or when the vehicle is in parking mode, by motion detection.

Continuous loop recording. This can help reduce the requirement for storage. Recorded videos are then overwritten at a specified interval unless saved. The video is saved when an incident is recorded. The majority of the dash cameras available in the market will delete old recordings if space is a problem. For this reason, you may also need to invest in a MicroSD card storage. Pricey dash cameras will often include card storage.

Wide field of view. The standard field of view is 90 degrees. But you can collect more information if the dash camera offers 120 to 140 degrees. And if you’re lucky, you can even find a dashcam that offers you a 180-degree field of view. Keep in mind that wider is not always better, at least in terms of the quality of the view. If you have a wider field of view, you need to worry about fish-eye distortion and a lot of processing is required.

Day and night recording. As the name suggests, this type of camera will work 24/7. This is helpful for commercial trucking and bus services. You can also add infrared lighting if you want to capture high-quality images at night.

GPS. Now, this is a critical requirement in case some disputes need to be resolved.

Other popular features that you may want to include in your dashcam are High Dynamic Range (for detailed videos), Wide Dynamic Range (for more color), and phone connectivity. You may want to consider these features if you’re looking to add a dash cam to your vehicle.