Doctor Dashcam

Check this one out! A very lucky motorcyclist lands on his feet!

Motorcyclist crashes, flips and sticks a perfect landing on a car's roof If there is such thing as a perfect motorcycle accident, this might be it: a motorcyclist crashes full speed into a car that's changing lanes. That's bad, right? The crash launches his body into a spinning mess in the air. That's definitely bad. But yet somehow he manages to flip and land standing u…

Dashboard Camera Reviews:
All You Need to Know Before You Buy a Dash Cam


So What Sets A Dash Cam Apart From Other Cameras?

In case you are wondering why you can’t just use a regular video camera, or even your phone’s cam, it’s because a dashboard camera should have all of the following features:

Connect to your car’s cigarette lighter with a long power cable (at least 12ft) that you can run around the windshield, tucking it away neatly so it is hidden from sight.

Auto on/off: Dashboard cameras start recording when you start the car’s engine, and stop when you park. That way, you don’t have to worry about forgetting to turn your camera on or off.

Loop recording: Enables the camera to overwrite the oldest bit of footage when the memory card is full, so you never run out of disk space.

Impact detection / G-sensor: A G-sensor makes sure that if an impact is detected, the video footage immediately preceding and following the impact can’t be overwritten by the loop recording, so you don’t accidentally lose critical evidence.

Time and date stamp on video (and speed if it has GPS): useful should you ever need your video footage as evidence in court.

Resolution: 1080p (1920×1080 pixels) is pretty much standard in 2014. While there are still a couple of 720p (1280×720 pixels) dash cams available, most new cameras support 1080p resolution.
Interfaces: Dash cams generally come with HDMI, USB, and A/V interfaces.

Storage: Most dashboard cameras support SD cards up to 32GB in size, with the notable exception of the Lukas LK-7900, which supports an extraordinary 128GB of footage. So what does this mean in terms of recording time? This depends on the bit rate of the camera. Supposing a relatively high bit rate of 15 Mbps, a 32GB card will allow you to record at least 4 hours of video. Recording time goes up if the bit rate is lower, but less bit rate also means lower video quality.

Having had a look at the basic features a dash cam should have, let’s now check out our top camera choices for this year:

Mini 0801 Ambarella - Top Value For Money

The Mini 0801 is a small and stylish dashboard camera released in early 2013 that quickly became a best seller. It is available for less than $100 if you go for the basic version without GPS and internal memory. Video quality is great during the daytime, and average at night.

The Mini 0801 has a nice inconspicuous design and features a 1.5” screen for ease of operation. The angle of view is 135˚. A GPS logger and 8MB of internal memory are available optionally for around $10 extra each.

A nice comfortable feature that this cam has is that the electrical contacts for the power supply are built directly into the camera mount, so if you want to remove the camera from your car you can do so without having to unplug the power cable.

See link for full review.

Dashboard Camera Reviews All You Need to Know Before You Buy a Dash Cam