Budget Or Good Dash Cam?
So you want to buy a dash cam? Do you buy a budget or good dash cam? What is the difference? Let's explore.
SD Card
Often times we see a deal too good to be true. 1080P dash cam for $69. It arrives in the mail and there is no SD card in the box. Similar to the gift with no batteries included. Safe Drive Solutions offers all their products complete with SD card in the box. Some of them may only include a 16GB SD card. But they still include what is needed for your system to work. Also keep an eye out on storage limitations. For example, a lot of budget dash cams will only support a 32 or 64gb SD card. As a result, good dash cams will support 128gb SD card or higher.
No Wi-Fi
Most budget dash cams do not have Wi-Fi option. Which in turn makes you have to bring the SD card into your house to view any footage. Keep that in mind when selecting your dash camera. A Wi-Fi enabled dash cam will allow you to download footage directly to your phone. Making it easy to share with friends, family, social media, or the insurance company. Most good dash cam support Wi-Fi.
24 Hour Video Surveillance
Budget dash cams like to advertise 24 hour video surveillance. However, they only come with a cigarette lighter power cord. So, a couple things to consider
- Does your cigarette lighter turn off when ignition is off?
- A lot of new vehicles do not have cigarette lighter plug ins.
- Low Battery protection is not supported on most cameras when using a cigarette lighter cord.
- If it is recording 24 hours a day where is the power coming from?
- If your SD card only stores 2 hours of record time how will it catch an incident?
Our goal is to educate consumers and to look out for their best interest. Do you buy a budget or good dash cam? In short, the choice is yours and every lifestyle is different. Know what you are getting, ask questions, and do research.
Exterior Rear Camera
A lot of budget friendly dash cameras come with an exterior rear camera. Why would you want this? Firstly, most newer vehicles come with a reverse camera on the vehicle already. So why do you want another camera mounted on the rear of your vehicle? It can get crowded very quickly.
Secondly, it is exposed to the elements, requiring you to clean it off frequently. We recommend having a camera mounted inside your rear window. This allows you to utilize rear defrost or windshield wipers to have a clear view.
Budget Or Good Dash Cam?
To sum up, a lot of budget dash cams do not include hardwire cable, SD card, Wi-Fi, or GPS antenna. We recommend researching price of install, whether all parts are included, and what you want out of a dash camera. We have charged upwards of $300 to install some budget friendly dash cams because there is a lot of accessories missing that we need to supply. Your $69 just turned into $369 plus tax installed.