Why Buy Your Teen a Dashcam

by Ben DelGrosso | May 20, 2021 | Dash Cam

When you have a young driver on the road with a brand-new license as a parent, you go through a wave of emotions, both excited and terrified. While you know your teenager understands the rules of the road with an adult in the car, what will it be like when they go out on the road alone? Or even with friends in the car. You may not be able to be in the car with them as they go out on the road independently, but you can find a way to ensure that they are protected and accounted for. As you are considering different options, the choice to buy your teen a dashcam is an option that provides a range of helpful features.

Understanding Dashcams

While most people in North America don’t use dashcams, they are essentially a video camera installed onto the windshield of the car that can record and monitor the vehicles in front of the car, back of the car or the driver. You choose to either have one channel, which means one camera, or two channels, which means two cameras. You can choose to point one at the front of the car and the rear of the car to get a good view of the vehicle’s surroundings.

Like all cameras, the dashcam comes with a memory stick that, once it is full, the camera will begin to overwrite the content. The two-channel dashcam is the most popular one for parents who are using them with their teenagers. This is mainly because both you and your teenager get a better picture of events when accidents happen from the car’s front, rear, and interior.

Why Use a Dashcam?

Say your teen experiences an accident, and it isn’t evident which driver was liable; you can look at the footage of the dashcams to help determine who made a mistake. This can be especially helpful for young drivers who are still trying to understand how to utilize the guidelines of driving in practice without reminding them. Understandably, they may experience a few hiccups as they get used to driving on the road without someone to make suggestions when they may be doing something incorrectly.

Looking over the footage with your teen can also be a helpful way for them to understand what they need to work on when it comes to their driving. Like athletes and actors, it can be beneficial for drivers to look over how they were driving in different situations when they are starting to move on their own. Dashcams provide the ability to reflect on specific rules that need to be remembered more regularly. All great reasons on why to buy your teen a dashcam.

Dashcam Protection

Including the ability to protect from accidents while your teen is operating, the dashcam can also provide security if anything happens to the car while your teen is away from the vehicle. There can be situations where the car might have been broken into, and you didn’t have a dashcam to catch the suspect in action. There are also situations where your teen’s car might have been dented or scratched while they were away. With a dashcam, you’ll be able to have proof of the incident to ensure that if anything goes wrong, your insurance will be able to cover it.

There are also different models of dashcams that allow you to monitor the car’s speed as your teen is driving to make sure that they are respecting the speed limit. You can also find dashcams that will tell you the location of the car* (hotspot/sim card required). This can be helpful in a range of circumstances, for if the car ever gets stolen or when you want to know the location of where your teen may be located and you can even be notified if your teen breached a set area. With the dashcam, you can even see who is in the car with your teen.

In Conclusion

Your teenager getting their very own driver’s license and car are one of the many steps to get ready for your teen leaving the nest and gain more autonomy over their choices. A dashcam gives you the peace of mind to know that your teen is safe as they get used to the responsibilities of driving on their own and having a car in their possession. With so many models to choose from, it can be hard to determine which dashcam would be able to fit your needs. This is why it’s essential to reach out to Safe Drive Solutions, where you can get a quote on a dashcam that suits you and your teen’s needs for driving safely.

DashCam Resolution Comparison

by Ben DelGrosso | Aug 11, 2020 | Dash Cam

1080P vs 2k vs 4k

If you’re scouring the internet in search of the latest dash camera technology, you may run into a few confusing tech specs. Dashcam resolution is one of the most important specifications to pay attention to, as these will affect the video quality. Good video quality can mean the difference between capturing every single aspect of an incident, or capturing a blurry moment in time. In this article, we’ll walk you through a few of the important things to know about dashcam resolution.

DASHCAM RESOLUTION

There are many different dashcam resolutions on the market currently, 720p, 1080p, 2k, and 4k. At Safe Drive Solutions, we offer a whole range of models varying from 1080p, 2k, and 4k resolution dashcams. Obviously, the higher the resolution, the clearer the picture. This is important for capturing video in dim light, nighttime, or dusk—or picking up minute details.

WHICH DASHCAM RESOLUTION IS RIGHT FOR YOU

As mentioned, at Safe Drive Solutions, we offer 1080p, 2k, and 4k—which are common terms when buying a tv that many people will be familiar with. Let’s begin with 1080p.

1080P

The “1080” refers to the amount of pixels that run vertically down a screen, while having 1920 pixels running horizontally. Although 1080p devices have been around for many years now, it remains the industry standard for many video or display devices. It’s also the default setting on YouTube and Netflix.

1080P, while being excellent picture quality, remains the lowest resolution among our dashcams. This doesn’t mean they’re bad—in fact most vehicle owners would be thrilled with the picture quality from their 1080p dashcam. However, 2k and 4k displays offer a sharper, clearer image that allows for a more robust capture. The Dash Cam models that record in 1080P are the; FA200, F200PRO, NX7 and T10S2.

2K (QHD)

The Difference Between 2k and 1080p resolutions

Next on the dashcam resolution hierarchy are the 2k dashcams. 2k is a bit of a “catch-all” term used to describe devices that capture or display over 2000 horizontal pixels x 1080. The difference in pixels between a 1080p dashcam and a 2k dashcam can be a few hundred thousand, to 1.6 million pixels. This means 2k dashcams can be of exceptional quality in comparison to 1080p.

The Thinkware QA100 Elite front camera is 2560 pixels horizontally and 1440 pixels vertically so a lot more detail compared to a 1080p camera. This allows for a much wider, much clearer view with a lot more detail. This is especially apparent when you zoom in. It retains clarity far better than a 1080p dashcam would.

When you want a reliable dashcam that will pick up clear images of street signs, license plates, and other minute details—which can significantly assist you in case of a claim—then a 2k dashcam might be for you.

Our QA100 Elite is a 2K Resolution Thinkware Dash Cam.

4K (UHD)

Now, for the granddaddy of them all—the 4k resolution dashcam. 4k, just like 2k, refers to the number of pixels running horizontally on a display. It’s a generic term that encapsulates 2 different resolutions—3820 and 4096 horizontal pixels by 2160 vertical pixels.

4k is 4 times the resolution of 1080p. That means zooming in on this footage is completely seamless, allowing for a full and vivid picture of what was captured, even at super high zoom levels.

Unfortunately, in the dashcam industry, there are some pretenders. If you’ve been looking for a 4k dashcam, you may have noticed some discrepancies in quality from one 4k dashcam to the next. That’s because some companies have cheated the specs and utilized poor chipsets, which are actually just recording in HD and resizing the image to 4k.

Our 4K dashcams are TRUE, VIVID 4K. Even when viewed on huge screens, the video quality from our 4k dashcams remains pristine. The Thinkware U1000 and IROAD X10 use Native 4k Resolution to increase detail when capturing license plates at faster speeds, and for capturing detail in low-light conditions.