How Do You Use A Dash Cam To Get The Best Out Of One Of The Most Popular Gadgets Of 2021?
Introduction
Dash cams have been growing in popularity for the last few years, And rightly so as they provide a complete view around your vehicle. They have the ability to see things you may not spot when you are concentrating on driving the car.
Dash cams are small and unassuming digital gadgets and are often placed on the dashboard of your vehicle facing forward. However, some have the ability to have a full 360-degree view of the vehicle you are driving.
Dash cams can be used as a double safety feature in your vehicle. They can see and record all of your journey information on a video. This has skyrocketed their popularity as people use them in their vehicles to prevent accidents on the road while driving or use them as a safety feature for correct driving positioning.
Footage captured from dash cams can actually be used for an insurance claim or a fault liability in an accident or incident on the road.
If the dash cam captures the footage and can show clearly who is at fault in response to an accident, that footage can actually be used to curate insurance claims where there is a fault liability.
But how do you actually use a dashcam to its best capabilities?
Here is a short but complete guide on how to use dash cams in the most efficient way possible to increase the safety of your driving experience
Setting up your Dash Cam
Setting up your Dash cam is incredibly simple.
After purchasing your dash cam you simply need to remove it from the packaging and attach the camera to the suction cup or stand. This needs to be attached to either your windscreen or dashboard itself with the camera element facing forwards, which means out of your windscreen!
To record footage of your journeys and surroundings, you will need to insert a memory card into the dash cam.
This allows all of the footage captured by the camera to be recorded onto a hard version which will be helpful for any future uploads when and if necessary.
You may also find variations of dashcam that include full-spectrum dash cams that will encompass the whole of the exterior of your vehicle, front-facing dash cams that will look out of the front as you see the road and surroundings, or a front and rear dash cam which is as it sounds and will look from the front and the rear of the vehicle.
Positioning
The positioning of your dash cam can be crucial in capturing your journey accurately.
The dash cam needs to be placed on your vehicle’s dashboard on a specific stand that may come with a dash cam that needs to be fixed firmly and securely to the dashboard to make sure that there is no danger of it coming away with vibrations, movement or impact.
The alternative position of a dash cam can be with a suction cup that is placed primarily in the centre of the bottom section of your windscreen, so it has a clear view of the very front of the bonnet of your vehicle.
Suppose you have chosen a dash cam that encompasses either front and rear imagery or a full 360 view of your vehicle. In that case, your dash cam needs to be positioned in locations within your vehicle to see both the vehicle’s exterior from the floor and the midpoint of the vehicle height.
There is no right or wrong way to position your dash cams for effective views; however, you need to make sure that the dash cam can see as much as possible in case of any accident incident on the road.
Recording
You will find the most dash cams have an automatic recording element, so you do not need to get in your car and set up your device to record.
As long as it’s plugged in, and it’s often plugged in via the cigarette lighter in your vehicle, you will be able to just get in your car and drive knowing that your dash cam is recording every move you and other people make on your journey.
We briefly mentioned a memory card needing to be placed in your dashcam.
This is simply to allow the footage to be recorded and stored on that memory card if the dash cam information needs to be downloaded, uploaded, or provided as a digital file to backup insurance claims or even court cases.
It is important to remember to extract the data from a memory card when and if needed; otherwise, it will continue to record on a real-time basis.
Dashcams will record any videography it captures from your journey, but it will also have a real-time time stamp on every frame of the video it records, so the footage can be beneficial if the dash cam sees an accident or incident that may require investigation further.
Dash cams can even record speeds, temperatures, a visual of the road conditions, and log weather reports.
Conclusion
Your dash cam setup is designed to be incredibly simple, so it has an almost plug-and-play feature.
The dash cam will often not need any intervention when beginning or ending a journey, as all of the recordings are automatic.
Ensure that your dash cam is plugged into the nearest suitable socket in your car to enable sufficient power to go into the device to allow the recording.
It is also imperative to note that a memory card is to be placed in the dash cam to allow the recording to be digitally captured and easily extracted if needed in the future.
Make sure your dash cam, whichever one you choose, has a good view of the part of the vehicle it is designed to be watching.
Make sure that you can see all areas that you wish to see with the camera to enable you to have that third eye on any road incidents, accidents, or occurrences that may happen when you are out driving on your next journey.
