Dashcams are easy to install, and use, but very hard to buy.
Well, the checkout process on Amazon is easy, but they are really hard to buy at a good value.
Hopefully, I can help make it easy. The reason they are hard to get at a good value is somewhat important so you can avoid the common pitfalls: The more expensive cams often have worse video quality than mid-tier cams; amazon reviews are fake or contradictory; and the reputable brands are worst than the off-brands. So all of the usual ways of selecting quality are off the table.
The good news is, there are a couple of websites that do the hard work of testing them. That’s really the only way to know their value: look at the actual video the cams produce. I buy them for work, and so I’ve not only researched them, I’ve bought a bunch of them, hopefully what I’ve learned will help.
This is a great little (always being updated) list of the best ones for different needs: https://dashboardcamerareviews.com/best-dash-cams/ (You need a little more info than this list, like which SD card)
I’ve used both the Viofo A119 and the Street Guardian SGGCX2PRO with success. (Update 12/8/2023, right now all Street Guardian dash cameras are not available for sale but you can substitute everything said here about Street Guardian with BlackVue DR750X-1CH Plus as seen on this chart.) I can tell you, the Street Guardian might be 1% better than the Viofo A119. The pricing fluctuates, but the Viofo is roughly $100 and the Street Guardian is around $160. So for 60% more money I got 1% better performance. usually, this is an insane value proposition I would throw up at the thought of spending. BUT, the catch is that neither of these cams are very good, not compared to your smartphone (for why, watch LinusTechTips’ video on the issue, I don’t like their testing and recommendation because they did 1,000% less testing than the websites). But the Street Guardian is literally the best dashcam video quality available. But if a car is moving, you cannot read the license plate almost ever. If you want to read the license plate of a hit-and-run, you will need to find the moment in the video where the car is stopped, and then you should be able to read it. But with the Street Guardian, if both cars are moving at roughly the same low speed, you have a small chance you can read the license plate. So that 1% better clarity might be the difference between catching a hit and run or letting them get away. So that is why I spend 60% more on a 1% better camera. Also, the cost is spread out over the lifetime of the car (and I could move it to a new car, but for the price, I plan to just buy a new dashcam for each vehicle). The sensors and capacitors wear out, and the SD cards seriously wear out and should be replaced more often than the camera. More on SD cards below.
UPDATE: The Viofo v3 is recommended on dashboardcamerareviews.com but the Street Guardian no longer is on their home page or “best of 2023” list. Here’s what I think happened. The Viofo v2 was reviewed in 2016, Then “Street Guardian SGGCX2PRO: Best Video Quality” review was done in 2018 declaring a video quality winner, which is reflected in the previous paragraph. In 2019, “Viofo A119 v3: Best Value For Money” was reviewed, and it was not declared a winner. But no other dash cam has ever been declared a winner since the street guardian. There is some real difficulty in declaring a winner because of differences in the quality at various speeds and light conditions. This table places the GCX2PRO at “excellent” for daytime and “very good” for the Viofo 119 v3. For night, the Street Guardian is “very good” and the Viofo is only “Good”. It’s worth noting, the BlackVue DR750X-1CH Plus gets “very good” in both categories placing its video quality between the Street Guardian and the Viofo. Unless you need more channels, my opinion is that all other dashcams are not worth buying. You can look at all the comparison tables here: https://dashboardcamerareviews.com/dash-cam-comparison-table/ (Note that Viofo A119 Mini 2 has wifi and has a different sensor but is rated the same video quality as the Viofo A119 v3)
For a second opinion on these dash cams, this website is not as thorough, but worth checking out: https://dashcamtalk.com/best-dash-cams-of-2023/
A lot of the other review websites do not seem trustworthy. They do not have actual video footage, and a lot of them are quite good at pretending like they reviewed it in hand, and not off a spec sheet.
SD Cards
You’ll also want to get the largest SD card your dashcam can take and reputable manufacturers make, and you want it to use MLC memory. (Usually Sandisk or Samsung “endurance” cards) https://dashboardcamerareviews.com/which-sd-cards-last-longest-in-dash-cams/ https://carcamcentral.com/guide/recommended-microsd-cards-for-dash-cameras/
The reason for the larger capacity is that it will last longer simply because it is overwritten less. You have so many overwrites before it dies. One overwrite is when the full capacity of the card has been written to it. So if you have a 128gb card, then every 128gbs that is written to it, is one overwrite. So if you double the capacity, then one overwrite is 256gbs, so you get twice the amount of overwriting ability. The other side benefit is that you will have more video footage on it. So if you have twice the capacity you’ll have roughly twice the video footage on it. So the extra cost pays off in two ways. The review website and the Amazon listing will tell you the max, but the good ones are at least 256gb max (including the Viofo and Street Guardian that I have).
UPDATE: The Street Guardian SGGCX2PRO now supports 400GB, but there are no “proper” SD cards that support that capacity yet. Read on for what “proper” means.
Why you need MLC, in short, is because it’s better for endurance, even though it’s slower. There’s some history on the price though. When I first researched and bought dashcams for work, I had to buy some very expensive SD cards for large capacities and good quality to not wear out in a hot environment while simultaneously overwriting (both are horrible for flash memory). MLC can handle this environment, but it was expensive in higher capacities. But the price came down big time. Car Cam Central explains:
3D NAND Reigns Supreme
https://carcamcentral.com/guide/recommended-microsd-cards-for-dash-cameras
Consumers used to see only two types of flash memory: TLC (Triple Level Cell) and MLC (Multi Level Cell). Both are planar (flat) which means all memory cells are on one layer… the newest 3D NAND (layered) construction stacks memory cells on top of each other, now up to 176 layers. These layers can still be made from MLC, TLC or coming soon QLC (Quad-Level Cells). There are two major benefits over our older picks which used planar MLC NAND: increased reliability (cells are larger which reduces interference) and cheaper prices (higher density on silicon wafers during manufacturing).
CarCamCentral dated this 3D NAND breakthrough in 2020, but I have an email recommending the newer (cheaper & longer lasting) technology from Samsung to a friend, and that email was sent in 2019. It was available for purchase on Amazon already. In March of 2018, it was not available (or was not on the dashcam websites I was using, so I did not know about it). Somewhere in between, it came to market.
This is why I would not recommend buying the Street Guardian with an included larger SD card. I got the Street Guardian with the smallest (32gb) SD card and threw it away, and used a Samsung Endurance Pro (I later bought it with the 256 card, keep reading). Here are the current prices:
- Samsung Pro Endurance 256GB, $38
- SG with 32gb, $160
- SG with 256gb, $195
- $38+$160= $198
- (Sandisk is about $8 cheaper)
- I’m sure whatever Street Guardian is using is “fine” but you can get the best for roughly the same price. If you want to save money, go with Viofo, which comes with no SD card. Then go with the Samsung card. The Sandisk is probably fine, but Samsung seems a little better in reviews and warranty, and it’s really important to not have your card be broken when you go to ‘use’ it (i.e. watch/copy important footage).
- I’m hoping Sandisk or Samsung releases a 512gb before the next time I need to buy because the Street Guardian now supports that size.
- Street Guardian has some interesting answers in the Q&A of their Amazon listing.
- “You can request a special no card link direct from SG but not on Amazon. It’s only $5 lower than the 32GB bundle.”
- What Brand SD Card is included? “For Amazon Fulfillment stock it’s a mix of the following. 256GB Sandisk Ultra A1, Samsung EVO Select U3, and Sandisk High Endurance U3. 400GB will be discontinued soon, Sandisk Ultra A1. If you order direct Shipped by Street Guardian we have all Sandisk High Endurance U3 cards at the office for 32,64,128,256.”
- Note that EVO and Ultra lines are NOT rated for dash cams! I bought the bundled 256gb SD card and received the Sandisk High Endurance card which is GOOD. But I’m confident that if I order the 512gb bundle it will be Sandisk Ultra which would be BAD. In 2023 I still cannot find any MLC in 512gb.
Also, don’t forget to reformat your SD card every once in a while, it resets any corruption that might have happened and been undetected. It depends on how much you drive, your brand of SD card, and so on. There’s one dashcam that recommends reformatting every month. That seems crazy. You may want to google it, and decide for yourself. I aim for once a year, and that is probably fine unless you drive more than 2 hours per day. I have a friend who works at a trucking company (trucks drive all day) and he checks his fleet of cameras regularly for issues, and says they do need to be reformatted every month or there will be missing/corrupted videos.
Directly related to corruption: Most dash cams will let you set your video size, I like 3 minutes (usually the options are 1 minute, 3 minutes, or 5 minutes). The reason this matter is mainly for corruption. It basically is choosing how long the video files are that are saved on the SD card. Then, when the card is full, it will begin deleting the files. If you have a small SD card, smaller files might be better because there’s less chance the video you need will have been deleted. but on the larger cards where you might have 1-2 weeks of videos on the SD card, whether it deleted the oldest 1-minute file or 5-minute file should not matter. If you need the video, get it off in a day or few, and you’ll be fine. The main reason you want smaller files is that if one of them gets corrupted, you will not be able to play any part of it. Thus, the smaller the file the more limited the corruption. The only upside to larger files is that they are easier to watch/send. So if you need an accident recording, a 5-minute file will probably have all the action (unless you get unlucky). If you have a 3-minute file, you probably have it all in 3 minutes, but maybe not. If you have it set to 1 minute, you will probably need to send 2 or 3 depending on how much leadup/aftermath you need to show. Also, if you want to review it yourself, or send it to a friend for enjoyment or post it on youtube, 1-minute files are probably pretty annoying to deal with. I find 3 minute to be a happy medium.
So there you have it. Use a website that is dedicated to dashcams, because the conventional methods of finding good value in products don’t work. I do the same for printers by the way, but they are a little less complicated. Also, when doing it for cameras, printers, or anything else, be wary of finding websites that have generic information about products. You are looking for indications that they have the product in hand and personally tested. A lot of websites are auto-generated by AI now, and other sites are only buying guides based only on spec sheets.
If all of this was confusing, then buy THIS and THIS. Evaluate it, and come back to this article. It will probably make more sense after you have owned one for some time.
Hezekiah's Brain 