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FREE UK delivery applies to Zone A, UK Mainland England, Wales and Southern Scotland (Central Belt of Scotland) and Excludes surcharge post codes and areas.
The smartphone app is pretty easy to use. It guides you through setting up the camera and putting it in WIFI mode to connect. You can even ‘live view’ to tweak your location when installing it.In Top Gear Magazine (yes the one that is linked to BBC's Top Gear show), they reviewed what they thought were the Top 5 budget Dash Cameras. Express delivery option to offshore, highlands and remote postcodes may take longer than the usual one working day. The surcharge may not apply to small items being sent via Royal mail or MyHermes etc... Where possible we will try our best to avoid courier service for surcharge areas. When you start the car, the dash cam automatically powers up, and there’s high-contrast night vision to keep things clear in low light. That’s amazing value, especially as the camera has the best resolution footage here at 1600P (that’s an image 1600 pixels deep – more than the 1080P commonly dubbed “HD”). The images are noticeably better than the other cameras here in the day, although the software doesn’t seem to cope quite as well at night compared to the Kenwood, Garmin and Ring. The smallest dash cams, such as the Garmin Mini 2, are about the size of a garlic bulb. They hide very well behind a rear-view mirror but, if not engineered well, can be annoying to use. A dash cam with a screen size of two to three inches will be bigger but generally easier to use (Garmin Mini 2 notwithstanding).
It’s also WIFI enabled and works with the Ring Connect App, so saving videos is far less of a faff. A full HD dash cam with a resolution of 1296p, a 130-degree field of view and 30 fps. Built-in GPS records your vehicle’s location and speed. A built-in G-sensor automatically saves the current file in the event of a crash. Ring says the camera only supports up to 64GB, which is a little small given 512GB cards aren’t too pricey these days. Of course, you can use bigger cards, but it seems it’s not ‘officially signed off’. Dash cams have become a must-have for many road users, but few are ‘smart’ in the connected sense. App-compatible cameras are usually pretty pricey, but Ring has managed to undercut the competition with the RSDC3000. Kenwood produces a wide range of dash cams, but for this test we’ve chosen one of its smallest. The DRV-A301W isn’t quite as compact as the some of the other cameras here but the trade-off is a bigger 2.7″ wide screen and footage quality which is better than the 1080P resolution would suggest. The Kenwood coped well with dark and changeable light conditions in particular.There is a tiny 2-inch screen to help you scroll through the menus and position the camera, although it is permanently switched on – unlike most rivals which have the option to switch off after a short period of time. This screen can prove distracting, especially at night in an otherwise dark car. But the constant nagging of the app, as well as the heavy data and power usage demands on your phone, soon become an annoyance if you just expect your camera to be quietly watching over you and the car. On the plus side, the footage quality is good for a 1080P camera. Mio C312 Advanced software features include GPS location recording, to precisely pinpoint the location of an incident, Lane departure warning and front collision avoidance with a distance alert system. The size means you have to do without a screen too, but there’s a WiFi link to Garmin’s app which allows you to view footage and take a live feed so the camera can be set up. If you want to access menus while on the move, the Garmin will respond to voice commands if you need to save clips or turn off the audio recording. This works well in a closed car, but we suspect it may struggle on a roadster with the roof down on a motorway.
Like the Kenwood, it has to make do with 1080p video capture, but some clever Garmin tech means it is better than average quality. Pioneer VREC-DH200 While these high-tech devices are never going to blend in totally with a classic, we selected cameras which are small and discreet enough not to be noticed at a glance. This also means they won’t take up valuable space on the windscreens of roadsters and smaller cars. There are some downsides though. While the camera itself is small, the mount is twice as long as the camera. In fact it’s so chunky we suspect some of the electronics have been hidden inside, especially as it can’t be separated from the camera. To test the cameras, we attached them to the windscreen of our test car and drove on a selection of roads in a variety of conditions. The best cameras should be able to capture detail such as numberplates in bright sunlight and at night.The footage quality is acceptable, but the steep cost of the hardwire kit – plus an SD card – means the Mio doesn’t seem like a bargain compared to the far superior DDPAI and Ring rivals. Verdict It might not be a name you’ve ever heard of, but DDPAI are big in the dash cam market globally and it’s easy to see why. The Mola is about half the size of an ice lolly and has a reasonably compact mount which makes it easy to hide on a shallow windscreen.
The RSDC4000 HD GPS & WiFi Enabled Slim Smart Dash Camera's screenless, discreet design (about the same size as a credit card) features a full HD 1440p resolution camera with an extra-wide 140° field of view and 30fps (frames per second) recording, which allows you to capture true video high-quality images (day and night) from in front of your vehicle. Additional support for the Ring Rearview camera allows simultaneous recording from the front and rear to give all-around protection.
It also has a magnetic attachment, making it simple to remove if you want to keep it safe while your roof is off, or the car is in long-term storage. The Ring comes in a close second, and would be our first choice if you prefer to have a screen to play with the menus. The Kenwood feels like a quality product and delivers consistently good quality footage too. This means the Pioneer will dangle down on a smaller windscreen and looks ungainly. We were also unimpressed with the quality of the footage and noted that the files are recorded in a format which needs converting to view with some computers. Add in the hefty price of the camera and hard wiring and the Pioneer can only manage a mid-range score. Scosche Nexar Smart Dash Cam Dash cams that have apps need to be considered carefully. An app can be very useful for accessing footage and other things but are only useful if they work properly. The best dash cam apps come from Garmin, Nextbase, Ring Automotive, and a small collection of other brands that have properly developed them. Looking head on, it’s no bigger than the average business card and the mount is compact too, meaning it will fit discreetly behind most rear-view mirrors. Despite the size, it has a screen which makes navigating menus and aiming the lens easy.
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