Tag Archives: Dashcam

2025, Dashcam

The Value of Dashcams: Protecting Yourself on the Road

February 16, 2025 Matt Porter Leave a comment

In today’s fast-paced motoring world, staying safe on the road is more important than ever. With accidents, fraudulent claims, and road rage incidents on the rise, a small but powerful gadget can make all the difference – the dashcam. Breakdown organisation GEM Motoring Assist has highlighted the increasing value of dashcams in ensuring safer roads and providing crucial evidence in case of incidents.

Why Invest in a Dashcam?

A dashcam is a small camera that mounts inside your vehicle to record the road ahead. Some models also include a rear-facing camera for full coverage. Dashcams have become significantly more affordable, with prices starting from as little as £20. This makes them an accessible tool for drivers looking to protect themselves from false claims, ‘crash-for-cash’ scams, and dangerous drivers.

James Luckhurst, GEM’s Head of Road Safety, emphasises the benefits: “If you’re a safe, conscientious driver, a dashcam helps protect your no-claims bonus, as well as allowing you to play your part in reporting offences, road rage incidents, and scams.”

Key Benefits of Using a Dashcam

Evidence in Case of Accidents: A dashcam provides clear footage that can help prove fault in an accident, protecting you against fraudulent claims.
Lower Insurance Premiums: Many insurers offer discounts to drivers who use dashcams, potentially reducing costs by up to 20%.
Theft and Vandalism Deterrent: Parking mode enables dashcams to record even when the vehicle is stationary, discouraging theft and vandalism.
Improved Driving Habits: New drivers can review footage to assess and enhance their driving skills.
Capturing Unexpected Moments: From close calls to beautiful scenic drives, your dashcam can record experiences worth sharing.

What to Look for in a Dashcam

If you’re considering purchasing a dashcam, here are some essential features to consider:

Video Quality: A minimum of 1080p resolution is recommended, with good low-light performance for night driving.
Wide-Angle Lens: A wider field of view ensures more road coverage.
GPS Functionality: Helps track speed and location, adding valuable data to recordings.
Loop Recording: Ensures continuous recording by overwriting old footage when the memory fills up.
Parking Mode: Offers surveillance when the car is parked, providing extra security.

The Legal Side of Dashcams

Dashcams are completely legal to use on UK roads, provided they do not obstruct the driver’s view. While they can be valuable in protecting you, it’s worth noting that dashcam footage can also be used against you in legal proceedings. If you’re at fault in an accident, your own dashcam could provide evidence to support a claim against you.

Additionally, if you submit footage of an offence to the police, you must be prepared to provide a statement and attend court if necessary. However, GEM notes that fewer than 2% of cases progress to a full trial.

How Dashcams Affect Insurance

A growing number of UK insurance providers recognise the benefits of dashcams and offer discounts to drivers who use them. Discounts typically range from 5% to 20%, depending on the insurer. The rationale is simple: dashcam users tend to be safer drivers, reducing the likelihood of accidents and fraudulent claims.

Final Thoughts

With the price of dashcams dropping and their benefits increasing, now is an excellent time to invest in one. As James Luckhurst concludes: “Fitting a dashcam is a sound move for road safety. Once installed, it’s good to know it can protect you in incidents where it might otherwise be your word against someone else’s.”

That said, a dashcam should complement—not replace—safe and courteous driving. By maintaining care, courtesy, and concentration on the road, we can all contribute to making UK roads safer for everyone.

For a more in-depth guide to fitting and using a dashcam, check out the Spring 2025 edition of GEM’s Good Motoring magazine.

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NextBase 422GW Dash Cam with Emergency Service Notification and Alexa

January 30, 2020 Matt Porter Leave a comment

Dash Cams have become a hugely popular and important piece of in-car technology. Not only do they act as an independent witness in court by recording everything that happens both in front of your car as well as behind (if you have a rear-view camera), in fact, Tesla has recently updated their vehicles to support ‘Sentry’ mode to monitor all around the car using their multiple cameras.

The increase in Dash Cam use has by recognised by insurance companies and police as an extremely helpful accessory in the event of both accidents and other investigations where individuals have gone missing and have been picked up on dashcam.

In the UK, the law states that a Dash Cam must NOT distract the driver or obscure the view of the road. If you decide to share the footage, faces and number plates should be blurred and unrecognisable. so bear this in mind if you decide to upload some footage to Facebook or YouTube.

NextBase 422GW with the rear camera module.

I have spent the last couple of weeks reviewing the NextBase 422GW a dashcam bursting with so many features, it would be impossible to list everything here!

Out of the boxes, the main dashcam and the additional rear camera module are both solidly built devices with a comforting amount of weight about them that feels durable. I also had a NextBase MicroSD card to store my footage. You also receive a very long power cable with 12v connector and the option of using either suction or sticky mount to affix the camera to your windscreen.

The 422GW’s features rely heavily on the use of an iOS or Android App which connects over both Bluetooth for general communication and WiFi for downloading videos to your device. It also supports Alexa and Handsfree calling which was quite useful as it allows voice instructions to download the recorded video to your mobile device (if that’s your thing!). You can also enter emergency information into the app which allows the device to automatically contact the emergency services if it detects an accident. Don’t worry, it won’t do this immediately, you do get to intervene before Police or Ambulances are summoned.

The most obvious feature of a dashcam is the quality of the video that it takes. The 422GW packs a F1.3 sensor recording at 1440p at 30 FPS or 1080p at 60 FPS. The quality of the video is excellent even in low light and darkness, I was seriously impressed. If you (like I did) installed the additional rear camera, the unit records both videos at the same time and you can set the rear camera to either record inside the cockpit or the rear window. I was unsure how this would turn out, but again I was really impressed with the results.

If you are looking for a dashcam with Crash Protection, Emergency Service Alert, Auto-Sync, Intelligent Parking Monitoring, Alexa and the tool for installing the cable in your vehicle, you won’t go far wrong with this device! At £129 it’s great value too.

Matt Porter
www.thegadgetman.org.uk

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Gadget Man – Episode 153 – Talking about Dashcams

Audio December 12, 2019 Matt Porter Leave a comment

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This morning I spoke to James Hazell on BBC Radio Suffolk about the benefits of Dash Cams in cars.

During the interview, we discussed both the negatives and positives of these devices and how they can be used as an Independent Witness of an accident or other car-related crime.

I’ve been reviewing the Nextbase 422GW Dash Cam over the past two weeks, which will be published soon.

In the meantime, listen into the stream via my podcast link above or by playing the embedded video below.

Enjoy this episode and see you next time!!

Matt

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The Gadget Man – Episode 117 – The benefits of Dashcams

Audio October 27, 2018 Matt Porter Leave a comment

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Dashcams have officially become commonplace in society. As more and more drivers use our roads, the chances of accidents increase and being able to accurately document such unfortunate incidents has become more important than ever, especially with the rise in fraudulent claims.

I spoke to Mark Murphy on BBC Radio Suffolk about the use of dashcams and also helmet cams for cyclists and my personal recollections of having to use video evidence to report a motorist.

Image Credit: SWNS

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Gadget Man – Review – Transcend DrivePro 550 – Driver and Passenger Safety, both inside and out

October 27, 2018 Matt Porter Leave a comment

I’ve been doing a lot of driving over the past few weeks and consequently, I’ve had the chance to test a few different gadgets that help to keep us safe and use a variety of different methods to track the driving habits of both ourselves and others. This month’s review is the Transcend DrivePro 550 dashcam, a camera that not only films ahead of your vehicle, but also features a 180° rotatable second camera to capture the interior of a vehicle and provides protection for both driver and passengers.

As with other Transcend cameras, the DrivePro 550 was exceedingly easy to install. The camera comes with a powerful suction mount and a very long Micro USB power cable with built-in 12v plug allowing for permanent installation in most vehicles. A 32gb MicroSD card is also supplied in the packaged, which gives hours of video footage capture.

The front-facing camera features a Sony 1080p image sensor with a wide angle lens recording at 30fps. The second rotatable camera is packed with four infrared LED’s which automatically trigger in low light or night. Both give extremely good results with the second camera recording 720p video. The dashcam recording 2 separate videos concurrently, timestamping them and adding geo-tagging information using both GPS and GLONASS satellite tracking which gives very accurate positioning information.

The front facing camera using special Wide Dynamic Range technology, which equalises both dark and light areas of the video to ensure that bright skies are not blown out and darker parts easy to recognise. The results were excellent!

Aside from simply recording video footage, the DrivePro 550 also features a WiFi mode which allows you to connect to the camera using your smartphone or tablet via Transcends own app. You can then video live footage on a larger screen or access the video files already recorded and transfer them to your device. I noted that I could only display either front or rear facing cameras, not both at the same time using the app. I could, however, see both on the rear built-in 2.4” colour TFT screen.

The camera comes with a built-in battery which ensures continued video recording in event of an accident or in ‘parking mode’. The camera can detect accidents and record the video in ‘emergency mode’, making it much more difficult to delete. Parking mode can be used to detect movement in the field of view of the camera and begin recording whilst you are away from the car.

Other useful settings are ‘lane departure’ warning, forward collision warning (when you get too close to the car in front), a heads-up display for current speed, headlight warning and driver fatigue reminders.

What sets this camera apart from standard dashcams is the interior facing camera, a feature which would appeal to delivery companies, transport providers, taxi and chauffeur companies. It allows for the recording of driver behaviour to ensure appropriate behaviour and both driver and passenger safety, I thought it was a great feature and the addition of infrared cameras makes it superb for night driving.

The camera is priced reasonably at around £140 and can be ordered from Amazon using this link: https://amzn.to/2S829d8

Matt Porter
The Gadget Man

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Transcend DrivePro 230 – A superior dash-cam packed with features #gadgetroadtrip

January 20, 2018 Matt Porter Leave a comment

It’s been a while since Paul and I ventured to Scotland and back in the Tesla Model S on our East West Road Trip. During the trip we had the opportunity to test lots of technology.

Transcend DrivePro 230 - A superior dash-cam packed with features #gadgetroadtrip — The Transcend DrivePro 230 was welcome addition on The East to West Road Trip last year.

It was particularly comforting to have the Drive Pro 230 in car camera along for the trip, providing us with the added comfort that should anything unpleasant happen during our 1200 mile trip, we would have full audio-video documentation to refer to.

Dash-cam’s have become an essential gadget for drivers over the last few years, providing evidence in road traffic accidents and thus being referred as an IEW or Independent Eye Witness by the Police, but also by providing additional features to make the drivers experience safer and legal.

The Transcend DrivePro 230 is as feature packed as any Dash-cam currently available currently. Aside from packing at Sony Exmor™ image sensor to capture 1920×1080 video at 30FPS which offers excellent lowlight video capture with the able assistance of the F/2.0 wide angle lens.

Attaching the camera to your windscreen using either suction or adhesive mounts. The camera also packs a GPS receiver and synchronises your geographical position to the video using Transcends PC, Mac and Phone Apps.

On the rear of the camera is a 2.4″ colour LCD screen and remote display is also possible via Wi-Fi to phone app. Obviously, this is targeted for use by passengers of the car.

The package comes with a very long MicroUSB to 12v car power adapter which charges the camera whilst driving and with the on-board battery, it can be configured to continue to monitor the car in ‘Parking Mode’. silently monitoring it’s field of view for movement and then recording this movement for later review.

Transcend DrivePro 230 with included 16GB MicroSD card

Aside from the ‘quick record’ button, the camera also packs an emergency recording feature which also prevents overwriting of recorded video when the included 16GB MicroSD card fills up. In normal mode the camera records in chunks of video and gradually overwrites the oldest video files enabling continuous recording for as long as your journey takes.

Other safety features included are Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS), Forward Collision Warning System (FCWS), driver fatigue alert and headlight warning system (when light conditions begin fail.

The camera also comes with speed warning settings which will audibly warn you when you exceed the set speed limits set within the camera.

This type of device demands simplicity of use, and the DrivePro 230 excels in this area. It simply is a ‘plug-in and go’ solution which aside from the obvious safety and legal comforts provides a vast amount of other features which make driving that little bit less stressful.

At around £136, the Transcend DrivePro 230 is excellent value for money, with a high quality device providing excellent video quality with an enormous amount of added features.

For more tech news, reviews and comment visit www.thegadgetman.org.uk

Matt Porter
The Gadget Man

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Tag Archives: Dashcam