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[#1]

Have you been in your car and wanted to take a video of something before it happened, or without you being there? I’m hoping by now you are curious and asking yourself, “How do you capture video without being there, or record before an event happens?” Simply put, get yourself a dash camera to capture moments that occur when you are not around and for times when seconds matter making a picture impossible to take.

When people come into Best Buy and see the display of the dash cameras, the first question that they ask me is, “Autotech, why would I need to record when I am driving? What is the point of recording my average drive to work, home, or activities throughout my day in the car?”

My answer to that is to provide you with a few interesting questions that might intrigue you enough to think that a dash camera isn’t just there to record your average “boring” drive, but that they are also there to promote safer driving awareness and much more.

Have you ever:

• Drifted into another lane without realizing it or witnessed another person drifting?
• Almost hit another car that came to an abrupt stop?
• Been in an accident and were blamed for going too fast, but were not?
• Got into a fender bender that was completely another person’s fault?
• Driven past a stop light camera, or speed camera without realizing it?
• Wanted to watch your car being driven by your child, grandparent, etc.
• Been a victim of burglary while away from your car?
• Want to record an incident 10 seconds before it happened?
• Wanted to record anything cool or interesting that you saw to show others?

These are just a few of the many great options that you can get with dash cameras. I’m going to go a little more in depth to give you a better understanding of how great these devices can be while also promoting safer driving conditions for everyone who owns one! I will mostly be talking about the Thinkware F750 since it is the dash camera that we offer in our stores that has the most options currently.

While driving the Thinkware F750 can help overcome many obstacles in your daily commute, while aiding in getting you there safely and recording whatever ends up in your path. When you are driving there are times where you are either getting drowsy, reaching for something across the car, or distracted, that can cause you to start to drift into another lane. The “lane departure” feature will notify you that you are drifting out of your lane and possibly into another car. The camera will also notify you if you are approaching a car too quickly that has changed speeds or has come to an abrupt stop.

With its continuous loop recording feature, it will save one minute videos for later viewing. If an “event” occurs it will save them under a different file name than the other normal recordings, and include 10 seconds of video before the event happened. This makes it easy to find that recording on a computing device when you need to locate it later, and capture the details that led up to the "event."

Another great feature is the red light camera, and speed camera detection.  These are features that can be simply updated from your computer to stay current, and they let you know when you might accidently drive past a red light or through a speed camera.

When parked and you have personal belongings that are very important to you in the vehicle, why not protect them as best as possible? The Thinkware F750 and the additional hardwiring cable should give you added peace of mind with its scrolling LED’s on the front of the camera to warn potential bad guys to stay away from the vehicle, similar to a security system. It hasshock and motion detection sensors that will record 10 seconds before the incident and continue if the incident is still occurring. You can also capture all angles of your vehicle with the rear view camera (sold separately); this add-on camera works while driving as well!

This dash camera also offers GPS and Wi-Fi capabilities with a great application that works for Macs, and PC’s. You can now stream live views of your camera, check on where your car visited, and also see what kind of speeds, or events happened along the way from a mobile or computer device. This will come in handy for me when my daughter grows up and wants to take my car out for a drive!

With this camera, Thinkware has truly thought about every possible scenario to give you the safest driving experiences as well as when you are parked.  I hope that this information has shown how these cameras are really creating safer roadways for our vehicles and our love ones.

So now all you have to do is ask yourself, “Why wouldn’t I want a dash camera to record my "boring" drive to work?” 

[#2]

I have the Garmin Dashcam 20... thoughts....

• cameras are expensive.... avoiding court costs offers significant savings after your first accident to settle disputes
• suction cups are great if you own more than one car... but the suction cup can detach over time.
• some cameras can record audio, others can't.   Audio recording may creep out your passengers.
• GPS can show your car speed to prove you were not speeding
• do you have a garage door opener?  dashcams can reveal where you live, making it easier for that criminal to find your home on playback and use that garage door opener for a secondary break-in.
• how much is that camera?  Is it an invitation for a broken window in a process of a theft?
• look at the size of the dashcam.... does it create a blindspot on your windshield?
• some dashcams are dual channel.... it has the ability to record both front and back.... it can prove you have a tailgater caused the accident.
• most cameras stop recording when the ignition is turned off.  Some have an extended battery to record several hours after you leave your car.... great for catching vandalism