STACK #222 April 2023

DO I NEED A DASH CAM? continued

TECH FEATURE

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Get an eye on your drive Like any job, when it comes to watching the road, you need the right tools for the job.

One of the most reputable brands in this space, Navman’s latest addition to its selection of dash cams is the MiVue ALTA range. The ALTA DC dual camera kit will capture front and rear recordings. Here are five things we love about it. Unlike some dash cams on the market, the ALTA has been designed and stringently tested to withstand any weather conditions Australia can throw at it. And we all know what the heat is capable of. It has to be one of the best-looking dash cams available. Rather than the traditional square or rectangle shape, the ALTA doesn’t have a screen, so it’s slim and discreet, taking up little real estate. It looks like it was factory fitted. The ALTA links directly via Wi-Fi to a smartphone app so users can view, download

Finally, even when you’re not in the car, it's protected. The ALTA has built-in motion and shock detection technology, so the event will be captured if the car is struck. The parking mode will also trigger if

motion is detected in front of the car. A separately sold Smart Box that connects directly to the car battery is required for these modes to be used.

and share footage immediately if an incident occurs. It is GPS-tagged and will capture the speed and direction of impact. The footage is also recorded on an SD card. Recording is captured in Full HD 1080p, and the vision is optimised for both day and night so details such as number plates and street signs can be caught. The front camera records at 60 frames per second (fps), and the rear camera at 30 fps.

An eye on the weather Dash cams are available for all budgets and can be sourced worldwide. However, it’s crucial that the model you do buy is suitable for Australia’s extreme temperatures and has been tested appropriately for those conditions.

Your vehicle is protected 24 hours a day in Park Mode

Top five tips for using a dash cam 1. Clean your windscreen. There’s no point in installing an excellent, high-resolution dash cam if the windscreen is covered in bird poop. 2. Be mindful of where you mount the dash cam. The idea is not to impede your vision. 3 . Take time to align the camera to ensure you’re capturing events ahead of you on the road and not the car's bonnet. 4. Aim to get the largest, best-quality microSD card that your budget will allow. And make sure that you buy the right one for your dash cam! 5. Testing that your dash cam regularly records footage is important. If there’s an incident on the road or an event you want to capture, you want to make sure that the camera is recording.

Kapture KPT-592 Front and Rear Dash Cam A budget-friendly dash cam with plenty of features. This is what we like. Both front and rear cameras will capture detailed footage in Full HD 1080p at 30fps. The KPT-592 features a large 3.2” IPS screen for excellent resolution. Recorded footage can be viewed immediately. This footage is GPS-tracked, with details such as location and speed retained. Never miss an event with continuous loop recording. Once the SD card is full (the KPT-592 can be fitted with up to a 32GB Micro SD card), the dash cam records over the existing footage, and the process starts again. The G-Sensor is a clever bit of tech that senses actions such as acceleration, braking, and impact. This footage is automatically saved and protected so it cannot be accidentally recorded over. Your vehicle is protected 24 hours a day in Park Mode. If activity is detected while the car is parked, the dash cam will automatically record 60 seconds of footage.

44 APRIL 2023

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