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As you likely know, having a dash cam in your vehicle is a great idea. It can help protect you in a variety of situations, including accidents, insurance fraud scams, traffic tickets, and more. Most dash cams do not have internal storage, and instead use a purchased-separately SD card. We put together a guide to help you find the best SD card for dash cam use in 2019 – find out more below.
Table of Contents
How Big of a SD Card Do I Need for My Dash Cam?
This is a common question, but the answer varies depending on what you use your dash cam for. If it’s just for daily driving as a commuter, a 32gb card will be sufficient. A 32gb card will record 3-4 hours at 1080P, and all good dash cams have a looping feature that automatically deletes older footage to make room for new video.
If you’re a professional driver such as a trucker (check our best dash cam for truckers article), Uber/Lyft driver (see our separated reviews for top Uber dash cam, and also the best Lyft dash cameras), etc. then you should go with at least a 64gb card, maybe even a 128gb card. The larger storage capacity will allow you to save more footage to protect yourself in the event that something happens. Also, larger cards have a longer lifespan, so if you can afford the extra money, it’s likely worth it to upgrade to a bigger card. Lastly, keep in mind that if you have a dual-channel dash camera that records both front and rear facing footage, you will need twice the storage space to record the same length of footage. Keep in mind that the capacitor dash cams have a longer-lasting running time(also they are heat resistive dash cams) when searching the best dash cam overall to suits Your SD card (if You already have one).
Be sure to check the max storage capacity supported by your dash cam before making a purchase.
Should I Go with Standard SD or MicroSD?
While there typically is not much of a difference in functionality between these two classes, we recommend getting a MicroSD card. The main reason we recommend MicroSD over standard SD is that MicroSD cards are more versatile, so you can use them in other devices as needed. Most MicroSD cards come with adapters that allow them to be used in full-size SD slots, anyways.
What’s the Best SD Card for Dash Cam Use?
Choosing a memory card for dash cam use should involve the consideration of a number of factors including price, brand reliability, and storage size. We’ve used a combination of our own experience, customer reviews(even the Reddit community top dash cam was taken into consideration) and manufacturer specs to choose what in our opinion is the best SD card for dash cams. Enjoy!
1. Transcend High Endurance MicroSDAvailable in 16, 32 and 64gb sizes
MicroSD card with included SD adapter
Specially developed for high-endurance activities and applications (good with 4k dashboard cameras)
If you choose to get a different card than is recommended here, that’s fine – but there are a couple brands it’s best to avoid. Some dash cam manufacturers recommend avoiding SanDisk Ultra and Samsung-branded cards, because of compatibility issues with many dash cam models. Beyond that, it’s a good idea to check the specs of your dash cam to see if the manufacturer recommends a specific type of card, or a specific brand. And again, make sure to double check the maximum storage size supported by your dash cam.
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