The truth is dash cams are an ingenious invention. God forbid to find yourself in a traffic accident or someone hit your car in the parking lot while you aren’t there; the recording is the only proof of what really happened. So now that we established that dash cams aren’t a luxury, you might be wondering which resolution and frame rate to go for.
We have 30 fps and 60 fps dash cams, and the first option is by far the most popular and commonly recommended. But is 30fps good for dash cam? It depends on many factors. Keep reading as I will discuss all the details of the dash cam 30 fps rate and everything you might be interested in.
Is 30fps Good for Dash Cam?
Yes, it is. It can be worth the money as it carries a few advantages that you may find practical, like better low-light images, taking less memory space, and having no problem with uploading the videos online or transferring to other devices.
Overall, a 30fps dash cam is a good option as it allows you a decent view of what’s happening inside and outside your vehicle. However, it’s less precise regarding fast speed motion and image quality as it cannot record as many frames per second as the 60fps one.
Positive sides of using a 30fps dash cam
Better image quality in low-light conditions
If we compare 30fps and 60fps in daylight, typically, there isn’t much difference; however, speaking about low light conditions, this is where the 30fps rate has a slight edge over 60fps. This is because the 30fps is much less affected by the low light conditions resulting in twice brighter images and a higher quality video.
Also, adding HDR to the 30fps will bring you much sharper images at night as it can absorb more light by the lens. This option can help you read license plates that are far away when you zoom in.
Some dash cams have an automatic feature that switches the fps rate to darker scenery conditions.
Parking mode use
Longtime dash cam users value Parking mode over video quality because of the excellent parking mode, which is far superior to lackluster and gives you a maximum chance to capture the action and the plate and see the face of the offender.
If we compare both 30fps and 60fps dash cams, there isn’t much of a significant difference when capturing steady scenes since things are very slow. In this case, the 30fps one will be useful enough to see particular details when you zoom in.
Read more: How Accurate Is Dash Cam Speed?
Storage space
When you are picking the dashcam rate, you must take into consideration the memory card capacity. One of the most advantageous aspects of choosing a 30fps dash cam is that the footage takes less storage space on your memory card compared to 60fps, the higher-rate dash cam. This is another reason why is 30fps good for dash cam.
Using the 30fps dash cam for one hour uses approximately 6GB, so if you drive for two hours a day five times a week, you would need about 60GB of storage of a 64GB card. So if you want to accommodate a 60fps rate footage regularly, you’ll need to get a much larger memory card.
Footage format support
Regarding the video format, you must be aware that only some computers can play 4K video footage. So, if your computer doesn’t support this resolution, there is no point in investing in a 4K dash cam.
Also, uploading the recording on the internet will be a problem as many platforms don’t support this video resolution. While you can still use a video conversion, there is always a potential that it will lose quality.
This isn’t a common problem with 2K footage, as most devices can play this resolution; it’s much easier to transfer it to other devices and upload it online.
Negative sides of 30fps dash cam
Choppy footage and gaps between image stills
The most significant advantage of higher fps is better quality graphics, especially regarding details. With the higher rate, you’ll be able to rewatch accidents with a much smoother playback as it captures more image stills of fast-moving objects through each second.
With 30 fps, the footage would be much choppier and have bigger gaps between image stills compared to the 60fps because it captures fewer image stills resulting in fewer frames.
Slower shutter speed than 60fps
Capturing videos with a lot of movement at a 30fps rate will cause losing clarity. One exception is in case there is little light, and I will discuss this aspect next.
This is because the 30fps can shoot with a shutter speed of about 1/30th of a second or 1/5000th of a second. The dash cam at 60fps uses a faster shooter than 30fps without impacting the details that aren’t visible to the naked eye.
Also read: Do You Need Cloud Storage For Dash Cam?
Hard to identify specific details
One of the most significant compromises when it comes to choosing lower resolution is not being able to identify specific details, like a license plate, especially when you try to watch in slow motion.
With 60fps, you can get a much sharper image when you zoom in on an object in the video, which is hardly possible with 30fps. With the lower resolution, you will get little insight into specific movements in case of an incident.