One of the most common questions we get asked is, how long should my dash cam record, and do I need a bigger microSD card?

The number of hours a dash cam records depends on the size of the microSD card, the video resolution and the number of channels used, and how many files you have saved or locked on the SD card.

General estimates of the amount of footage a 32GB microSD card can hold for a front and rear 2-channel dash cam system:

The FineVu GX33 and FineVu GX300 come with a 32GB Samsung Pro Endurance microSD card. The Thinkware Q800PRO and the Thinkware F200 PRO come with a 32GB Thinkware microSD card.

But there are times when continuous loop recording may not function as expected:

1. The microSD is full of locked videos. When the dash cam senses an impact, like in an accident, it automatically locks the video clip to ensure it doesn’t get overwritten. You can also manually lock videos. The more locked files you have, the less space there is for new footage.
2. You have disabled continuous loop recording on the dash cam. While the exact setting varies by device, almost all dash cams will allow you to customize the loop recording setting and adjust the length of the video clips. If you have disabled the feature, the dash cam will stop recording once the microSD card detects that there isn’t enough storage space left to record a full video clip.
3. The microSD card is not installed or formatted correctly or is corrupted. In this case, you will have no choice but to replace the microSD card.

Absolutely! We get it, there will be times when you need to disable loop recording. The default normal driving recording setting of most dash cams is 30FPS, meaning every 1 second of video is made up of 30 images stitched together in sequence. There is a way to tell the dash cam to take only a couple of snapshots every second or two instead of 30 - the function is called Time Lapse Recording.

Time-lapse recording ensures the dash cam continues to capture events happening around your car, but with fewer files and only a fraction of storage space. Like normal driving snapshots, time-lapse images are also strung together to create a video that can be played back at the standard 30FPS. Of course, the more snapshots the dash cam makes, the smoother the video - that is why time-lapse videos always appear to roll faster, and often jumpier, than normal 30FPS videos.

Time-lapse mode is typically integrated with the dash cam’s parking mode function to record time-lapsed videos while your car is parked, especially if you regularly park in a busy parking lot that would constantly trigger your dash cam’s motion detectors. All the dash cams we carry at BlackboxMyCar come with Time Lapse parking mode.

FineVu’s time-lapse parking mode records five frames per second, which is significantly lower than the normal 30FPS - offering an optimized memory capacity and runtime coverage solution. While 5 FPS is among the highest in the industry (BlackVue and IROAD timelapse at 1FPS, Thinkware does theirs at 2FPS), with more snapshots per second, your FineVu time-lapsed video looks significantly less choppy and does a better job in preserving more details.  

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But that’s not the only thing that makes FineVu’s Time-Lapse mode stand out from the competition - it is smarter than the rest because it works in both parking and driving mode.

In normal driving recording mode, you can get 193 minutes of footage on a 32GB microSD card. But in Smart Time Lapse Driving mode, you can extend that coverage to 1,392 minutes (that’s almost 24 hours!) on the same 32GB microSD card.

Smart Time-Lapse automatically reduces the recording frame rate, but that doesn't mean your video resolution is scaled down, too. Your time-lapse footage is recorded at your dash cam’s default resolution. In other words, if you use the 2K QHD FineVu GX300, your time-lapse video will also be recorded in 2K QHD.

Yes, the rear dash cam also records in Smart Time Lapse mode. The FineVu GX33 and GX300 are dual-channel systems, and when in Smart Time Lapse mode, the front and rear dash cam will record simultaneously.

Time-lapses are primarily used for capturing situations that would otherwise take too long, like a 2-hour-long parking footage, or a 4-hour road trip through the mountain pass.

With FineVu’s Smart Time Lapse, you don’t have to worry about losing any details or footage:

• when your Micro SD card is of less capacity
• when you park your vehicle in a busy location with tons of traffic, like a mall parking lot.
• when driving hours at a time and want to review and save all footage at the end of your drive.
• when you have less time and want to go through an instant video playback of everything that occurred around your parked car.

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