Things to consider…

A few advanced features to look out for

1 Companion apps

The iOS and Mac apps vary in quality, but they all enable you to perform the crucial task of getting the footage you need off the camera. Most enable you to select a segment of footage and download it to your iOS device.

2 Forward collision warning

Some of the cameras, such as those from Garmin and the RAC, feature forward collision detection. This will warn you if you’re too close to the car in front. It’s not designed to be relied upon, but it’s a nice feature to have.

3 Speed camera info

Another extra on some of the cameras, such as the ones from Snooper and Garmin, is warnings about red lights and speed cameras. The speed cameras warn you depending on your GPS location. The Snooper DVR-4HD even warns you if there might be a temporary speed camera present.

4 Lane diversion warnings

These are available on the RAC and Snooper cameras to tell you if you move out of position on the road. Again, you should use them as a backup – one recent car we tested had it and it was so annoying that we had to disable it completely.

5 Video quality

All of the front-facing cameras here shoot at Full HD (1080p) except the one from the RAC, which has an even higher resolution. Beware of cheap cameras shooting at much lower resolutions, as often they aren’t good enough to read number plates.