Review: Dome D201 Ambarella A12 2560x1440p HDR GPS Dashcam (Gearbest.com)

I dont want to creat a new tipic, so ill ask it here.
Why they dont create capacitor version dvr with ambarella chip?
Im living in hot weather country,so its stupid to buy dvr with battary.
 
I dont want to creat a new tipic, so ill ask it here.
Why they dont create capacitor version dvr with ambarella chip?
Im living in hot weather country,so its stupid to buy dvr with battary.
Lukas has one with ambarella and capacitor.
 
Im talking about chinese low cost cameras, max120$.
 
There is no dome camera with capacitor, ive just asked why they dont do one with it.
 
There is no dome camera with capacitor, ive just asked why they dont do one with it.

Involves about 1 weeks worth of extra work and that's not worth it to them. Money makes the world go round.
 
Dome D201 is better than MG380G for night video?
 
Night (Low Light) Screenshots with high/low beam test:
Night video is pretty good. 100% screenshots have grains in line with Ambarella based dashcams.
Lighted areas maybe as good as you can see with eyes.
Night videos have natural colors, no yellow tone like some other Ambarella based dashcams.

These are full size pictures (width="2560" height="1440") hosted outside DCT due to size limitations.
Click on images to view full size.

Evening rush hour:
22746400221_49801d1bf5_o.jpg


Night:
22114069793_9a2072d9cd_o.jpg

22721639302_06230f2c63_o.jpg

22721638842_4e51e818e1_o.jpg

22547296460_552bf7d937_o.jpg

22114074833_d1ac09bf42_o.jpg

22735204005_b3c30a6196_o.jpg

22746403561_dabe715116_o.jpg


Low beam:
22112439694_7bc503108a_o.jpg


High beam:
22746402751_7679a016c5_o.jpg



Low beam:
22112439074_563af46e0c_o.jpg


High beam:
22709184006_cf19762763_o.jpg


Dome D201 is better than MG380G for night video?
Night screenshots posted. Will add night videos soon.
 
Last edited:
Night videos with high/low beam:
Night video is very good. Lighted areas maybe as good as you can see with eyes.
Night videos have natural colors, no yellow tone like some other Ambarella based dashcams.
1. Highway traffic:

2. Side streets: Stopped at intersection and it's almost as good as I can see.

3. Residential area: High/Low beam @ 00:35, 00:57, 1:39, 1:49, 2:30 and 2:49.
Last minute goes through neighborhood and very good visibility of fallen leaves.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for the screens and the videos! Plate recognition is better with HDR on or off? In all your videos the screen are taken at low speed. Any screen at higher speed?
 
Thank you for the screens and the videos! Plate recognition is better with HDR on or off? In all your videos the screen are taken at low speed. Any screen at higher speed?
I think the above videos are all Non-HDR.
I'll take some HDR videos soon.
I don't expect too much in license plate reading whether HDR or not but HDR should make overall video brighter and more objects visible.
 
Yeah as soon as the speed go up at night the chance of beeing able to read plates or for that matter signs rushing buy will go "bye-bye"
Thats just what we have to live with in current generation dashcams.
This issue actually allready start on cloudy days, or even on a sunny day but where you drive in the shade between trees where there is little bright sky in the footage.

But thank god capturing licenceplates is not the most important function of a dashcam, to me it is just a performance parameter.
Hit and run are still very low here, but it is on the incline.

Bettering low light performance is where dashcam makers should focus ther attention i think.
 
A night I had a car smash at very high speed on a highway. The other car (the one that caused the smash) ran away. I hadn't a dashcam. I would like to buy one so next time ... But without plate recognition it's useless.

At high speed do you think 2560*1440@30 (HDR ON) is better than 1920*1080@60 (HDR OFF)? Because this dashcam also support 60 fps at fullhd without HDR. It's better more pixels or more frames at high speed? And does HDR matter for plate recognition?
 
Last edited:
A night I had a car smash at very high speed on a highway. The other car (the one that caused the smash) ran away. I hadn't a dashcam. I would like to buy one so next time ... But without plate recognition it's useless.

At high speed do you think 2560*1440@30 (HDR ON) is better than 1920*1080@60 (HDR OFF)? Because this dashcam also support 60 fps at fullhd without HDR. It's better more pixels or more frames at high speed? And does HDR matter for plate recognition?
No.
Unless you're right behind or at slow speed, low light and motion blur combination won't let reading any license plate regardless 1440p or 1080p.


I have some 1440p HDR night videos.
I'll upload soon.
 
A chance of actually beeing able to read licenceplates at night and on the move at a reasonable speed is years out in the future.
But the worst part is you can get awsome color night cameras allready, they just need a little moon light to make allmost daytime looking footage.

There is a lot of problems to solve even if your camera see good in the dark, as you can see when the camera pass the truck in this nighttime footage ( moon only )

 
HDR @ 1440p Night Screenshots:
There are few screenshots that I posted above in NON HDR mode so you can compare as well as with other dashcams as few screenshots will match for most of the dashcams I reviewed.

22148103353_035e2eaf58_o.jpg


22743220726_220f927cc8_o.jpg


22743219156_9b76b2df5f_o.jpg


22148100073_53ea2efd06_o.jpg


Low beam, parked:
22146453924_6451ae9831_o.jpg

High beam, parked:
22743215046_87e3f88500_o.jpg


22581253630_93a0445742_o.jpg


Low beam, driving:
22769196055_c13279f099_o.jpg

High beam, driving:
22769196895_eb751f5376_o.jpg


Low beam, stopped:
22743208436_f61b191a4f_o.jpg

High beam, stopped:
22743209526_b934e660a5_o.jpg


Low beam, driving:
22743207696_499829842a_o.jpg

High beam, driving:
22769192075_7d5c8dbd02_o.jpg


22743206736_4e584910fc_o.jpg


22780414091_735fd6eba3_o.jpg
 
HDR @ 1440p Night Videos:
From residential area to strip mall: On battery power.

Strip mall to residential area: On battery power. Battery lasted almost 8 minutes.

Residential area to neighborhood with high/low beam:

Night videos are very good. Great resolution, color and visibility.
Easy to see objects and people walking.
 
dab201screen.jpg

Night video are good but at 57 Km/h 2560x1440 HDR ON the plate of a parked car on the right is still not visible. I understand this is the state of art for all dashcams, but this is very sad ...
Speed cams are more effective than best dashcams ...
 
Yeah but the prize is allso somthing else, and i do belive speed cams ( stationary or mobile like we use here ) are all assisted by active light.
And they just snap a single photo.

I myself have also argued / asked for a dashcam that might go into B&W mode at night, if thats what it take to have a larger chance of capturing a licenceplate i am okay with that.

It is possible to make 10X more light sensetive cmos chips allready now, a year ago some professor demonstrated that you just need to change a fjew cemicals in the regular process of making a cmos and hey presto you have much more light sensetive chips.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...ight-could-enable-ultra-low-light-photography

To capture a crisp sharp image of somthing moving at normal car speeds i think the slowest exposure time you can use with a good result is 1:500 second, but dashcams drop all the way down to 1:30 second just to be able to see what we can see now in ther footage.

The video i posted up above you can allso see the camera use a very high ISO setting, and it allso use a pretty slow exposure time, but its leaps better then what we see in current dashcams in regard to night performance.
 
Back
Top