Viofo A119 (Pre-production) Samples and Thoughts

[runtohell121]

Received this A119 from @viofo to test out and to share my thoughts and videos on this dash cam.

My first impression when I received it was that the build quality was pretty good, design is similar to the A118, only slightly bigger, but seems to have improve video quality when compared to the A118.

Daytime video, as many noted, it is on the blueish side, but probably will be fix with a firmware update. It seems pretty sharp and decent exposure during daytime.

Going through tunnels and parking structures/garages, the camera seems to adjust the exposure correctly and quite visible and detail if the scenario isn't completely dark, which some dash cam might have difficulties adjusting to.

For night time video, I recently just tested it and found it to be a bit too grainy and cannot really read out any license plate when car is moving on the highway, but that might be expected for most dash cam I guess.

Images of the dash cam:
Click here to see all the images, will be updated, possibly with screenshots, etc.

 

[runtohell121]

[Reserved for Video Post]

Going through tunnel sample footage

Raw footage: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz-s6JoEX9TUejRLRG4wdlFTN1E


Comparison between A118C - A119 - Xiaomi Yi Action Cam (top right: A118C, top left: A119, bottom center: Yi Action Cam)

Night time sample footage

******UPDATE on 16/04/2016******
Comparison between Viofo A119 vs. Mini 0806. Top right video: Mini 0806 Bottom left video: A119

Daytime 1 (Highway)

Daytime 2 (Highway/Stop light)

Daytime & Garage Structure

******UPDATE on 25/04/2016******

Comparison between A119 (fw 160418) and Mini 0806

******UPDATE on 26/04/2016******
Comparison between A119 (fw 160418) and A118C; night time

******UPDATE on 28/04/2016******
Comparison between A119 (fw 160426) and A118C; left side: A118C, right side: A119
Night time

Day time

 

[runtohell121]

Updated video post with comparison of daytime footage between the A119 and Mini 0806. A119 is definitely a lot bluer than the Mini 0806, both camera set to maximum resolution.

 

[Rifleman]

Not sure about the viewing angle of the A119, just a fraction too wide for my liking, resulting in a slight fisheye effect top & bottom of picture compared with the mini806. It doesn't seem to give much advantage in extra coverage left and right though...

 

[MaXyM]

What I am missing here is built-into mounting power connector, like CDV300 has
Also looks like removal from window require to move device upward which may require some space between device and upper edge of windshield.
Regarding those issues looks like A119 is copy of A118 without attempt of making improvements in those areas.

BTW I can see no reason for such big dimensions of power button. In most uses cases the dash cam will start and shut down automatically. Big power button may results in accidental usage while using other ones.

 

[MaXyM]

I just found in another thread of this forum a photo of Viofo A119 which clearly shows this DVR recorder is equipped with power connector built into camera holder. Great one.

 

[runtohell121]

Haven't updated in a while... but here's a clip comparison of the A119 with the new firmware (160418) against the Mini 0806 during daytime.

Still to me, the A119 is bluer than most dashcam but can be improved with firmware overtime.

 

[jokiin]

Takes time to fine tune these things, the firmware development is ongoing so I'm sure they'll get it sorted in due course

 

[Mtz]

The video comparison is showing first that smaller FOV is and advantage when doing comparisons and I always was a smaller FOV fan, about 120 degrees, but unfortunately the market is asking for bigger FOV.

I just found in another thread of this forum a photo of Viofo A119 which clearly shows this DVR recorder is equipped with power connector built into camera holder. Great one.

That is the GPS mount which have Quick Connect.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[jokiin]

The video comparison is showing first that smaller FOV is and advantage when doing comparisons and I always was a smaller FOV fan, about 120 degrees, but unfortunately the market is asking for bigger FOV.

Most people seem to want very wide field of view but then get disappointed when they find out the negatives, poor depth of field, smaller focal sweet spot etc

 

[Rifleman]

Most people seem to want very wide field of view but then get disappointed when they find out the negatives, poor depth of field, smaller focal sweet spot etc

Hhmm, must say I prefer the FOV on the 806 rather than the A119 in the sample above...

 

[jokiin]

Which resolution was it shot at though? There's some different options on that model which give a wider pic that is cropped top and bottom, that's different from what you get if it's just wide versus narrow lenses where all else is equal which is what I was referring to

 

[runtohell121]

Both of the camera were shot at the max resolution setting available under settings, forgot what the resolutions was, but the video when combining them was down sampled to 1080p

 

[runtohell121]

Here's a comparison during nighttime with the A119 (fw 160418) vs the A118C. Left side: A118C; Right side: A119

 

[runtohell121]

Here's the comparison between the Viofo A119 (fw 160426) against the A118C during night and day time.
Left side: A118C
Right side: A119

Night time

Overall, it's brighter than the A118C but a lot more grainy than the A118C.

Day time

The A119 sure improved a lot from the blueish videos previously shown.

 

[fiji]

Just mount my A119 preproduction windshield mount. Firmware updated. Tomorrow I'll get my first ride with A119. I don't have another dashcam for testing comparison but I have a THL 5000 (Sony Exmor IMX 135 RS) with DailyRoads beta and I'll get some fullhd@30fps HDR 45Mbps (!) for comparison (now they use different mount / offset, so maybe I'll not upload side by side video if they are not useful).

First tips:
- 64 gb ex-fat sd card are not recognized and you can't force format (why?). I'll format them using linux, I can't format them using the dashcam
- accessing to menu is not so simple, you have to stop recording and then access to menu. User experience should be better (example: "press rec to stop recording the press menu again")
- keys are not so user friendly to use with the menu. I think in date/time settings (for day/time increment) keys are switched (maybe)
- 1080p30 should not be the default setting
- time settings should be language related. If I set italian I should not have a +8 GMT (+2 GMT is the right one)

 

[Gibson99]

- keys are not so user friendly to use with the menu. I think in date/time settings (for day/time increment) keys are switched (maybe)

i agree! every time i go to set the date (every time there's a firmware update) the buttons feel backwards to me.

- 1080p30 should not be the default setting

in the newest firmware, it's not the default anymore. now it defaults to the highest resolution setting.

- time settings should be language related. If I set italian I should not have a +8 GMT (+2 GMT is the right one)

that might work for italian, but not languages like English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and even French (France, Switzerland, Quebec) which are spoken in many different time zones.

 

[Mtz]

The best is to have GPS set to GMT time.

 

[runtohell121]

Agreed with the menu and keys, can be confusing for people that's not familiar with a dashcam, but at the same time, a production unit would have a user guide/manual to show which button does what.

 

[Mtz]

With Menu button, can be two situations
- driving, keeping your eyes on the road and want just to save some video for example and pressing by mistake a button which will stop recording and you don't want this for sure. But with A119 warning beep feature at least you will know that you pressed the wrong button and your camera is not recording anymore. What will you do if you can not park the car?
- press just the Menu button for example and you want to directly enter in camera Menu, not to stop recording first or turn on the screen. But entering in Menu is supposed when no driving so I expect you have a lot of time like 1-2 seconds to press a button twice.

My vote is for safety, not to save 1 second or 1 finger movement.

enjoy,
Mtz