I'm not sure if the Exmor is better in real situations than the Aptina sensor.
If I look for instance at the quality of the image (during daytime) of the Panorama 2, I see much pixelation where there are roads with trees. It could be the firmware that makes the difference, but I don't see an advantage of the Exmor over the Aptina sensor, that we have in our dashcam.
About nighttime video quality, I think it is also very important to have sharp images and to see the license plates as good as possible.
I made a video where you can see what I mean:
Resolution on 1080P
Reading license plates at night or day is very important.
Video above, dash camera has narrower lens angle ( this is pros and cons, depending on how you look at this ), but shows nice clear license plate number, however let's don't forget that at night reading non-white background license plates gives different result. Yellow background "absorbs" rear moving car lights. If front moving car license plates would be on the white background, the light would bounce back and reading would not be that sharp ( slightly fuzzy ). Also we don't know if car was using standard bulbs or Xenon / HID, - this also affects a lot how light bounces back from front moving car license plate.
I wrote about it here:
Reading License Plates at Night. HID / Xenon, standard bulbs
http://dashcamtalk.com/forum/index....ght-hid-xenon-standard-bulbs.1444/#post-14704
Best true way to determine what is good and what is not is to put to the test two products side by side, because in different environments results can be different.
Taiwan Vacron has strong reputation and I am sure DJ Electronics new custom ordered dash camera could bring nice surprises to the dash camera market, but it is early to say until not tested.
I wish I could test that new dash camera side by side with all other dash cameras I have in hand, so only then results can be truly comparable. Of course a lot comes to a price. Fair way to judge two products is if they are from nearby price range ( +/- 10-15 % ).
Regarding CMOS sensors Sony Exmor it is clear that its superior than AR0330 ( check table below )
Regarding some pixelaratin on day time darker areas ( trees ), I guess it's come to two factors:
1. bit-rate 12Mbps vs 15mbps on DOD LS300W.
2. Panorama2 has much wider lens view angle. For the same amount of video recording 1920 x 1080 pixels it covers much wider field of view / recording than LS300W, - thats why there are some time pixeleration on darker areas of trees. I guess for ultra wide FOV lenses best is to use Super FullHD resolution CMOS sensors, like New G6000 A7 uses ( 2304 x 1296 ).
Below is table of Sony Exmor vs Aptina AR0330 specifications.
I think most important figures here are:
1. individual pixel size,
2. dynamic range,
3. S/N signal / noice.
In all those 3 parameters Sony Exmor exceeds Aptina, but of course it is not fair to judge them, because they are from totally different price ranges.
As previously mentioned, - I think fair judgement can be done between products which has nearby price range ( +/- 10-15% )