Viofo A129 Plus, Viofo A139, BlueSkySea B4K, Viofo A129 Pro Duo 4K

[Paul Iddon]

Here is a short "comparison" clip showing the four cameras looking forwards in my car. From top left to right, the Viofo 129 Plus (1440p) - the Viofo A139 (1440p) - then the lower two are the BlueSkySea B4K (2160p) and the Viofo A129 Pro Duo (2160p). The clip is rendered at 4K, though Youtube will compress the quality so there is a link to the RAW file if you want to download it. You can pause it on number plate points etc to check sharpness, and watch the exposure changes and how each reacts to the light conditions.

RAW File link: MEGA

Youtube will be compressing for a while so wait for the 4K to be accessible:

 

[Vortex Radar]

Thanks for this comparison compilation!

What are your overall impressions, especially between the B4K and A129 Pro? It's a little hard to tell from the reduced sized videos.

 

[Nigel]

Thanks for this comparison compilation!

What are your overall impressions, especially between the B4K and A129 Pro? It's a little hard to tell from the reduced sized videos.

If you want to make movies then definitely choose the A129 Pro, the image is a lot more realistic/refined than the B4K, note that the A129 Pro is the only one to do a decent job of the clouds in the above video, but as a dashcam the B4K image is pretty good, really only let down by extra motion blur in lower light levels. It gives a rather cleaner/less noisy image, partly less noise from the sensor and partly lower bitrate compressing the noise into invisibility. Under trees the lower bitrate can have a significant effect on image quality compared with the A129 Pro.

The B4K is missing some of the features that the A129 has, such as various parking modes, also has a less stable mount, but as a cheaper 4K camera it is very good. A case of you get what you pay for.

 

[Vortex Radar]

If you want to make movies then definitely choose the A129 Pro, the image is a lot more realistic/refined than the B4K, note that the A129 Pro is the only one to do a decent job of the clouds in the above video, but as a dashcam the B4K image is pretty good, really only let down by extra motion blur in lower light levels. It gives a rather cleaner/less noisy image, partly less noise from the sensor and partly lower bitrate compressing the noise into invisibility. Under trees the lower bitrate can have a significant effect on image quality compared with the A129 Pro.

The B4K is missing some of the features that the A129 has, such as various parking modes, also has a less stable mount, but as a cheaper 4K camera it is very good. A case of you get what you pay for.

Thank you! Yeah I'm a big fan of the A129 Pro, but the B4K is surprising with proper 4K and buffered parking mode at a fraction of the price. I'm curious what the catch is... Heck at its pricepoint, it seems like a pretty clear pick over the A119 v3, no?

The 50 Mbit bitrate with the A129 Pro is a big difference over the B4K's 26 Mbit... Driving with lots of trees around tends to obliterate detail in lower bitrate cams...

With the parking modes, I personally only really care about buffered motion/impact detection and the rest is gravy, but everyone's different.

When you mention mount stability, do you mean vibration due to the B4K being a extended away from the windshield? That was an annoyance of mine with the Vantrue X4, for example. It made things look bad when driving on highways or bumpy roads. A solid mount close to the WS is a big plus.

 

[Nigel]

Compared with the A119 V3, B4K has a lot more motion blur, so unless you only drive on sunny days then I would go for the A119 which also has better parking modes. The extra motion blur is about the same as adding a CPL, not huge, but it no longer needs to be getting dark before you lose plate readability, also the detail from the 4K is not the best possible, lens suffers some blurring from chromatic aberration and the bitrate is low for 4K, while the A119 does a very good job of the 2K and has similar bitrate, actually higher when set to maximum H264, so detail difference is quite small.

For me, the real bargain is the B2K, same sensor as the A119, excellent lens, and a very good bitrate if you use the interpolated 4K mode, plus buffered parking mode. But missing GPS!

I think you can get more than 50Mb from the A129 pro if you use H264, not sure about current firmware but at one time I was getting 80. H265 doesn’t give a quality advantage driving under trees, only in parking mode. 26Mb is not really enough for 4K driving video.

Does the B4K do motion buffered parking mode? Think the B2K only does impact triggered…

On stability, B4K is considerably better than the Vantrue, in my car the vibration from the Vantrue mount was very often obvious and blurring the image, there can be some vibration on rough surfaces with the B4K but not really an issue unless you are comparing with the A129 Pro for the ultimate quality.

B4K is a very good camera for the price, especially if you want 4K, but I think the A119 is the better dashcam overall, and the A129 Pro the better movie camera. My favourite is the A139, but it doesn’t have the best image quality, more a case of adequate image quality on all three channels and everything else done really well, by far the best voice!

 

[SawMaster]

Thank you! Yeah I'm a big fan of the A129 Pro, but the B4K is surprising with proper 4K and buffered parking mode at a fraction of the price. I'm curious what the catch is...

The B4K is much more 'basic' than the A129 Pro. Fewer features, fewer options in the menu settings, and the optional rear cam is analog so very different in that regard. I'm also of the belief that the B4K is a 'public design' which the use of greatly lowers tooling and initial development costs. They also use 'generic' apps while Viofo uses their own self-developed app.

You don't get what you don't pay for, but the B4K gives you a heck of a lot of value for your money in a cam with good vid quality at the lowest price they can attain while doing those good vids, which is the market niche that Blueskysea seeks. Viofo's market niche aim is different; they attempt to give the very best vid quality with other features added, and you pay for that but they are still a good value for what you get.

If all you want is very good protection in a front cam, the B4K is the clear winner, and to me anyway it seems that is exactly what most dashcam buyers are seeking.

Phil