CPL for A119S

[Mike V]

Hi,
I'm planning to get the A119s V2 in the next few hours but I'm wondering if it's worth getting the CPL and will it affect the footage quality at night? I also read a bit about how it can move or fall off at times as well.

What do you guys think? Do you think the CPL is worth the money and do you keep it on the dashcam at all times, or do you actually take it on and off?

Thanks!

 

[Halftone]

It's rather expensive for what it is (just a plastic filter, no glass protection), but it works without issues here. It's not going to fall off of its own accord, but can be dislodged when handling the camera - it also collects fingerprints when doing that, and the plastic lens is tricky to clean without scratching. Still, I leave it on all the time. It's very effective at reducing reflections and makes the camera even less noticeable too.

You don't need to set exposure compensation for the light loss, because the camera adjusts itself automatically for that. I can't say I have noticed any downside from using it, although very dark scenes might have more motion blur and noise because the ~1 stop loss requires the camera to lengthen exposures.

Put it this way: if I lost it I would buy another ASAP.

 

[Mineshaft]

I have a VIOFO A119S, V2, 7G F1.6 Lens, Sony IMX291 Sensor, GPS and CPL filter.
I’ve driven my car every day since Tuesday Aug. 29th which is just over 3 weeks now.
I’ve had 4 road trips, one was 6 ½ hrs, the other 3 were 4 hr trips.
I’ve driven both day and night, over some roads that were under construction, over railway crossings and the clip on type Viofo CPL filter has stayed perfectly in place.
There were no problems picking up the colors of the traffic lights driving against the sun.
The CPL filter has also helped reduce the reflection of the dash on my windshield.
The color, clarity in various light settings was excellent.
I’m totally satisfied with the performance of the optics.
I found it worth the extra cost to have the CPL filter and the GPS

 

[Mike V]

Thanks! I have just added the CPL to the cart and purchased it. Now i'm trying to figure out if i should get one of those high endurance card as 32gb or 64gb. they're a little on the pricy side at 64gb and I dont know if the whole trip is necessary

 

[Mineshaft]

Thanks! I have just added the CPL to the cart and purchased it. Now i'm trying to figure out if i should get one of those high endurance card as 32gb or 64gb. they're a little on the pricy side at 64gb and I dont know if the whole trip is necessary

I'm using:
Kingston Gold Model SDA10/32GBCR, 32GB Micro SD Card Class 10 , FAT32,
Performance 90MB/s read and 45MB/s write, 4K Ultra HD, UHS-I Speed Class 3 (U3),
Made in Taiwan purchased on sale from Best Buy in Canada.
Designed to withstand extreme high and low temperatures.
Once I felt the above worked for me I bought a second one Monday so as I can alternate them.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Thanks! I have just added the CPL to the cart and purchased it. Now i'm trying to figure out if i should get one of those high endurance card as 32gb or 64gb. they're a little on the pricy side at 64gb and I dont know if the whole trip is necessary

This Samsung card has been working great in the A119/A119S.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/B06XX29S9Q

 

[Halftone]

There's only about a fiver in it, I think. I was going to buy a Samsung 64GB class 10 which was £24.99 or £23.99 on Amazon, but in end bought a Sandisk High Endurance Video Monitoring card 64GB for £29.99. Whether it actually matters remains to be seen, but I've plenty of experience with cameras and not-quite-compatible cards thanks to both the camera mfr and card mfr pushing the spec and then denying the marginal compatibility is their fault. Both Lexar and Sandisk have done it at different times WRT to Nikon and Canon. So if this Sandisk card is engineered to play nice with video monitoring use, that's possibly worth a few extra quid just to get a long trouble-free life out of the thing. I'd prefer not to ever have to think about it again.

I kinda trust Sandisk, since they invented the stuff, and I've used their cards for 14 years for pro photography without a single failure. I was going to go with Samsung because of the known issues the A119's have with some Sandisk cards, and I have some Samsung SD and that's been fine as well. But this High Endurance card should be OK unless someone is lying.

Just don't buy memory on eBay, unless it's from a really trusted vendor - so much is counterfeit. Especially Sandisk. Even in retail packaging.

 

[Mike V]

Thanks!
do you think 20mbps max write is ok for this? I was wondering if maybe I would need U1 or something

 

[Halftone]

Well, Class 10 is good for 10MB/sec, and my A119S at 1080p 60fpsis is around 2.4MB/sec... so Class10 is plenty in theory, and I see no sign of dropped frames or other write problems in practice...

EDIT: I just noticed you asked about 20 mbps (ie megabits, not megaBytes). Unless that was a typo, 20 megabit is about 2.5MB/sec, which is not comfortably fast enough.

 

[Mike V]

sorry I meant Mbps.. megabytes.
I was reading that the a119s records at 20Mbps
I'm assuming this is 1080p @60fps right?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[Halftone]

sorry I meant Mbps.. megabytes.
I was reading that the a119s records at 20Mbps
I'm assuming this is 1080p @60fps right?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

mbps = megabits, mb/sec.
MB(capitals)=megabytes. MB/sec.

Stupidly confusing I know. There are 8 bits to the Byte, but parity bits add some overhead. So 1 Byte = a little less than 1/8 of the number of megabits.

20mbps = ~2.5MB/sec so both are in agreement, different ways of stating the same data volume per sec.

Yes, 1080p @60fps.

Class 10 cards are capable of writes at 10MB/sec so plenty fast enough.

 

[Hombré]

I am not convinced on the CPL since I have a grey dashmat and clean polished windscreen

It is a good camera and I like the natural videos without artificial CPL

I am just about to try a black dashmat and see how the camera reacts to it

 

[Mineshaft]

I am not convinced on the CPL since I have a grey dashmat and clean polished windscreen

It is a good camera and I like the natural videos without artificial CPL

I am just about to try a black dashmat and see how the camera reacts to it

It's just an option.
My dash is beige and the CPL helps reduce the reflection.
I also couldn't be more pleased with my A119S.
Do you think the "black" dashmat might draw more heat as opposed to your present grey?
I had a car years ago with black upholstery and vowed never to have that again.
my last 3 cars have had white exteriors to reflect the sun and help the air conditioner.

 

[Hombré]

Do you think the "black" dashmat might draw more heat as opposed to your present grey ?

Heat is not a concern......... The grey dashmat works nice for reflections and then I threw a black scarf on top to test so now I am going to buy the same dashmat but black.

The dashmats are made with a short carpet like pile meaning its sort of absorbent/non reflective

 

[Mineshaft]

Heat is not a concern......... The grey dashmat works nice for reflections and then I threw a black scarf on top to test so now I am going to buy the same dashmat but black.

The dashmats are made with a short carpet like pile meaning its sort of absorbent/non reflective

I'm 80 yrs old and thanks to you, I didn't know there were companies that make dash mats.
I just started to look at them on the web yesterday.
I drive a 2011 Focus SE and I'm curious to see what's out there.
My main concern would be gathering of dust.
In my area we use our defrosters in the winter and air conditioners in the summer.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

I'm 80 yrs old and thanks to you, I didn't know there were companies that make dash mats.
I just started to look at them on the web yesterday.
I drive a 2011 Focus SE and I'm curious to see what's out there.
My main concern would be gathering of dust.
In my area we use our defrosters in the winter and air conditioners in the summer.

You might be interested in this thread. I just bought a dashmat from DashDesigns, but have yet to try it out. I'm assuming it's gonna work quite well though. Not super crazy about putting it on my dashboard, but I'm hoping it will look better than what I envision in my head.

https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/how-do-you-reduce-the-dashboard-glare.30613/#post-360352

 

[Mineshaft]

Thanks.
I bookmarked the site for my car.
Here is the link
2011 FORD FOCUS DASH COVERS
I'll check it out later.
I'm going to try an new experiment.
If it works I'll pass it on to our forum.