A129 vs. 2 x A119 V2

[Bster13]

Looking to outfit my new vehicle for documenting accidents while driving, utilizing some form of parking mode, and possibly using content for a YouTube channel and seeing the A129 is about the same price as 2 x A119s. Just playing out the Pros/Cons and looking for what folks on the forum with more experience would pick, or if there are additional Pros/Cons to consider. Thanks!

A129:
Pros....
- 1 Micro SD to purchase
- Only 1 card to remove when wanting to pull footage
- Smaller profile rear camera
- Front and rear videos are timestamped and in sync for editing purposes.
- Less wiring that 2 x A119

Cons....
- No camera redundancy
- Lower bitrate / Lower video quality when considering front and rear together.
- If looking to push the performance of the setup with firmware found on this forum, lower thermal envelope.
- Need more expensive / better quality / twice the size SD card to process two feeds at once.
- locked to 1080 @ 30FPS when using front and rear.

2 x A119 V2:
Pros...
- If front camera fails, you can move the rear camera to the front.
- Higher bitrate / video quality when consider front and rear together.
- If looking to push the performance of the setup with firmware found on this forum, higher thermal envelope because u have processors to do the work.
- Can use slighty slower SD cards at half the size as there is one card per feed.
- Can shoot 1440p @ 30FPS in both front and rear.

Cons....
- Have to run two power cables, but no USB data cable from front to back.
- Depending on startup times of identical camera, perhaps timestamps are slightly off when editing?
- When obtain front/rear footage I need to remove and process 2, not 1 card.
- Need to purchase two cards if I don't already have them on hand.


Difference in lenses for the rear? Difference in angles? Are there other things I'm missing? Many thanks!

 

[Yooshaw]

Nice list, I think you've hit most everything. One thing to add would be costs - A129 being cheaper than two A119 (would get the V3 by the way). However, two A119V3s could be cheaper if you consider long-term dash cam upgrades. A strategy where you only update the front camera, and move the older camera to the rear. Repeat this process as desired when a better dash cam comes to market.

 

[Bster13]

I was seeing some refurbs V2s pretty cheap:

https://www.blackboxmycar.com/collections/viofo

Re: V3 and pending A129 4k coming....always something newer and better around the corner. *sigh*

 

[AlexTan]

I did a comparison video side by side with A129 vs A119 V2

 

[Bster13]

Hrmm.. they are more different than I was expecting.

In my opinion, the A129 blows out the night and has more noise, but everything is much brighter, perhaps easier to see if looking to identify a license plate.

The A119 V2 is more realistic, but certainly darker. It does not blow out the night sky. But harder to identify license plates. Thoughts?

 

[AlexTan]

Deffinately the A129 gives better image quality and better to capture license plate number.

I did another video with comparison with A119S vs A129. The result was surprising. You can check it out at the A129 section that I posted.

 

[jokiin]

In my opinion, the A129 blows out the night and has more noise, but everything is much brighter, perhaps easier to see if looking to identify a license plate.

The A119 V2 is more realistic, but certainly darker. It does not blow out the night sky. But harder to identify license plates. Thoughts?

some people get hung up on things looking realistic, that's not always best when you want to use it as a dashcam where the main objective is to collect evidence