Can I get better?

[globetrotter2019]

I currently have two DOD LS430W mounted in both the front and rear of my car. Despite some glitchy behavior with these cameras, some rendering footage useless or missing, I would like to know how much better the best cameras are today in comparison as these are older. I don't care the cost, I want the absolute best image quality (day and night), best reliability and the ability to ensure I can identify the drivers and license plates in nearly all conditions. In trying to report a recent incident to police today, I was told unless the driver can 100% be identified, they won't pursue charges. The footage from my rear camera even being mounted to the edge of the rear window and angled slightly towards to passenger side, is still too dark and distorted to identify anyone. Incredibly frustrating. I've attached crops from the original footage to show what I was able to get in bright overcast skies. My rear window has a dark factory tint. Any suggestions? I do need 2-CH, but I don't mind purchasing two cameras, rather than a single system with a lower res rear camera. I am not sure if 4K would help or if I just need a better camera setup.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Nigel]

You should add a Gitup F1 90 (degree lens version) in addition to your existing cameras.

That gives you a high bitrate 4K image which is often good enough to identify drivers, but still not guaranteed and not at night.

There are no good 4K dashcams at the moment, the 4K dashcams that are available have too low a bitrate so the face tends to be all one single shade of pink with noise instead of detail, and they are also too wide angle so there are not enough pixels for detail unless they are very close. Less than 4K and you don't have enough resolution.

Another option would be to change your laws, we don't have that problem in the UK, the owner of the vehicle is responsible for the driving unless he can get the actual driver to accept responsibility, so no need to prove who was behind the wheel.

 

[SawMaster]

Welcome to DCT @globetrotter2019

There's never a certainty of plate or face capture, but some improvement might be had here. Check the F1 lens-swapping posts and the Mobius telephoto threads. The detail they sometimes capture is amazing. Also some of the experiments have shown that removing the IR-cut filter all dashcam lenses have can sometimes give images through tinted windows which would otherwise not be visible. There's drawbacks to using these methods, so you should still have your wide-angle cams to show the overall situation and use the modified ones to augment that. Also consider that side cams can have an excellent close-up view of traffic passing you in the same direction- the main reason I use them. I usually get good images of those people even with my relatively cheap cams in the daytime. If I had better cams there maybe they'd do better with this at night- I dunno- but with little illumination happening then I don't hold much hope for that.

In the US and perhaps there too, you can file a Civil (Tort) lawsuit on your own whether criminal charges have been made or not. This usually requires that you have provable substantial monetary loss involved because of their actions. Only monetary compensation is available through that method but it at least does something. That needs an Attorney's advice as often the loser of such suits has to pay all costs on both sides including Court costs so you don't want to file unless you are sure you'll win.

As sad as it is, sometimes there's not much we can do for bad drivers and the problems they create. Hopefully Karma will catch up with them quickly. I watch for those kinds and try to make space for them to go by and leave me out of their problems but that doesn't always work. All I expect of my cams is to prove that I've done nothing wrong although I hope they will do much more than that for me which they usually will. Just not always.

I think we've reached the apex of what is possible with the sensor sizes and chipsets that are now used for dashcams. Or very close to that. Your cams did pretty good here and while you could upgrade to better, I'm not sure it would be enough improvement to be worthwhile. I would recommend doing that if your current cams aren't reliable; because for me unreliability is a deal-breaker no matter how good a dashcam is otherwise. If I can't trust it I won't have it in a critical position (front or rear) though it may be acceptable to me on the sides if it isn't too wonky.

Phil