first dashcam recommendation

[eagle58]

Good morning all,

Im in the market for a dashcam for my wife's vehicle. She is not the greatest of drivers and it seems like stuff is always happening when she is behind the wheel so I need a dash cam to record these events, just in case. I'm not sure if they make a dashcam with the following requirements but surely someone here can recommend something close:

1. 4k recording
2. Great night vision
3. 2 channel for front and rear camera
4. Excellent app that works on iphone
5. camera that i can see in real time from the app (not sure if possible?)
6. videos can be downloaded directly from an app/dont have to remove disk.
7. Connects to vehicle wifi on startup.
8. price does not matter
9. reliable

Please help me consider an option here. If the camera you recommend does not have one of these requirement please specify which. Thank you for your help.

 

[kamkar]

Welcome to the forum eagle58.

1; 4K no problem, top performer sensor mow in the starvis 2 Sony sensor named IMX678, the 1440p sensor in the same range are named IMX 675
2: Most will record fine footage, mind you there got to be light, exposure time still slow so motion blur will still be a thing. today the best ones are the ones that use HDR at night, they can actually capture a plate on the front of a oncoming car, though of course in the US you dont get that chance very often due to your silly decisions on that area. ( plate only on the back of cars ) HDR during the day are not recommended, many camera will have a automatic change to / from HDR timer build in,,,,, you should not really have to do this manual.
3: No problemo a range of cameras with the IMX 678 as front sensor.
4: They most often do ( not ever a apple user ) it so seem many assume dashcams are something they are not, personally i think they are fine.
5: Most offer a live view in the APP, these days with fairly small delay, well at least compared to what we saw in the old days.
6: That is a stable feature, DL speeds these days are also fine, not so long ago you had to spend 5 minutes downloading a 3 minute video to the phone, but these days it is snappy, mind you for bulk transfers WIFI are knee level of the actual read speed of a memory card in a quality USB card reader on a modern USB port.
Generally i never DL to my phone, i dispise touching my phone, but i must admit my eyes are old and tired and the big phone screen is nice VS small dashcam screens.
7: only a smart / clod camera would so that, some connect to a separate 4G AP, but today many new cloud dashcams have a build in 4G modem, so will also need a SIM card for full functionality.
Fair warning some as i understand when they are in parking mode and deep sleep, well you can not access the camera from your phone remote, if it have had a event, sent you a notification and so are on / awake, you can then log in and remote view cameras.
A few have a IC that allow you to wake yp the camera remotely no matter how deep sleep it is in, but i think this is still a minority of cameras.
8: A good system are not cheap, if you are looking for cloud enabled cameras they are top dollar, also often not the best in Image quality, but for parking guard / mode the smart cameras are often the best.
9: Any good brand camera you will most often find the memory card is the weakest part, i personally expect to get at least 4 years of service from a dashcam, but many have been seen running longer than that.

I have sadly not sampled this system but the Viofo A229 PRO seem nice, actually i have yet to sample a system with the IMX 678 sensor in it.
If you want smarts / cloud, your only choices really are the brands Thinkware and Blackvue.

I have also yet to try a smart / cloud system, so all i know of those are hear say.

 

[eagle58]

Wow, excellent write up. Thank you kamkar!

 

[kamkar]

No problem, we are here to help.

Have a look in the different camera brand / model sub forums, lot of PPL testing and sharing footage and their experience.
Most cameras have a few childhood deceases, nothing bad, i have never seen / tested a system that was garbage, but some times some features take a little while to mature, but its generally not something you have to wait years to get.
So your regular features like start when you start car, record while you drive, and stop when you stop, that always work, image quality might well improve ASO but even these new sensor cameras on day #1 you still get that " O this is something better VS the old stuff "
Not super better of course, dashcams in the past decade and then some have always been baby steps ahead, there are no particular brand with some secret sauce system, they also often use the same hardware or at the very least the same sensors.

Your 4K dashcam will not match the 4K camera in your kick ass phone or maybe action camera, it is different beasts so they are coded a little different, for sure if you want to do scenic drive videos, some other camera would be better for that than a dascam.
You can of course do a drive video just fine, but it is made better if you use something else like a camcorder or maybe a DSlr, not least in that regard you want a lesser field of view lens, so you do not have dash or A-pillars in your footage.