Footage quality (AGAIN) is this normal?

Panther Collection · Sep 16, 2024

I have seen a lot of posts regarding the footage quality on the 522GW but just wanted to make sure i wasn’t missing anything in the settings.

The footage during the day seems reasonable given the price of the camera but nighttime seems appalling. The number plate just isn’t visible.

I’ve attached a comparison screenshot of the 2 footages for reference.

The resolution is one 1440p 30fps. Exposure set to 0.

So my questions are:
1. Is this normal for this cameras?
2. Should I adjust any settings?
3. If this is normal, is there anything better on the market?

Nigel · Sep 16, 2024

Panther Collection said:
So my questions are:
1. Is this normal for this cameras?
2. Should I adjust any settings?
3. If this is normal, is there anything better on the market?

I'm not an expert on Nextbase cameras, but that seems reasonable, maybe focused a little too close, your dash seems sharper than the distance.
Looking at the image quality, it could do with higher bitrate, but I'm not sure that you have a setting for that on this camera?
Very few dashcams will read number plates at night, especially in your example situation, what you have there is expected, you really need a dashcam using one of the Sony Starvis 2 sensors and with a proper implementation of HDR if you want to read number plates in that situation, so you need to look at Viofo, Vantrue or 70mai dashcams. For single channel, the Viofo A119 Mini 2 is popular, or the A229 Plus/Pro for dual/triple channel recording.

Panther Collection · Sep 16, 2024

Thanks Nigel,

I’ll take a look at the focus setting again, I’m assuming this was the whole thing with the white piece of paper on the dash, or is there another setting that I can’t find?

I’ve seen quite a few people recommending Viofo but have been obviously dubious about them due to the amount of YouTube influencers pushing them for their commission.

Nigel · Sep 16, 2024

Panther Collection said:
I’ll take a look at the focus setting again, I’m assuming this was the whole thing with the white piece of paper on the dash, or is there another setting that I can’t find?

The white piece of paper is for setting the CPL, it does not affect focus, dashcams have fixed focus, which can't be adjusted without disassembly, and that one is not far enough out to justify the effort, focus is not your main issue.

Panther Collection said:
I’ve seen quite a few people recommending Viofo but have been obviously dubious about them due to the amount of YouTube influencers pushing them for their commission.

Always wise to be dubious about reviews, especially Amazon ones!
I don't think Viofo ever pays for Youtube videos, Amazon reviews etc., they are one of the few dashcam companies that don't, although they will send out free cameras to selected people. Certainly some of the Youtube videos are from people with poor knowledge about dashcams, but for Viofo dashcams they tend to be the more negative reviews.

Take a watch of Vortex Radar on Youtube, he knows what he is talking about and doesn't need to give good reviews when not justified, and clearly doesn't. Viofo gets a lot of mentions in this video because they are good, not for any other reason: