HDR Dashcam for Night Driving

[TonyM]

My hobby results in me driving a lot at night so I'm looking for the best option currently available to capture details at night, which I expect will be using some kind of HDR. I don't mind too much if daytime recording is compromised since I'm happy to run two front cameras - one all-rounder and one that's good at night.

I've seen a lot of posts about HDR on the A119V3. Is that on stock or modified FW? Are there any better alternatives?

 

[Mtz]

Are there any better alternatives?

Better wait for a dashcam with Sony Starvis2 CMOS. Maybe one month. For sure will be not miracles for night driving but a Starvis2 CMOS with a good lens and good firmware will be a little better than Starvis. For countries with big car license number like UK or EU, enabling HDR during night can make some of them readable. Until now the best on HDR implementation was Viofo, but nothing fantastic, just some improvement over no HDR option.
Many people have too high expectations for night driving and they are thinking that wil buy a dashcam which can record a video with all details that human eye can see. Or even more! No, with actual dashcam technology is impossible now and in next years.

 

[TonyM]

Better wait for a dashcam with Sony Starvis2 CMOS. Maybe one month.

I've been waiting for years for a decent night-time camera. I can wait another month!

 

[TonyM]

Many people have too high expectations for night driving and they are thinking that wil buy a dashcam which can record a video with all details that human eye can see. Or even more! No, with actual dashcam technology is impossible now and in next years.

I've used dashcams long enough to know not to expect too much at night, or even in daylight. But I've not been keeping up with the latest advances in HW and FW, hence the question.

 

[EdSM]

If you are using it for a hobby and only at night you could try playing with Wyze V3. It is small but not a dashcam. However, I have not seen a dash cam or other IP cameras to have the light sensitivity of this $35 camera. Just turn off its IR and it might give you better lowlight sensitivity (and HDR) that the dash cams you tested.

 

[TonyM]

If you are using it for a hobby

The dashcam isn't the hobby. I take my driving seriously, and I reckon that I'm most at risk of causing or being involved in an accident when I'm driving late at night. That's why I want a proper dashcam with the best available night video.

you could try playing with Wyze V3. It is small but not a dashcam. However, I have not seen a dash cam or other IP cameras to have the light sensitivity of this $35 camera. Just turn off its IR and it might give you better lowlight sensitivity (and HDR) that the dash cams you tested.

At 4x that price and lacking in UK support I'm not feeling tempted, but the idea of a small colour night vision cctv camera without IR illumination is worth investigating.

 

[TonyM]

@Nigel if I turn the 'interior' camera of the A139 to face forwards to look outside, and disable the IR illumination, do you think it will fare any better for night video than the main front camera?

I have a CPL on the main camera, mostly to combat dash glare, so it's night vision is compromised. I sometimes remove the CPL when I know I'm going to be doing a lot of night driving.

 

[Nigel]

I don't mind too much if daytime recording is compromised since I'm happy to run two front cameras - one all-rounder and one that's good at night.

A STARVIS-2 dashcam will do both, its HDR works day and night, if you want an A119 V3 with HDR, wait for one with a Starvis 2 sensor... might be waiting more than one month for an A119 V4 though, not expecting it to be the first with STARVIS-2!

@Nigel if I turn the 'interior' camera of the A139 to face forwards to look outside, and disable the IR illumination, do you think it will fare any better for night video than the main front camera?

I have a CPL on the main camera, mostly to combat dash glare, so it's night vision is compromised. I sometimes remove the CPL when I know I'm going to be doing a lot of night driving.

It should do a little better, but your windscreen probably has an IR filter on it, so it will miss out on seeing the vegetation clearly due to IR sensitivity. Not having the CPL should halve motion blur, and there is probably a bit more to gain. The lens is not as good, but that won't matter for night time.

If you mount it over on the right hand side of the windscreen then you can also significantly reduce the motion of oncoming vehicles across the sensor as they get fairly close, the view is not as good, but plate readability improves due to less motion blur.

Don't expect a big improvement, but worth a try.

 

[TonyM]

if I turn the 'interior' camera of the A139 to face forwards to look outside, and disable the IR illumination, do you think it will fare any better for night video than the main front camera?

This didn't work. The interior camera is correctly focused - on the driver and car interior! When I turned it to face outside I noticed that nearby cars were slightly out of focus. In addition to the resolution drop from 1440p to 1080p, and the functional loss of the interior camera, I didn't think it was worth continuing with that test.

 

[Nigel]

This didn't work. The interior camera is correctly focused - on the driver and car interior! When I turned it to face outside I noticed that nearby cars were slightly out of focus. In addition to the resolution drop from 1440p to 1080p, and the functional loss of the interior camera, I didn't think it was worth continuing with that test.

It should be possible to get both infinity and the front seat headrests in focus at the same time, the driver's head is normally a little too close to also have good focus, so it seems reasonable that Viofo would focus it a bit short, but you could refocus it and still use it for both purposes.

Another advantage would be that you can set the exposure on the interior camera at -?EV, which should give you a dark exposure for your HDR while the main front camera can have +?EV giving the light exposure, then you get the dark and light in separate files, which means no ghosting effects that you get with the normal HDR. You can then combine them yourself to get the best possible result instead of having the camera squash both exposures into a single file with them half obscuring each other and causing ghosting! Might be worth first checking that the EV adjustment does modify the exposure times though, quite possible it has no effect on the actual exposure and just modifies the gain. Also, note that combining exposures for HDR when they come from different sensors is pretty much impossible.

I'm not convinced it is worth the effort! Especially with Starvis 2 coming soon.

 

[TonyM]

I'm not convinced it is worth the effort! Especially with Starvis 2 coming soon.

I didn't think it was worth the effort of opening up and re-focusing the interior camera when it currently works well for its intended purpose.

You may have noted that my pre-release A139 is not 100% reliable (posted in a different thread) so I'm tempted to buy either an A119V3 or an A119 Mini to see me through the next few months. If I later go for a Starvis 2 front camera, I can re-purpose an A119 at the rear.

 

[Safe-Peanut]

I've now used the Vantrue E1 and find it's not bad. I'm pretty happy with the quality of the night-time videos the camera produces.

 

[Vantrue Dash Cam]

With the Sony IMX335 sensor and lens with an advanced F1.55 aperture, the dash cam records up to 2596 x 1944P 30FPS. Vantrue E1's unique resolution allows to take ultra wide picture than regular 1440P -- enough to capture license plates clearly. Here's the Night Sample Video shared by our customer, FYI