Help - resolution on dashcams

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Schmenz

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Hi guys - long time reader first time poster.

Ive been watching this forum and watching reviews for the last few years and I still struggle to decide which camera to get.

I was involved in a a high speed hit and run accident 2 years ago at night and didnt have a dashcam.

I was going to get the Dodd rc500s 2 channel based on reviews for its night time ability to get license plates. The video looked amazing but the reviews on here were terrible for usability.
I waited for a new version but it never seem to come and it seems a little silly to spend so much for technology that is so old now.

Ive been looking at the blackvue 750 and 900 2 channel options - but the video quality in the reviews all looks terrible and number plates are blurry.

I know youtube compresses the videos - so my question is this.

Does anyone have the black vue cameras - and can you get number plates off the footage at night?

Im looking for dashcam with front and rear camera, parking mode an the best quality image for getting number plates in case of damage to my car / hit and runs.

Im hoping someone can help!

(if anyone would be able to share a non compressed file with me via drop box or something that would be awesome too)
 
getting number plates at night is more luck than anything else, the Blackvue cameras won't do as well as the DOD in low light situations though regardless
 
the DOD is so old now - any whispers of anything new coming?

does street guardian have anything 2 channel and low light- they dont seem to pop up in any of the reviews ive seen.
but Jokiin - your comments have always been so insightful and informative - as a watcher whos been reading for years - thank you for your contributions!
 
DOD has been a bit stagnant in the last year or so, they lost their CEO a while ago and not sure what direction the company is going in right now

There's some videos here somewhere by @alexsoll of our cameras compared to some popular Blackvue models, have a look for those posts and you can see what I mean about the night video
 
 
yup ive watched every video i can - and the compression is the issue as they are all on youtube. ill check out your SG ones tho!

my friend has a blackvue 590 and it was actually decent when i saw the footage he sent to me. youtube really messes with it!
 
No camera can guarantee catching a plate in the dark, all cameras need light and all cameras suffer from motion blur in low light, but some are better than others.

Viofo A129 Duo:


I know you asked for raw, but the raw really isn't much better than Youtube at night, assuming that you have a reasonable Youtube connection, slow internet connections reduce quality.
 
Schmenz said:
yup ive watched every video i can - and the compression is the issue as they are all on youtube. ill check out your SG ones tho!

my friend has a blackvue 590 and it was actually decent when i saw the footage he sent to me. youtube really messes with it!
Click to expand...

Blackvue aren't great in low light so if you liked the Blackvue then there are lots of better options available for you to look at, some of those links from @alexsoll have raw files for download also
 
i saw that video in another thread - and was quite impressed with it! ive added it to my new research list to see if it has parking mode.

nothing will be perfect - but im hoping for the best i can get with the current technology.

not having a dash cam has cost me $1000s of dollars and im getting over it.
 
im trawling through his posts looking for them. i did see some links to raw files the other day but the links had expired. ill keep looking!
 
Schmenz said:
i saw that video in another thread - and was quite impressed with it! ive added it to my new research list to see if it has parking mode.

nothing will be perfect - but im hoping for the best i can get with the current technology.

not having a dash cam has cost me $1000s of dollars and im getting over it.
Click to expand...

A129 Parking Mode V2.0 Introduction - Viofo Limited

VIOFO A129 Parking Mode Introduction
www.viofo.com www.viofo.com
They are also in the process of adding a buffered parking mode, but the low bitrate mode is favourite.

And there is a 4K version of the A129 coming soon if you want higher resolution, however that will inevitably have lower dark performance: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/so-when-will-the-next-wave-of-new-hardware-show-up.38762/
 
SG cams do well at night and Jokiin works hard on the vid aspects- he knows the importance of plate capture. The A129 does nights very well and is still improving. The A119S has a great reputation at night, and it's improving too but most of it's capabilities have been extracted now. Of the last two the improvements are mostly with modified firmware but the factory firmware is no slouch. No beating SG for customer support but Viofo is very good, far better than most. Can't go wrong with any of these three choices.

You've got to keep in mind that all dashcams are kind of basic compared to almost any other kind of cam. Certain things like plate capture (especially at night) are neither fully reliable nor assured in any circumstance. Some dashcams do these details better than others but given their cost don't expect Hollywood-grade video. And don't confuse cost with value or vid quality as many expensive cams are surpassed by cheaper ones which are better. Also these aren't 'set and forget', you do need to check the card at least monthly to make sure there's no problems as well as alway keeping the lens and windshield clean. Really just a few minutes effort every week or three but those who don't put that effort in wil be lucky if they get the recording they need when an incident occurs. A good dashcam which is well-cared for wil be your best friend when things go wrong on the road, and offers more peace-of-mind for your money than anything else can give you.

Phil
 
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