Help with Starvis 2 cam reliable parking mode

[Dmsagmi]

Work many overnight shifts, car will be sitting in the parking lot/garage very often. I would like to have some a reliable monitoring 2 channel dash cam. I certainly want good imagines so I can capture any accidents or (God forbid) hit and runs. I will also likely run it off a battery rather than car’s battery.
Knowing myself I won’t be tinkering with it too much. I would like to set it up and forget it. Hopefully, I will not be downloading clips often.

I first looked into vanture n4pro after watching a review on YouTube because of its image quality, especially at night. I then looked at viofo a139 pro. It has many nice features, and one of the first viofo camera with Starvis 2. Then I found a229 pro with even better rear camera. Viofo, however, even with battery pack, it lasts 18 hour. Lastly, U3000 undoubtedly has the best parking mode, but some of the image quality just isn’t as good as some others. Also it’s the most expensive one out of the bunch.

Would appreciate any advices.

 

[Nigel]

Viofo A119 Mini 2?

Yes, it is only 1 channel, but it uses a lot less power than the Viofo 2 channel cameras, so you get much longer parking mode.

If you can always park the right way around, against a wall, then you don't really need 2 channels for parking mode, and you can still have 2 channels during driving by having 2x A119 Mini 2 with parking mode enabled only on one, and you then get excellent Starvis 2 video at high bitrate on both channels with good redundancy for a lot less than the cost of a U3000.

 

[Dmsagmi]

Viofo A119 Mini 2?

Yes, it is only 1 channel, but it uses a lot less power than the Viofo 2 channel cameras, so you get much longer parking mode.

If you can always park the right way around, against a wall, then you don't really need 2 channels for parking mode, and you can still have 2 channels during driving by having 2x A119 Mini 2 with parking mode enabled only on one, and you then get excellent Starvis 2 video at high bitrate on both channels with good redundancy for a lot less than the cost of a U3000.

Thanks for the suggestion. Another rabbit hole that I went.

It’s going onto a hatchback. I was reading from another thread that the viewing angle isn’t the best when the window is too close to the end of the vehicle. It may also be just too big for my taste as a rear cam. It doesn’t need to be hidden, but I also don’t want to be too prominent.

 

[Nigel]

It may also be just too big for my taste as a rear cam.

It has "Mini" in the name for good reason! I have a full size A119 V3 in the rear of my hatchback and never notice it because it is out of view of the rear mirror, and from outside is hiding behind the black area for the high level brake light, which I extended a little with a small piece of screen tint. Also the rear window is darker than the front, as many factory rear windows are, so from outside it is hard to see stuff behind it.

I was reading from another thread that the viewing angle isn’t the best when the window is too close to the end of the vehicle.

Maybe they were trying to use it as a parking camera, so wanted to look straight down as well as horizontal?

In my experience there is no issue, although my car is not a Golf shaped hatchback, it has a gently sloped window and a bit of horizontal beyond, so the camera could not look straight down even if I wanted it to. As a dashcam, you do not need to see straight down, although I guess for very minor bumps, there might be an argument over if they actually touched you.


I'm not saying that A119 is the best choice, it was just a suggestion. I prefer a 2 channel camera really, but 2x 1 channel does have some advantages and is worth considering, so yes, it is your rabbit hole to explore

 

[Vortex Radar]

How often do you drive and how long are your drives? You'll need a decently long drive to recharge the battery packs and if you live relatively close to work, something like a Thinkware that sips power might offer a better balance than a traditional dashcam.

 

[Dmsagmi]

I was just watching your battery comparison video when the notification came over. I can almost hear what you wrote, speak in your voice.

My daily drive is about 45min to 1 hour round trip. Probably won’t be driving much or just use my wife’s car on weekends and longer trips.

When you say sips power, do you mean a specific mode (motion detection/time lapse/energy saving mode)? Or just in general that thinkware uses less power?