I have about $1500 USD for this, but don't know what to get

[Ukraine Visitor]

No matter how much I read up on this (and other sites) I can't seem to find the answer to (what I think is) a simple question: Which is the best 2-channel dash cam for sale out there? My primary need is for night-time protection, so I am mostly concerned about parking mode support (including seamless transitions from driving-to-parking modes), ability to run off a battery pack, and low light video quality, and discreetness.
So, if I have $1500 USD for this, is that enough? and, if it is, what system (and power bank) should I be looking at that will fulfill these expectations? When I look at BlackVue, for example, I am lost in a sea of their numerous 2-channel BlackVue models. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[jokiin]

I don't think there's any camera that meets all of your requirements, maybe better to list what you need in order of priority, paragraphs would make it easier to read also

 

[Ukraine Visitor]

Thank you. I am cutting it down to just the following. This is mostly what I really care for:
No matter how much I read up on this (and other sites) I can't seem to find the answer to (what I think is) a simple question: Which is the best 2-channel dash cam for sale out there? My primary need is for night-time protection, so I am mostly concerned about parking mode support (including seamless transitions from driving-to-parking modes), ability to run off a battery pack, and low light video quality, and discreetness. So, if I have $1500 USD for this, is that enough? and, if it is, what system (and power bank) should I be looking at that will fulfill these expectations? When I look at BlackVue, for example, I am lost in a sea of their numerous 2-channel BlackVue models. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[DashCamMan]

BlackVue has probably the best parking mode but video quality is not the best. VIOFO has better video quality but parking mode, particularly buffered parking, is not as good as BlackVue. Depends what is more important for you.

 

[SawMaster]

IMHO right now the IMX291 sensor does best in low-light situations, but of course you need the right processor and firmware to let it do it's best. I hesitate to recommend anything further as it seems you're not going to be well satisfied with any cam being made today because none offer all the features you want. Unless you want only driving recording dashcams are always going to be a compromise- sometimes a big compromise.

Phil

 

[Ukraine Visitor]

IMHO right now the IMX291 sensor does best in low-light situations, but of course you need the right processor and firmware to let it do it's best. I hesitate to recommend anything further as it seems you're not going to be well satisfied with any cam being made today because none offer all the features you want. Unless you want only driving recording dashcams are always going to be a compromise- sometimes a big compromise.

Phil

Phil/SawMaster, how do I know which cams use the IMX291 processor?

 

[Ukraine Visitor]

BTW, I forgot to mention, my small $1500 USD fortune dedicated to this is for two sets of 2-channel cams (front, back, and 2 sides) and would include a battery pack (and an add-on pack if there's money left). Hopefully I will be in the general $$$ ballpark. I need to pay someone to install them also as I ain't mechanically (or electrically for that matter!) inclined. That install I am told will be close to $200-$300, and will need to come out of that budget too. Any comments of the dollar amount, or will I be forced to lower my expectations or make equipment cuts for that sort of budget? If someone could comment, then THANKS! because I need some sense of direction in this.

 

[Ukraine Visitor]

BlackVue has probably the best parking mode but video quality is not the best. VIOFO has better video quality but parking mode, particularly buffered parking, is not as good as BlackVue. Depends what is more important for you.

Where would the Thinkware U1000 fall in that line up? Everyone seems to be saying it's one of the hottest cams out there today.

 

[jokiin]

Where would the Thinkware U1000 fall in that line up? Everyone seems to be saying it's one of the hottest cams out there today.

maybe they were referring to the overheating

 

[SawMaster]

Phil/SawMaster, how do I know which cams use the IMX291 processor?

The IMX291 is a sensor, not a processor. Any good cam will list the sensor being used in the advertised specs since that's where everything starts. Since you're looking for a 2-channel cam the rear sensor also needs to be considered since many of these use a less capable rear cam. There are a few cams which use the IMX291 front and rear but some of these have limited parking mode options, and some have functionality issues with use of their parking modes.

Asking which cam is "best" may be a simple question but has no simple answers even when you specify what you want it to do. You have to decide for yourself because no cam is going to do everything perfectly or sometimes even adequately. I'd suggest looking at the Viofo and Street Guardian cams, seeing if the nighttime vids suit you first. From there find out what people are experiencing when using their parking modes. I know which cam I'd use for your purposes but it's not easy to recommend since that one has issues with use of the parking modes and requires a specific approach to make the feature work properly. If you don't understand that approach you won't be happy with the results you get. And my choice will likely change soon as there's new cams coming to market soon, one of which impresses the heck out of me daytime and seems to be equally good as my current choice at night.

The U1000 isn't a bad cam but it doesn't do exceptionally well with daytime vid quality and is worse as night. And it doesn't handle heat well. Thinkware and Blackvue tend to concentrate on features rather than video quality but maybe the vid quality and reliability is good enough for you- I can't decide that. What I can recommend is that for longer parking use powering, the new Blacvkvue BI 750 powerbank seems to be the best thing going for a plug-and-play type, but as it's brand new nobody can tell you what will happen with it in a couple of years. What is known is that the previous solutions are less capable and have an early failure rate I am not comfortable with.

Phil

 

[kamkar]

What sensor a dashcam use are most often listed in the sales material, or at least on the brands home page.
A few brands make dashcam dedicated power packs, and these can also often be used with other brand of Dashcams, street guardian for instance say their cameras can work with,,,,,, i cant remember which power pack.

Using parking mode, not least if you want to do that whenever you are parked, that actually put a high strain on the battery, so you cant just do 1 hour of driving every day and then have the camera do parking guard the remaining hours of the day.
The 2 things need to balance out, and only way to do that is to drive enough for your car to fully charge the battery or put a charger on the car at home.

Some people are using USB power banks, and then have 2 so they can use one while the other one charge at home, but then you have to manually swap them around all the time, and there are no automated hand over between regular driving mode and parking mode,,,,,, so personally not something i would use myself.

Parking guard are a okay feature, but i think you should do all you can to use it as little as possible, i have it going on one test system ( SG9663DR ) but i only have to going for 1 hour on the timer, this will cover all my shopping.
And should i park in a suspect place i can just go into settings and remove or change the timer value for longer coverage.
At home i have or rather use to have CCTV on my parked car, but t he camera broke and i keep forgetting to replace it.

My little car have a little battery, so on the days where i only do a short run to the shops, the 1 hour parking guard are on when i get home are Okay to deal with in regard to keeping my battery topped up.
It is only 1 - 2 times every week i go for a longer drive, with a total of 1 - 1.5 hour driving time, and it is also not every day i drive, some days i just stay at home and go nowhere. ( retired and on a pension )

There alsi is one more problem in regard to parking mode, and thats is at night there must be some level of light from street lights or something, and also very much a problem for me now this time of the year, dew or droplets on the windscreen that will block the view from the camera.
And ice on the glass, well the cameras can often melt that if it is not super cold, but if it is a thick layer of snow that are a problem,,,,,, and doing so the camera will reveal its pretense to anyone that notice such things.

 

[SawMaster]

Parking recordings have proven to be useful to me, and I wouldn't want to be without them nor do I want them to not cover my usual amount of time parked. They are not the best security solution but they are better than nothing which is often the only other alternative. It won't work for everyone the way I do it but everyone can have something of it if they want that. And in the OP's case with the parking power not coming from the car battery it is certainly viable. With the right sensor it takes very little light to get somewhat decent images- nothing like daytime but can probably identify a suspect if you have an idea of who they are.

The three main issues with parking recordings are heat, supplying power, and what type of recording you're going to get. In hotter climates there is no dashcam that can be utterly relied on to not shut down or fail to record if you're parked in the mid-day sun. Some cams do OK, most cams don't. Even with powerbanks (or your car battery) there's something of a limit to the time you can have your protection. There's a single-channel cam that can give you a week+ of 'protection' using your car battery but it takes about 30 seconds to go from detection to recording which renders it rather useless for the purpose in most cases. The cams which will record quickly on detecting an event (or which record constantly) need a lot more power, so you get a lot less runtime. There are ways to get long-duration parking power but they are DIY solutions that require more than the average skill and knowledge of car electrics and safety so few people go there. But even this doesn't do you any good if the cam overheats, nor does having "overheat protection" which means the cam will likely be shut down when you need a recording (Murphy's Law). And now too you find that getting the vid quality you want works against you because high-quality vids use the processor harder which creates more heat which means the recording fails sooner. And sd cards don't like high heat either- another possible failure point.

But I've been making it work for me even here in SC USA which is known for it's hot summers so it can be done if you approach it correctly. Compromise will be involved and reliability isn't 100% but it's good enough for me and my needs- YMMV

Phil

 

[Ukraine Visitor]

Kamkar & SawMaster: I wouldn't seek to depend on the car's battery if that's going to be the proverbial "weakest link in the chain". I could instead get a battery pack. And if one pack isn't enough, I could get add-ons, maybe 2, 3, or 4 -- as many as would reasonable fit under my car's passenger's seat (for my car's model, that's probably the best spot.). How would such revelation change any part of your 2 most recent suggestions above? Thanks for having taken the time to comment above: while I am still "digesting" some of the more minute details, those most recent comments you guys made helped me redirect my focus to the realities you guys presented. BTW, I have a M-F commute to work of 60 mins RT, and then the usual 1-2 weekend runs to the supermarket, hardware store and/or shopping mall (where I almost always park in the least used area of their parking lots). The way I see it, my greatest (if not sole) need is for nighttime surveillance of my car while parked on the street near my house, followed by daytime surveillance while parked, again, near my house (I am WFH because of covid). Sawmaster: In NJ we do get 1-3 heat waves every summer, but we are better known for the cold, I guess.

 

[SawMaster]

Until very recently my "parking mode" was to have a 2-channel cam recording normally and continuously powered by my van battery. What makes this viable for me is that it gets driven daily long enough to keep the battery well-charged and because it's an 80A battery; far bigger than most cars have. I'm using low-bitrate while parked now which only helps with card wear; almost the same power draw either way. I did the math for excess battery wear- well under $1 per day which I'm happy to pay for what I get. The few cam problems are during daytime summer heat when I'm parked on a job without shade available. When I got into dashcams I was told it would kill my battery- it didn't. I was told it would kill my cams- it hasn't. I've been doing this for about 5 years now.

I do not recommend my methods, I only note that they work for me. You are far better off doing it properly as there is much less risk involved.

Only very recently have I had a camera with reliable pre-buffered motion-detect; unfortunately it still has file corruption issues when used that way. It's very good with low-bitrate parking mode so I do that instead, and I'm using a HWK set to cut off at 12.2V which gives me all the parking time I want. No summer testing yet, but if it fails that I'll put my old trusty B2W back in even if it has somewhat lesser imaging and coverage, and run it continuously as I did before.

Phil

 

[Ukraine Visitor]

Thank you guys for your advise and real-life anecdotes. I guess I will just have to "bite the bullet" - get something, see how it works, and learn from that.
I went to a place today that can install my cams, including the battery packs and hardwiring, for $200USD. The place is the most professional-looking I have seen so far. They do window tinting, remote starter installs, sunroofs, audio system installs, etc. It's basically and all-around aftermarket customization joint. Will most likely hire them. Takes them 2 hours to do the whole thing. Would probably take me at least a day (plus probably short-circuiting my own car too!)