Is 4K really necessary for a dash cam?

4K are the future in dashcams.
BUT ! at the moment they are fine in daylight, and less in low light ( though not totally useless garbage they make at night )
1080p sensors are better in they can be bigger pixels and so perform better in low light.
Most interesting i feel right now are 1440p systems / sensors, should be as good as 1080p and with a little more resolution.

You also have to be careful, so many fake 4K dashcams out there.
 
I guess it's all about what you expect from your cam. If you want the best possible details you need the best vid resolution you can get, but if all you want is to show your vehicle's road position and that of the other traffic around you then 1080P will do that quite well. And in a cam with well-tuned firmware and a good lens you'll also get some plate numbers with that. 4K might get you 20% - 25% more plate number captures.

I'm reasonably happy with 1080P. I don't expect miracles from my dashcams nor should anyone else ;)

Phil
 
Most interesting i feel right now are 1440p systems / sensors, should be as good as 1080p and with a little more resolution.
I was happy with the RoadHawk 1080p until I tried the Viofo A119 v3 using the setting of 2560x1440p, 30FPS. Certainly for British number plate reading the difference between 1440p and 1080p is amazing. The downside is larger memory file size but if you need to zoom in then 1440p or better is king!
 
I am also sampling a 1440p camera at the moment, and i do think i could get used to that resolution, though the model i have dont seem to perform nearly as good as other 1440p cameras ( which i assume use the same Sony sensor )

It is a little step, but it is in the right direction.
 
If you want the best chance of capturing the plate of the guy that hit you and ran, you want a 4K camera. Unfortunately they are all 30 frames/sec at the moment. At 30 frames/second, the plates are unreadable of a passing car, but if you stop the video, they are very clear.
The low light issue could be greatly aleviated if camera makers would use a larger aperture lens. This might actually require them to have aperture control for daylight to prevent over exposure, but I think the extra cost would be worth it.
 
The low light issue could be greatly aleviated if camera makers would use a larger aperture lens.
The Viofo A129 Pro 4K already has an F1.8 lens. It would not be easy to develop a 4K lens much faster than that and still retain acceptable image quality.

All dashcam lenses are constant aperture. I doubt this will change anytime soon.
 
When Nextbase get around to releasing their forthcoming (Covid-19 delayed) 4K cam, that will have the f/1.3 lens on it.

Paul.
 
When Nextbase get around to releasing their forthcoming (Covid-19 delayed) 4K cam, that will have the f/1.3 lens on it.

Paul.
What sensor is that going to use?
 
I did get a confidential heads up, so for now I'm not sure I can confirm it.

It will however run on the Ambarella H22 quad core processor.

Paul.
 
I did get a confidential heads up, so for now I'm not sure I can confirm it.

It will however run on the Ambarella H22 quad core processor.

Paul.
I'm guessing that it is not a larger sensor if it has an f/1.3 lens.
 
It have been reported as having "larger pixels to receive more light, plus the camera's ability to automatically detect light levels and enhance an image as it is being recorded" so this could mean a larger sensor...

Paul.
 
I think the image area is 7736.256 x 4379.616 µm.

2 µm x 2 µm pixel

Optical size of 1/1.8"

Paul.
 
I think it have option for a rear camera too.

Not sure if the H22 SOC support that, not even sure the H2 dp
 
Ambarella can deliver good results in single channel mode, they aren't great when used dual channel though, they've been struggling with dual channel performance for years
 
Yes.

My Osmo action have the H2 SOC inside, the new insta360 one R also have AMBA inside, but something that can handle 2 cameras as it have a 360 mod too, but i am not sure what SOC it is exactly.
Still people making AMBA inside products, i still urge them to keep their eyes open for better options, or at least better supported options or option's that allow them self to do more of the work.
 
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I think the image area is 7736.256 x 4379.616 µm.

2 µm x 2 µm pixel

Optical size of 1/1.8"

Paul.
Maybe they've gone down the Blackvue route with the Omnivision OS08A10 / OS08A20 in this new Nextbase 622GW?

If it's Ambarella then highly likely to have less pickiness with some microSD cards than some of the more recent Novatek cameras plus highly likely to have working exFAT support.

I've got to admit Nextbase are certainly very popular in the cars I've seen around here while walking around the village during lockdown - being in Halfords and Costco helps that one!
 
Yeah getting your food inside where a lot of people pass by help a lot, and often people just need something to throw money at on the face of it.
 
Costco is definitely the sort of shop you can't go into with spending £200 [emoji23]

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
 
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