Linus tech tips on dashcams.

[triodak]

We don't use our dashcam sensors at maximum sensitivity anyway, unless you park on an unlit street and expect to record by moonlight. It will be an improvement, but think 2x rather than 6x.

Sorry Nigel but I disagree Sensitivity is physical property of sensor. You always use it at the value stated in documentation with some tolerance. You don't use maximum gain or exposure time. Quick-moving objects will be much sharper.
And IMX675 is over 6,7x more sensitive than IMX335 according to SONY datasheet being exact. Not just 2x, so the difference will be huge. Pixel vise IMX675 is over 11x more sensitive than IMX291, that was able to achieve best shoots at night with beta firmware. If you are right about production than waiting for next 6 months will be needed

 

[Lothar]

Says who? You, based on paper specs. That means nothing.

Paper specs do mean something.
Looked at the specs for the Yi Dash Cam, and I'm not impressed. A non-stealthy dashcam that does not use a capacitor, cannot withstand the heat, relies on a suction cup mount, and lack of any reliable parking mode option?
20Mbps max while running at 60 FPS? There are much better dashcams on the market with higher bitrate and much better features...

Max Resolution Front	1920×1080p
Front Frames Per Second	60
Max Bitrate Front (Mbps)	20

 

[Dash cams Serbia]

Or more importantly for the Yi frame, the relative speed, which could have been zero, since both vehicles are heading in the same direction...

It wasn't zero.

You can pause any frame you want and compare them yourself.

Half the frames per second... Less frames per second, means lower shutter speed, so moving image freeze frame will be more blurry.

 

[Dash cams Serbia]

Paper specs do mean something.
Looked at the specs for the Yi Dash Cam, and I'm not impressed. A non-stealthy dashcam that does not use a capacitor, cannot withstand the heat, relies on a suction cup mount, and lack of any reliable parking mode option?
20Mbps max while running at 60 FPS? There are much better dashcams on the market with higher bitrate and much better features...

Of course specs mean something, but only if they are actually made use of by the firmware.
20 Mbps for 1080p60fps is not great, yes. 60 Mbps for 4K30fps is 50% better, but it is still only 30 fps, and as I said lower fps means more blurry moving image freeze frame.
I am talking about video quality only. As did Linus in the video.
Not really bothered by battery or capacitor, stealthy or not, don't use parking mode anyway... And it does not use suction cup, not sure where you got that from. Although you can also buy a suction cup mount for it, yes.

 

[SawMaster]

Been answering some replies there, mostly sending people here for info So many are the great unwashed and misunderstanding, but we can fix some of that

 

[Lothar]

Been answering some replies there, mostly sending people here for info So many are the great unwashed and misunderstanding, but we can fix some of that

Where the heck have you been the past few months?
You were on my mind about a week ago and I actually thought about either sending a PM or making a thread to ask everyone but decided against doing either since I don't really know you(or anyone else here) on a personal level besides what we post.

 

[Lothar]

Of course specs mean something, but only if they are actually made use of by the firmware.
20 Mbps for 1080p60fps is not great, yes. 60 Mbps for 4K30fps is 50% better, but it is still only 30 fps, and as I said lower fps means more blurry moving image freeze frame.
I am talking about video quality only. As did Linus in the video.
Not really bothered by battery or capacitor, stealthy or not, don't use parking mode anyway... And it does not use suction cup, not sure where you got that from. Although you can also buy a suction cup mount for it, yes.

Yi Dash Cam - DashCamTalk

1-Channel Dash Cam

dashcamtalk.com

Looks like only the Chinese version does.

 

[Kremmen]

I've had a look at my saved clips and I think this one is closest to the blurry one posted.

This one is a similar urban environment when I was doing 25mph. I suspect the one posted above was probably slower but this example shows what a Viofo is capable of :

 

[Nigel]

I've had a look at my saved clips and I think this one is closest to the blurry one posted.

This one is a similar urban environment when I was doing 25mph. I suspect the one posted above was probably slower but this example shows what a Viofo is capable of :

I think you have much higher light levels there than in the blurry image above.

 

[Nigel]

Half the frames per second... Less frames per second, means lower shutter speed, so moving image freeze frame will be more blurry.

No, shutter speed and frames per second are unrelated.

If there is enough light to use a shutter speed of 1/2000th of a second then a Viofo A119 V3 will use 1/2000th when set to 30fps, when set to 60fps, and also if set to 1fps timelapse.

In most cameras, the frames per second puts a lower limit on the shutter speed.

For movie cameras there is often a link between the two, but not for a well designed dashcam.

 

[Nigel]

You can pause any frame you want and compare them yourself.

I just did, and the plate on that vehicle is easy to read, even on the Youtube video played on a FHD monitor, so on the original video and a 4K monitor it would be very clear!

This is Youtube in HD, I'm not going to bother getting a higher resolution:

 

[Vortex Radar]

Alrighty, I just finished my detailed response to his video.

I went into a TON of information including realistic expectations for dashcams, their capabilities and limitations, comparison testing between different dashcams and GoPros, taking a look at the possibility of using GoPro sensors in a dashcam, upcoming Sony Starvis 2 sensors, and more...

 

[Dashmellow]

Great analysis and impeccable response to the Linus video @Vortex Radar. Thanks for all the time and effort you obviously put into this one! Especially nice to see the GoPro as a dash cam questions settled this definitively.

 

[Lothar]

Great job @Vortex Radar. Very detailed and touches every subject area.
This definitely took a lot of work to do and I commend all your efforts.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Order has been restored.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
-Chuck

 

[Kremmen]

An early statement in the video hits the mark ....... "Realistic expectation"

The other thing that I didn't know was that 60fps increases the shutter speed ? I've read that dashcams still use 30fps but insert a dummy frame ? Which does the A119 V3 use as in my testing, freeze frame, daytime, is sharper at 30fps than 60fps (2560x1440, high bitrate)

 

[Vortex Radar]

An early statement in the video hits the mark ....... "Realistic expectation"

haha yeah

The other thing that I didn't know was that 60fps increases the shutter speed ? I've read that dashcams still use 30fps but insert a dummy frame ? Which does the A119 V3 use as in my testing, freeze frame, daytime, is sharper at 30fps than 60fps (2560x1440, high bitrate)

I noticed that too. Regarding the shutter speed thing, the thinking there is that doubling the frame rate also makes the slowest possible shutter speeds twice as fast, from 1/30 to 1/60, which can be helpful in darker situations where the dashcam is running slower shutter speeds to get more light in.

 

[venezian]

Other than Starvis 2 coming up, any updates coming to Novatech or anything major?

Seems like you have a lot of trash/fake dashcams and then the more reputable brands, but they're just adding feature after feature while still using the same parts for what seems like the last 2 - 4 years.

 

[kamkar]

1/500 second exposure, are OK if you target are human fast speeds, transitioning to vehicle fast speeds, you need a much faster exposure, taking a razor sharp picture of a F1 car going thru a corner at 200 kmh,,,,, well you need really fast exposure if you do not want cine like features like it seem to be popular in action cameras, hence why people add ND filters to action cameras.

As modders have often proven, most dashcams can do better, i would even dare to say a lot better, but to me it dont seem like dashcam makers are able to pull every ounce of performance from their cameras.


Regarding 30 / 60 FPS recording "VR" neglect to mention that if you go with 60 FPS, your bitrate are used to process 30 frames, so watered out VS 30 FPS recording.
Regarding action cameras / gopro, the heat issue are part of their high performance, not least high bitrates, most times at least 2 X of the bitrate of the best dashcams today.

At one timer it was popular to just crank bitrate for modders, and sure it also help on blocking in situations with a extra amount of detail to resolve.

No one mentioned Allwinner SOC, even if it is also used to a large degree, my first 4K camera will be on the Allwinner V-536,,,,, that is unless someone send me a camera in the next month or two, but i dont think that happen.

 

[Nigel]

No one mentioned Allwinner SOC

Linus did at 12:55