Looking for advice for my first dashcam

[Docusdooo]

We have never had a dash cam before but we are feeling the need for one now. We have a Vauxhall Astra, 2005 model at the moment.
It would be good if an easy to use and install dash cam could be suggested, one which perhaps records for a reasonable amount of time before being overwritten.
Budget would be perhaps up to £250 or so. Have been looking at reviews for Nextbase 622GW, VIOFOA139 2 camera model and the dearer Garmin DriveCam 76 with satnav(which has a lot of unnecessary features for us) We drive under 50 miles a day, but through city centre traffic with all that entails.

 

[Unmitigated Disaster]

Hello Docusdooo. I'm a newcomer to this dashcam game. I just bought my first dashcam, a Viofo A119 Mini 2, and I'm pretty happy with it. I've got a discussion going in the Viofo section of the forum where I've been getting some great help from other more experienced forum members. I picked it up here in the States for $119. It's a single camera model. If you have any questions about it, let me know.

 

[Cyker]

If you don't need a rear camera, IMHO the A119v3 is still the best camera for the price. It's proven to be reliable, robust and resistant to high temperatures and it has excellent picture quality, esp. in the daytime. It's an older model so it's relatively inexpensive now too. You can spend a bit more for the A119 Mini2 if you're going to do a fair amount of low-light/night driving, but otherwise the A119v3 will be just as good.

Regarding recording length, that's all down to the size of the SD card; You can tweak the bitrate on most dashcams a bit, but nothing beats just having a bigger SD card! IMHO you're better off spending a bit more money to get a high quality high capacity microSD card - I use a Sandisk Max Endurance 256GB card and it holds about 2 weeks of footage on average (Not literally 2 weeks of continuous footage, but 2 weeks of my normal journeys!), and unlike most of Sandisks other cards, it's warrantied for dashcam use for up to 10 years (Most normal microSD cards warranties are voided if used with dashcams)

 

[DT MI]

...one which perhaps records for a reasonable amount of time before being overwritten...

...Regarding recording length, that's all down to the size of the SD card; You can tweak the bitrate on most dashcams a bit, but nothing beats just having a bigger SD card!..

As has been mentioned, recording time is a function of the SD card size and the camera resolution/bit rate.

With my SGCGX2Pro with optional rear camera each minute of recording takes right around 130MB of space per camera. In practice that equates to roughly 78 hours of recording (39 hours each for front and rear) using a 512GB card. 256GB card would be half of that, and 128GB half again. I would not recommend anything smaller than 128GB, and preferably 256GB minimum - but I am admittedly biased towards large cards, you cannot have too much storage. (If you have it and don't need it - no problem. If you need it and don't have it - problem.)

 

[Unmitigated Disaster]

If you don't need a rear camera, IMHO the A119v3 is still the best camera for the price. It's proven to be reliable, robust and resistant to high temperatures and it has excellent picture quality, esp. in the daytime. It's an older model so it's relatively inexpensive now too.

Good point...there is a discussion going on regarding high operating temperatures causing some Mini 2s to lose focus.

 

[Agie]

Good point...there is a discussion going on regarding high operating temperatures causing some Mini 2s to lose focus.

Apparently that was covered in Vortex Radar review and he said some early units have been able to be returned to Viofo. They have since fixed the manufacturing issues and newer batches shouldn't have the issue.