My In-Depth Video Guides to Choosing a Dash Cam & Picking the Right SD Card

AndrewL

Active Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2015
Messages
160
Reaction score
208
Country
Canada
Hey, I released two guides I think the community would enjoy. The first is how to choose a dash camera. I wanted to go in-depth and into the hardware and features that are essential and those that are oversold by manufacturers. I also recognize that people may prioritize different features so I hope I was inclusive of all the groups I regularly talk to.


The second is on microSD cards. I started contacting many manufacturers to get more technical details but it's very difficult to quantitatively review cards unless you have large batches to be statistically significant. I wanted to delve mainly into promoting MLC cards as I think it's important for reliability.

Hope you enjoy.

 
Transcend liked your video on the memory cards

Did they? I'm sure they enjoyed it. I tried getting some technical details from Transcend on how they actually fine-tuned the software but sadly my contact at Transcend never got back to me. I'll try her again seeing as the video has come out.

Great videos...

Thanks Jeremy.
 
Did they? I'm sure they enjoyed it. .

yeah I happened to by on the phone with Transcend Taiwan when you first posted it and I gave them the link when I got off the phone, they shared it around the office already, they loved it
 
Are the Transcend High Endurance cards new? I've never heard of them until your video.

Great video as always!
 
Wish I can the high endurance in Amazon but they don't ship to Malaysia...
 
@AndrewL, I understand you might not have access to other brands like Kingston, Adata, Integral or Toshiba to include them in the tutorial but unfortunately that leaves people who don't have local access to Transcends or Lexars wondering if any of the brands I mentioned above are also good for dashcam use.

I've been using a 32GB Class 10 Kingston for over 16 months and never had any problems with it and @niko says good things about the Integral cards.
 
Loving your channel/reviews Andrew, I subscribed last week. Was wondering if you were on here, keep up the great work!
 
I have almost been kingston only at one time, but i have also had to RMA several of them, some even 2 times.
But to be honest RMA was never a problem, just fill out shop RMA form - take broken kingston card to shop with RMA number - get new kingston card and be out of the door in 5 minutes.

I have now spread onto other brands and models to make sure i have a suite of relevant ( 64Gb ) cards to test on the cameras ppl like me to test.
 
Great work on these guides, Andrew. You make some great points regarding the different types of NAND and the different controllers. However, I disagree with avoiding SanDisk cards. I have been using SanDisk Ultra (30mb/s) and Extreme cards (80mb/s+) for the last couple years without issues.

My iTronics and Mobius are 3 years old now, still running the same SanDisk cards without issues in my daily driver. I format them maybe once a year, or less. I have been using a SanDisk Extreme card in my SG9665Gc V2 for the last year as well.

I exclusively use SanDisk and Samsung cards in the dashcams that I test, and I have yet to encounter any problems at all. Note that I only buy my SD cards from reputable stores (ie. Amazon direct, BestBuy, Costco, etc.). SanDisk is probably the most counterfeited SD card brand, so perhaps some of the failures may be attributed to this.

I have done a lot of research in the SSD and flash memory market. SanDisk, along with Toshiba, Samsung and Micron/Intel are among the best in the industry.
 
My experience with SanDisk Ultra has been absolutely different. A card failed after 5 months, making me lose some very important trip footage, I RMA'd the card and the replacement died 2 months later, so I RMA'd again, and the card that they sent me would give memory errors every now and then within the first few weeks of getting it, so I retired it.

For the same price, I'd rather have something I know won't fail on me so often.
 
Last edited:
I have used many brands and so far Sandisk was the only one that had corrupt video issue.
Adata
Microcenter
Kingston
Samsung
Lukas etc... and no problem in below 0 to over 100 degrees.
 
My iTronics and Mobius are 3 years old now, still running the same SanDisk cards without issues in my daily driver. I format them maybe once a year, or less. I have been using a SanDisk Extreme card in my SG9665Gc V2 for the last year as well.

I exclusively use SanDisk and Samsung cards in the dashcams that I test, and I have yet to encounter any problems at all. Note that I only buy my SD cards from reputable stores (ie. Amazon direct, BestBuy, Costco, etc.). SanDisk is probably the most counterfeited SD card brand, so perhaps some of the failures may be attributed to this.

I have done a lot of research in the SSD and flash memory market. SanDisk, along with Toshiba, Samsung and Micron/Intel are among the best in the industry.

My experience with SanDisk Ultra has been absolutely different. A card failed after 5 months, making me lose some very important trip footage, I RMA'd the card and the replacement died 2 months later, so I RMA'd again, and the card that they sent me would give memory errors every now and then within the first few weeks of getting it, so I retired it.

For the same price, I'd rather have something I know won't fail on me so often.
Two completely different experiences with the same card brand. What are the odds @VIIVIIIXIII got all the good SanDisk cards? I'd say none. What are the odds "they", whoever they are, sold @ThePro three counterfeit SanDisk cards? Probably a lot. Unless the cards SanDisk made 3 years ago were so much better than what they are now but then VIIVIIIXIII's more recent one would've probably died by now.

The video is very positive in the way that people who don't know what to buy at least has some guidance but is also very reductive because people will avoid other brands because they were not included or, like SanDisk, because it says "don't buy them".
 
The replacements were from SanDisk themselves. Original was sold by Amazon (not a third party seller on their website). It is possible that the quality decreased, a friend also hasn't had any issues with their SanDisk Ultra which is older than mine.

I mean, there's obviously a reason why their warranty bans dashcam use specifically. When returning I had to claim they were used on something else.
 
Last edited:
yeah I happened to by on the phone with Transcend Taiwan when you first posted it and I gave them the link when I got off the phone, they shared it around the office already, they loved it

Oh, thank you so much Jokiin. Very much appreciated!

Are the Transcend High Endurance cards new? I've never heard of them until your video. Great video as always!

Thanks and there's often not much budget for SD card marketing. The margins are razor thin, I had a chance to speak with an ADATA rep and they said marketing funds are incredibly tight, not much money outside of the usual channels. Transcend has their own dash cameras so that's a good avenue for them.

Sandisk I think has much better margins on their products plus they always promote themselves as the premium choice so they can get away with higher prices. They can go out and create a dream team of photographers.

Wish I can the high endurance in Amazon but they don't ship to Malaysia...

@AndrewL, I understand you might not have access to other brands like Kingston, Adata, Integral or Toshiba to include them in the tutorial but unfortunately that leaves people who don't have local access to Transcends or Lexars wondering if any of the brands I mentioned above are also good for dashcam use.

I've been using a 32GB Class 10 Kingston for over 16 months and never had any problems with it and @niko says good things about the Integral cards.

Jeremy and Module 79L, I need to start doing a better job catering to the SouthEast Asia regions. What are reputable stores which sell SD cards? I can start creating alternatives in my posts. Thanks for the feedback. I get a lot of viewers from that region especially Singapore.

Loving your channel/reviews Andrew, I subscribed last week. Was wondering if you were on here, keep up the great work!

Thanks comet. I am on here and not posting as much as I should. I do want to give back to the community. I think if @jokiin can run and manage a hardware business and post as much as he does I can also do a better job. How many hours a day do you work @jokiin?

Right now I try to push more content work during the day. I move Emails and YouTube comments afterwards and I try to get on the forums.

Great work on these guides, Andrew. You make some great points regarding the different types of NAND and the different controllers. However, I disagree with avoiding SanDisk cards. I have been using SanDisk Ultra (30mb/s) and Extreme cards (80mb/s+) for the last couple years without issues.

My iTronics and Mobius are 3 years old now, still running the same SanDisk cards without issues in my daily driver. I format them maybe once a year, or less. I have been using a SanDisk Extreme card in my SG9665Gc V2 for the last year as well.

I exclusively use SanDisk and Samsung cards in the dashcams that I test, and I have yet to encounter any problems at all. Note that I only buy my SD cards from reputable stores (ie. Amazon direct, BestBuy, Costco, etc.). SanDisk is probably the most counterfeited SD card brand, so perhaps some of the failures may be attributed to this.

I have done a lot of research in the SSD and flash memory market. SanDisk, along with Toshiba, Samsung and Micron/Intel are among the best in the industry.

Hey, so the information I used was from aggregate sources. I'm not an expert in testing but I believe to have statistically significant results you would need large samples sizes sourced from different batch dates. The Sandisk cards you have could be significantly better by several standard deviations from the average and have a great lifespan for you. That's why CPU overclockers prioritize certain batches. However the typical Ultra card won't have as good of an experience.

The problem with Sandisk Ultra cards from what I understand is an overly aggressive controller which locks the card when it detects bad sectors. This is fine when used in smart phones but when dash cameras put a lot of wear and tear a couple poorly formed NAND cells could prematurely die and cause the controller to overreact. If your card has above average construction you won't experience problems.

I agree the companies you mention produce excellent memory but they also segment their products by intended use. I have no problems recommending Sandisk. I do believe the Extreme card you use may be MLC but their prices are astronomical relative to the benefits produced.
 
Then I guess VIIVIIIXIII got all the good ones. ;)
 
Jeremy and Module 79L, I need to start doing a better job catering to the SouthEast Asia regions. What are reputable stores which sell SD cards? I can start creating alternatives in my posts. Thanks for the feedback. I get a lot of viewers from that region especially Singapore.
Sorry, can't help you there. Last time I checked Portugal was still in Europe. ;)
 
Sorry, can't help you there. Last time I checked Portugal was still in Europe. ;)

Whoops. Thought you were also in Malaysia lol. Well since we're talking about Portugal, where do you normally buy from?
 
Back
Top