Newbie To Dashcams

[Mark65]

Hi All,
Ive been lurking for a bit and debating on a dashcam, however yesterday I went to collect my wife and going down a dual carriageway on the route I had an idiot on a scoot fly past weaving in and out of the traffic.
He came so close to a car without even looking the car beeped and that was it, the little chav %&*$" swung round in the road and proceeded to kick the side of the blokes car multiple times then shot of on the scoot, i got the number and checked it and the plate came up as a grey Volkswagen, at this point I thought what if that was me, with a cam it would have recorded him from behind and leaving.

So my question is how bad is a rear camera needed, and which of the Viofo will be the better one for me, I m swinging to the A229 2k duo, others are A119V3 or A129 pro duo, my neighbour fits stereos , alarms and cameras for a living and tried to steer me to the Blackvue but its only 1080p and doesn't look to good to read plates. Could the A129 Pro Duo be set to 2k on the front, the A229 comes in at about £250 with the hardwire kit.
Then I have to work out the route on my Qashqai, is there space in the head liner or can it squeeze down the side of head liner past the airbags.
Thanks for any advice.
Mark

 

[Nigel]

So my question is how bad is a rear camera needed,

Normally it is not needed, but sometimes it can be very useful, and sometimes you need to show the other person's behaviour from before he passed you, and then it can be invaluable.

If you are only interested in insurance claims, then a single channel is fine, but if you want to file police reports and make our roads safer, then go for a dual camera.

I m swinging to the A229 2k duo,

For UK use, that is what I would go for, if the price is acceptable. The A129 Plus is a cheaper alternative, both work fine, but the A229 is definitely nicer, newer (more advanced), and has twice the resolution at the rear - not necessary but definitely better.

A129 pro duo

Good for movie making, the 4K resolution is excellent, and picture quality is excellent in other ways too, but low light performance is not as good as an A229, and in the UK we have quite a lot of low light!

Then I have to work out the route on my Qashqai,

I'll leave that for someone who knows, but I think it has been answered before... you could do a google search, something like "Qashqai hardwire site:dashcamtalk.com". Don't bother with the search at the top of this page!

a dual carriageway on the route I had an idiot on a scoot fly past weaving in and out of the traffic.

Front view - how close did I get to him when I pulled back in?:

If you also have the rear view, you see so much more and anyone judging what happened and who was at fault can get a very different picture:

Our vehicles have rear view mirrors for good reason!

 

[Mark65]

Thanks Nigel, will start to look at routing.

 

[Mark65]

Hi, I did see the A129 Plus, that has aa 1440p @60fps option would that not be the best option as a single camera?.
Thanks

 

[Nigel]

Hi, I did see the A129 Plus, that has aa 1440p @60fps option would that not be the best option as a single camera?.
Thanks

Unless you spend a lot of time on the race track, then 30 frames per second is sufficient as evidence, and generally the 30fps video is better quality than the 60fps video since the cameras are never capable of double the bitrate for the 60fps setting, so in general 30fps is the recommended setting.

If you want the ultimate in image quality then two single cameras, both at 60fps and highest bitrate should give the best results, with a few inconveniences of their files not being synced and the video files being spread across multiple cards. In reality the same cameras at 30fps are unlikely to gather worse evidence, and are will empty your battery slower if you use them for parking mode, and any video is better than no video.

 

[Mark65]

thanks again

 

[Jonro2009]

You have unfortunately just missed a really cracking sale on the Viofo cameras, Amazon had the A139 down to just £180

I bought mine direct from Viofo.com and not the UK site as the exchange rate gave a much better price, and they dispatch it from their UK stock anyway.

I would highly recommend the A139 and the T130, they are both excellent and great for evidence of needed. My A139 captured a police officer being assaulted and the footage was good enough to identify the guy (at midnight in the dark) and he was charged and jailed.

I agree with everything Nigel has said, with just one small different point of view. I think of you have a front camera then you are just as well to have the rear covered too, particularly of you want it for potential evidence. It gives a much clearer picture of the whole situation, for example it would have shown the scooter riders antics before he passed you. That's just my opinion though [emoji106]

Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk

 

[Mark65]

Hi Jonro2009, its £218 on the US site and £237 on the UK so not a huge difference.
Was looking at the routing and it could go above the curtain airbag but routing along the floor and up the rear pillar will be easier.
Thanks