I like a dashcam that can take my holiday snaps for me
Although a little bit more than the 60 Mb/s maximum bitrate would be good for smooth skies when there is a lot of detail to record, not needed for evidence reasons, but nice for the holiday snaps:
@Nigel, your post with those images really sold this camera to me. A real world example without messing with the footage.
Unfortunately, even the A129-Pro has few weaknesses.
Level of details of IQ is really nice (especially in higher speeds - DR900S is complete mess) but in lower light conditions it struggles sometimes and licence plates are smeared (surprisingly, DR900S is able to get the numbers). Then there are another things you have to consider -for example the cables are brutaly thicker on A129 Pro. DR900S has nice thin coaxial cable, A129-Pro uses 4 times thicker USB cable. Even the Cloud (when it works and you have a AP in your car) is usefull.
I’ve come to realise that no camera can get everything right and the A129 Pro is not perfect either. They might improve it with firmware perhaps? In any case, I feel the A129 Pro gets the best image quality overall more than any other dashcam I have seen.
We need the overall best performing unit and yes I accept not everything will be captured every time. I’d say it doesn’t help that the windscreen is wet in those examples.
I've been reading about the cable thickness before I ordered. When I actually held it in my hand, it was far better than I expected. It isn't THAT bad really and it’s no big deal honestly I think.
Thicker might mean heavier conductors for better signal transfer, I don't know. Would I have prefered a thinner cable? Sure - makes the one time install that much easier but yes everything must be considered when choosing a dashcam. I took all of this into account during my decision making process.
Regarding cloud - I am a features man. I want everything! haha I do like the idea but I am not paying for another data service in my car just for occasional usage from it. Don’t Blackvue charge as well after a period of time to use some of the cloud stuff? I would have liked to have that option though on the Viofo.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience with me.
Sounds like we really were in the same position regarding the purchase of a dashcam. Like you I wasn't on a budget and was ready/happy to shell out $900ish-AUD if it meant getting a superior product that delivered better-than-the-competition video quality that would increase the chances of being able to read licence plate on video footages. That is my primarily purchase criteria for a dashcam and because this is the most important one, I'm happy to pay extra to get that.
However if in reality the quality is actually similar to a 4k dashcam half the price of the blackvue in my eye that doesn't justify anymore the extra cost.
Again, like you I really wanted to like the blackvue, I'll be honest, for a totally shallow and not so rational reason, because it looked cool. I like the cylindrical shape and mostly I like its small small footprint. One of my another criteria for a dashcam (this one optional) was that I wanted a dashcam small enough so I could hide it behind my interior mirror and not see it at all from the driver seat. However I'm ready to pay double the price only for that and I'm happy to compromise.
Because I only started looking for a dashcam really recently I'm yet to be familiar with Viofo authorized resellers on ebay. If it's not too much to ask would be able to pm the link to the ebay seller you mentionned?
Again thank you for your input that was really helpful.
No worries! Figured my effort can assist someone else on this matter. Many months of consideration have gone into my decision from all angles.
I too, was happy to pay for "better-than-the-competition" but a greater cost doesn’t mean a better product every time. Makes purchases difficult honestly. Price isn't everything so can’t judge on that factor alone – especially with dashcams!
Haha, yes I love the tube like design of the DR900S myself. And yes it was one of my main reasons for liking it as well! But realistically who cares about cloud features or voice prompts or anything else if the footage is below spec. I felt I could do better than what it offered me right now on the market That’s my personal view on it. Others will disagree.
With that said, the DR900S is one of the top three dashcams you can buy right now I believe. In no means is it that bad, but Viofo has shown you can charge far less and give better video quality. I felt the video quality overall is better than the DR900S and that’s my main focus.
I wanted a dashcam small enough so I could hide it behind my interior mirror and not see it at all from the driver seat.
Certainly don't worry about issues of hiding the A129 Pro. It will hide well behind your mirror. Not an issue there. See below:
If you think the Viofo is big, then like many others you have misjudged it from the photos. I have three behind my mirror and the driver can't see any of them from the normal driving position, they are not very visible from outside either.
Viofo is pretty small as well. (i was blown away during unboxing) I can take a picture how the footprint looks like side-by-side if you want.
For your reference, as the others that I quoted above have said, its small. It is about the size of a standard business card - a tad shorter in fact. I was expecting much larger myself. Very compact and feels good in the hand!