Not happy with camera footage quality.

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.
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.
 
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. :cool:

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!
 
... 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. ...
Viofo is pretty small as well. (i was blown away during unboxing) Here you can get a basic idea about the footprint. :cool:

IMG_3634 (1).jpgIMG_3633 (1).jpg
 
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.
Main reason for the thickness is to allow decent shielding so that it doesn't destroy your DAB radio reception.
Like you say, to me it doesn't seem thick, it is just not thin.
 
Has there been an upgrade to the rear camera cable? Last I remember, there were reports of DAB interference and reduced key fob range.
 
Main reason for the thickness is to allow decent shielding so that it doesn't destroy your DAB radio reception.
Like you say, to me it doesn't seem thick, it is just not thin.

Well that’s good to know. That issue was a main concern for me as I have DAB+. Haven't used it since the install though.

To reduce any possibility of interference I ran the cable down the opposite side to the DAB antenna.
 
Has there been an upgrade to the rear camera cable? Last I remember, there were reports of DAB interference and reduced key fob range.
I don't really know, but I haven't seen any DAB problem threads for quite a while ... suggests that something may have changed.
 
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 thought we need a "real world" scenariouses... :ROFLMAO: And this was one of the examples which came to my mind and i was able to find it quickly (i have about 12TB of dashcam footage...)

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.
It is for me, a bit. Because i used places which are tight even for the coaxial, i have absolutely no idea where I'll hide the A129's USB (i would probably have to rip off some interior).

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.
A heavier wire does not help these days. In fact, with suitable conductors and the right interface is possible to make a cable quite thin for such sensitive communication. (Blackvue uses a serializer, that's the only difference)

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.
I was surprised how often i use the Cloud. (it's quite handy) At this moment it's free but there are some limitations (and issues).

... 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!
DR900S is definitely not worth the the money. It's just whether you're willing to pay for specific features.
 
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.

3 behind your mirror! How cool is that.
Well I'm glad to hear that then. Not much keeping me from jumping the gun and ordering my first dashcam :)
 
Viofo is pretty small as well. (i was blown away during unboxing) Here you can get a basic idea about the footprint. :cool:

View attachment 49260View attachment 49261

Thanks everyone for correcting me. Looking at the photos online I was under the impression it was so big ahah.

Great install you got there btw! DR900s & Viofo A129 pro that's pretty neat! One would say that you're got it covered for any situation :)

Sorry for putting you in this position (don't want to start a war be tween pro BV & pro Viofo) but if you were to keep only 1 dashcam. Which one would you keep and why?
 
Thanks everyone for correcting me. Looking at the photos online I was under the impression it was so big ahah.

Great install you got there btw! DR900s & Viofo A129 pro that's pretty neat! One would say that you're got it covered for any situation :)

Sorry for putting you in this position (don't want to start a war be tween pro BV & pro Viofo) but if you were to keep only 1 dashcam. Which one would you keep and why?
I was about to replace the DR900S by A129-Pro (no brainer) but now i'm not sure about it. Viofo seems really promising but AT THIS MOMENT, in terms of IQ, both have some Pros and Cons.

DR900S failed me many times (not to mention a few things i have tolerate - like the damn "G-sensor in normal mode"...). But the Cloud, over time, isn't a bad feature because i know what's up with my car and i can check it at any time.

Probably I'll let them both in my main car and to other cars i'll buy just Viofo. At least i have a perfect backup when DR900S fails in summer... and in parking mode (I have to admit it's better to record all the time than to rely on the sensitivity of the G-sensor).



Btw: Now i’ve realized another noticible “pro” for DR900S - audio quality is better.
 
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People are expecting too much from 4K dashcams from today which have the same size of CMOS like the Full HD cameras.
You are buying a 4K resolution, not a 4 times better image than Full HD.
People should understand this.
If you want to compare with DSLR image just compare the sizes of their CMOS.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
If you want to compare with DSLR image just compare the sizes of their CMOS.
It would be interesting to see some night time 4K video from an A129 Pro, DR900, and Canon DSLR side by side... I'm not convinced the DSLR would win...

Currently I think the best 1440 cameras are winning for low light video quality, hopefully the 4K cameras will catch up soon, but the best already wins in sunlight and there is not much in it at night.
 
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There are nice 4K "starvis" sensors, but they aint small, but "they" just got to go there if they are really serious about 4K in dashcams.

I feel current ones are usable, maybe if dashcams like phone cameras could do binning, so we could get sweet 4K in the daytime, and sweet lesser resolution in the night time,,,,,,, i would settle for that if i had to cuz most of my driving are in the daytime, and what i ask for in night time performance you can get from very old sensors.
But of course the best possible night time footage will be optimal, at the highest possible resolution.
Taking a nighttime pic with my phone in its native 48Mpix mode Vs the 4 in 1 binned 12 Mpix mode are leagues apart.
 
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It would be interesting to see some night time 4K video from an A129 Pro, DR900, and Canon DSLR side by side... I'm not convinced the DSLR would win...
The OP was disappointed because he cannot read license plate numbers during day. The night footage from dashcams is better also because of lens with smaller F-Stop.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
RE licence plate readability: If you buy a dashcam for holiday trip records HD is fine for all daylight records and passable for a night record.
I need the cam to identify the other party for a parking incident or a collision on the move. If I can not read the number plate I am back to "he said- she said" evidence level.
I looked at an awful lot of youtube videos before I decided on Blackvue 900S-2ch.
But it ain't perfect.
Post collision I would continue manoeuvring - if possible - to ensure I get the number plate on record and readable.
Parking incidents may be problematical as I probably will not be present.
The recent parking incident I had cost me $600 (insurance excess minimum).
With this DR900S 2-ch purchase I am hoping to avoid another incident and nail the scumbag who damaged my car and just drove off.
 
There are nice 4K "starvis" sensors, but they aint small, but "they" just got to go there if they are really serious about 4K in dashcams.

I didn't realize that 4K starvis sensors were available (CCTV, not dashcams). I found this cool comparison video driving around a parking lot and showing the difference in license plate clarity:
 
I didn't realize that 4K starvis sensors were available (CCTV, not dashcams). I found this cool comparison video driving around a parking lot and showing the difference in license plate clarity:
Not sure that is a very valid video, every time they do a comparison, they stop the car to avoid motion blur first! I could do the same with the A129 and A129 Pro and get a similar result, except that the resolution when zoomed in on a license plate wouldn't be so good because that CCTV camera has a much narrower field of view.
 
Not sure that is a very valid video, every time they do a comparison, they stop the car to avoid motion blur first! I could do the same with the A129 and A129 Pro and get a similar result, except that the resolution when zoomed in on a license plate wouldn't be so good because that CCTV camera has a much narrower field of view.
The problem with these cameras (and the reason they stop everytime) is that the bitrate is, in most cases, limited to 16384kbps (or even lower). So no wonder how much mess it can produce in motion. I have such camera with IMX226 and it’s pretty impresive how much it can pick-up in darkness.

Btw: I have 180° and 160° lenses if anybody is interested. Pretty fair against dashcams. :geek:

EDIT: Ahhh, so we're talking exactly about one of the cameras with 16Mbps and even the IMX226 sensor.
 
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