Please help narrow it down

Userk7889

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I have been reading a lot about the dash cams and have a few in my cart, but cant decide! I am getting a dash cam for my newly licensed driver. I want some protection so that if he is in an accident thats not his fault we have proof, instead of someone just saying because he’s a young new driver it’s automatically his fault! I want GPS, front and rear, not hard wiring, a phone app would be nice but not mandatory, obviously affordable, and anything else that I might not be thinking of? The one I have found are as follows, and please feel free to add any suggestions of a different camera that might be a better option. Thank you in advance!

Viofo 129 A129

Vantrue S1

Thinkware FA200

Rexing V1P Dual Pro
 
you've listed them in order of preference already

You mean MY preference, or in the order in which you'd suggest? Lol. Thats just the order that they happened to be in my cart. Haha.
 
The A129 duo are much recommended for cheap dual cameras, if you put a price tag on love you could also get one of Jokiins Street Guardian products it will say you love the kid a bit more.
 
Agreed. The only change I'd make in that list is to drop the Rexing and put a K2S in it's place. The Rexing is neither high quality nor high performance- it's popularity is mainly because of it's price. Actually I like the K2S better than the Vantrue and Thinkware, that remote cam system has a lot of virtues in it.

Unless you're in the northern parts of CA you need to pay close attention to how a cam performs in high heats, and in that regard nobody beats the Street Guardian cams which are high quality and well-developed. A bit costly but worth it. The Viofo cams are great for image quality but not all the features work perfectly with all of them. I think the A129 Duo is the best bang-for-your-buck in a 2-channel cam. Vantrue and Thinkware have spotty factory support; if you have a problem other than a DOA unit it might get very frustrating to get it resolved, or it might never get resolved. They're not bad cams though.

Don't forget to get a good SD card; many don't play well with dashcams. And a hardwire kit too so that your new driver won't have to remember to plug and unplug the cam as they drive and park.. And welcome to DCT @Userk7889 :)

Phil
 
put a K2S in it's place.
Not convinced that the K2S is for someone who doesn't want to hardwire, it has far too many wires for my liking even though I am happy to hardwire, although it is a decent camera otherwise.
 
Only one more cable than a standard 2-channel cam which uses a remote GPS puck. 4 'wires' total; 1 for power, one for GPS, and 2 for cam modules.

Phil
 
Agreed. The only change I'd make in that list is to drop the Rexing and put a K2S in it's place. The Rexing is neither high quality nor high performance- it's popularity is mainly because of it's price. Actually I like the K2S better than the Vantrue and Thinkware, that remote cam system has a lot of virtues in it.

Unless you're in the northern parts of CA you need to pay close attention to how a cam performs in high heats, and in that regard nobody beats the Street Guardian cams which are high quality and well-developed. A bit costly but worth it. The Viofo cams are great for image quality but not all the features work perfectly with all of them. I think the A129 Duo is the best bang-for-your-buck in a 2-channel cam. Vantrue and Thinkware have spotty factory support; if you have a problem other than a DOA unit it might get very frustrating to get it resolved, or it might never get resolved. They're not bad cams though.

Don't forget to get a good SD card; many don't play well with dashcams. And a hardwire kit too so that your new driver won't have to remember to plug and unplug the cam as they drive and park.. And welcome to DCT @Userk7889 :)

Phil
Hi,

Thanks for the reply. We actually are in N Ca. Lol. But, in the hot hot hot area so we do worry about heat. My main concern is I want it to be very clear what happened, if anything happens. My older son (who is now 30) got into an accident just after getting his license, and he immediately was blamed, and there was no consideration at all to what might have really happened. Our insurance later found that the other oarty in the accident was a serial accident victim with the same tyoe of accident and injuries, but because of how the accident happened, my son was still blamed. Not trying to go through that again! The thing that has me worried about some cameras, is that people report the camera not recording the actual accident!

Oh and the reason I didn't want to hardwire it is because of two things actually. One is, if he gets another car (hes using ours for now) I want to be able to move it to that car, and 2) I’m afraid of it draining the car battery. Our lighter doesn't stay on when the car is off.

It seems the K2S isnt sold in the states? And would this SG9663 DC PRO be the Street Guardian you’d recommend or is there a wee bit of a less expensive option?

Thanks for the welcome also. No way was I going to rely on Amazon reviews. In fact, I think out of all those, the Rexing had the highest! Lol
 
Is the kid prone to tamper with it? Worried dad will see he/she is doing double the speed limit, or ?????


No, he’ll leave it alone. He wants the security also. Besides, if I ever found that he'd messed with it, I’d just quit letting him drive my car! Lol
 
Hehe just be sure to look over your recordings every month or two, no dashcam are set and forget, so this 5 - 10 minutes spent now and then are well worth it. ( 128 GB memory card )
Look for drive sessions start and end in places you would expect, you just need to watch a few seconds of a clip to determine this, no need to watch clips in their entirety, if the first few seconds are god so are the remaining ones.

I have the old version of the SG9663DC, which as a non pro only have the good sensor in the front camera, it have been rock solid since it was sent to me by SG in 2017.
One more of their cameras can be upgraded to dual channel too, but not sure of its price VS the DC PRO, with SG you also get 2 year warranty if you bother to register your camera online.
And if you have a problem, you can find the company boss here on the forum and also most of the US resellers of his cameras,,,,,,,, you don't get that with any other brand, and IMO that's worth something too.
Often their feedback time on problems are like minutes.

Yeah you should by from a US seller, it might cost a bit more but if you encounter a problem it is so much better than some garage seller i China.
 
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My K2S was a beta-test unit so I;m not sure where to source them but if you're not doing a permanent install, it may be a bit much to be moving it from car to car. Anything SG is going to be good, they are a top-tier dashcam for quality and reliability but are more basic in their features compared to other top-tier cams. That said, whatever they do offer is going to work flawlessly or as much as any dashcam can do. Their hallmark is quality and customer service. The best image quality will be with Viofo; that seems to have become their hallmark and they do an excellent job with it. The "A129 Pro" does have some issues with features and parking modes which should be resolved soon, but is pretty solid for driving protection with the right SD cards- it's rather picky about those though. The standard "A129 Duo" isn't as picky and has fewer issues while still offering really good images. IMHO it's the best "bang-for-your-buck" in a 2-channel dashcam right now and the image quality is just one small step down from the best which is plenty good for all but the most discerning buyer.

The manufacturers of all these cams are members here on DCT and they all have good service and support should you need that which you probably won't. These are all a good investment which should give you many, many years of service which is hard to get in lower-priced cams (especially in 2-channel cams). But you need to do your own research before deciding; each of these has it's own forum here where you can find out what current owners of these cams are experiencing. Real people and no lies or sugar-coating of issues unlike what you so often find on reviews in other places- that's DCT's hallmark and one which is well deserved.

Phil
 
My K2S was a beta-test unit so I;m not sure where to source them but if you're not doing a permanent install, it may be a bit much to be moving it from car to car. Anything SG is going to be good, they are a top-tier dashcam for quality and reliability but are more basic in their features compared to other top-tier cams. That said, whatever they do offer is going to work flawlessly or as much as any dashcam can do. Their hallmark is quality and customer service. The best image quality will be with Viofo; that seems to have become their hallmark and they do an excellent job with it. The "A129 Pro" does have some issues with features and parking modes which should be resolved soon, but is pretty solid for driving protection with the right SD cards- it's rather picky about those though. The standard "A129 Duo" isn't as picky and has fewer issues while still offering really good images. IMHO it's the best "bang-for-your-buck" in a 2-channel dashcam right now and the image quality is just one small step down from the best which is plenty good for all but the most discerning buyer.

The manufacturers of all these cams are members here on DCT and they all have good service and support should you need that which you probably won't. These are all a good investment which should give you many, many years of service which is hard to get in lower-priced cams (especially in 2-channel cams). But you need to do your own research before deciding; each of these has it's own forum here where you can find out what current owners of these cams are experiencing. Real people and no lies or sugar-coating of issues unlike what you so often find on reviews in other places- that's DCT's hallmark and one which is well deserved.

Phil


Ok well, I guess I’ll go with the Viofo for now. With that one I can afford a 128g memory card (it says U3... Samsung 128GB MicroSDXC EVO Select, is that the right one to get?).

Thanks for all the help!
 
Hehe just be sure to look over your recordings every month or two, no dashcam are set and forget, so this 5 - 10 minutes spent now and then are well worth it. ( 128 GB memory card )
Look for drive sessions start and end in places you would expect, you just need to watch a few seconds of a clip to determine this, no need to watch clips in their entirety, if the first few seconds are god so are the remaining ones.

I have the old version of the SG9663DC, which as a non pro only have the good sensor in the front camera, it have been rock solid since it was sent to me by SG in 2017.
One more of their cameras can be upgraded to dual channel too, but not sure of its price VS the DC PRO, with SG you also get 2 year warranty if you bother to register your camera online.
And if you have a problem, you can find the company boss here on the forum and also most of the US resellers of his cameras,,,,,,,, you don't get that with any other brand, and IMO that's worth something too.
Often their feedback time on problems are like minutes.

Yeah you should by from a US seller, it might cost a bit more but if you encounter a problem it is so much better than some garage seller i China.

I am so tempted to buy it, and if you guys said it was superior to the Viofo ai might, but at $100 less... if the Viofo is similar in quality, I‘ll probably go with that one.
thank you so much for taking the time to reply!!!!
 
Image quality are not really superior to the viofo cameras as i understand it, superior to me is a lot better, and i am not sure i cold tell the 2 apart in a double blind test ( also i never ran the 2 head to head as i never had a viofo camera )
If i could it would probably be differences in camera field of view that gave it away VS image quality.
But i think SG spend a little more on some of the hardware like lens and so on, and they do set the high standard for customer care and service.
Viofo also have reputable resellers in the US, so from a consumer standpoint you should also be good with them. like with SG if you go to their own store you will also save the Amazon fee, which there are no reason to pay if you can avoid it, Jeff Bezos got enough money as it is.
I am as i mentioned associated with SG as they often send me free cameras to beat on, so some bias i assume there is whether or not one try to look aside for such things.
And as their stuff have always just worked for me i am of course happy about it, the only problems i had was the very first camera from SG back in 2013 the lens slipped out of focus but i adjusted that myself, and in the 2017 batch of 3 cameras the SGGCX2 camera after a few months it somehow backed itself into a corner, but loading the same firmware again fixed that up permanently, o and then i am one of the very few that have gotten a faulty GPS antenna, but that one i just swapped out with a older one i had lying around.
Fortunately people don't have to take my word for anything in regard to SG, a look around these forums and elsewhere i assume can attest to their work.

A few months ago i donated the 2017 SGGCX2 to a friend of my nephew, and the kid is very happy about his nice free camera, and i also don't hear any complaints from my friend that have the V3 version of the SGGC9665 in his car.
And my friend is a 8 degree black belt master complainer, with a master degree in whining.
He also have the V1 camera from back in 2013, it still work just fine and the focus never moved again, so sit in his drawer as a slide in replacement if the V3 camera should ever fail.
Other times i send parts of old test cameras to users around the world that suddenly have a need for a part, but this for the most happen with other brands of cameras i have been sent, i have yet to send old street guardian parts out.

I don't just think SG charge a higher prize cuz they can, it is still a small company clawing its way up the ranks, so they cant afford to just screw over people on the price.
But i must admit i can not tell for sure why they cost more, only the lens i can see are different, and on the inside some things might also be little upgrades, but i have no way to be sure other than taking 2 cameras and power supplies apart and compare them on a component base.
And the internet sites that do this with some things i have never seen do it with dashcams, but on phones they do it often, calculating that the new fruit phone or whatever you got for 1000 USD, well it just cost them 600 to make.
 
The EVO Select seems to work well with the A129 Duo (not "Pro") but some do recommend the "endurance" type cards. If you decide on the "Pro" version I'd highly recommend Viofo's own branded cards which are actually tested by the card manufacturer in his cams; that cam is quite picky about cards. Do be aware that both versions of the A129 have issues with parking mode use, and also some have reported issues with regular driving recording. Viofo does update the firmware fairly well to address these issues. It is not universal among all cams and users so you need to do some research and decide for yourself. I personally would have no qualms in buying and using the "Duo" but I'm not so sure about the "Pro" version yet, although I think that in time it will prove to be an excellent cam. In it's defense is that it gives the best vid quality of any dashcam bar none, and a firmware update to address the known issues is said to be forthcoming soon.

On the SG cams you do pay more and the vid quality is a bit less than Viofo, but in return you get the most solidly developed cams being made today. Jokiin (the manufacturer) is very particular in not having anything in his cams which hasn't been well tested and found to be working correctly, so you get a level of quality, utility, and reliability not found in any other cams. He also continues development after release, adding features via firmware updates as they are tested and proven solid. With most dashcams the average buyer is something of a beta-tester but not with SG cams. If you absolutely positively must have recordings, this is the brand to go for. And their customer service is the absolute best you can get. The video of their cams is highly tuned toward capturing the details dashcam owners want most rather than cinematic qualities; anything you won't capture with an SG cam isn't likely to be captured with any other cam either. SG supplies the cards with their cams which accounts for some of the higher cost because they know how important good cards are to functionality, and they take every possible step to be sure you get that. These are "no BS and get the job done" cams, and in that regard there are none better. If I could afford an SG cam I'd buy one without any hesitation because that is exactly what I want from my dashcams.

So there are my thoughts on these cams. They all have their plusses and minuses and you have to decide what those mean to you in what you want from a dashcam. None of these will be a bad choice.

Phil
 
The EVO Select seems to work well with the A129 Duo (not "Pro") but some do recommend the "endurance" type cards. If you decide on the "Pro" version I'd highly recommend Viofo's own branded cards which are actually tested by the card manufacturer in his cams; that cam is quite picky about cards. Do be aware that both versions of the A129 have issues with parking mode use, and also some have reported issues with regular driving recording. Viofo does update the firmware fairly well to address these issues. It is not universal among all cams and users so you need to do some research and decide for yourself. I personally would have no qualms in buying and using the "Duo" but I'm not so sure about the "Pro" version yet, although I think that in time it will prove to be an excellent cam. In it's defense is that it gives the best vid quality of any dashcam bar none, and a firmware update to address the known issues is said to be forthcoming soon.

On the SG cams you do pay more and the vid quality is a bit less than Viofo, but in return you get the most solidly developed cams being made today. Jokiin (the manufacturer) is very particular in not having anything in his cams which hasn't been well tested and found to be working correctly, so you get a level of quality, utility, and reliability not found in any other cams. He also continues development after release, adding features via firmware updates as they are tested and proven solid. With most dashcams the average buyer is something of a beta-tester but not with SG cams. If you absolutely positively must have recordings, this is the brand to go for. And their customer service is the absolute best you can get. The video of their cams is highly tuned toward capturing the details dashcam owners want most rather than cinematic qualities; anything you won't capture with an SG cam isn't likely to be captured with any other cam either. SG supplies the cards with their cams which accounts for some of the higher cost because they know how important good cards are to functionality, and they take every possible step to be sure you get that. These are "no BS and get the job done" cams, and in that regard there are none better. If I could afford an SG cam I'd buy one without any hesitation because that is exactly what I want from my dashcams.

So there are my thoughts on these cams. They all have their plusses and minuses and you have to decide what those mean to you in what you want from a dashcam. None of these will be a bad choice.

Phil


Ok, well that decides it. I absolutely must have the recordings. I do NOT want to have it lapsing during a time it was actually needed! What size card would you recommend be sufficient with it? The price jumps significantly the larger it goes. Dangit. I didn't want to spend that much. Lol
 
Image quality are not really superior to the viofo cameras as i understand it, superior to me is a lot better, and i am not sure i cold tell the 2 apart in a double blind test ( also i never ran the 2 head to head as i never had a viofo camera )
If i could it would probably be differences in camera field of view that gave it away VS image quality.
But i think SG spend a little more on some of the hardware like lens and so on, and they do set the high standard for customer care and service.
Viofo also have reputable resellers in the US, so from a consumer standpoint you should also be good with them. like with SG if you go to their own store you will also save the Amazon fee, which there are no reason to pay if you can avoid it, Jeff Bezos got enough money as it is.
I am as i mentioned associated with SG as they often send me free cameras to beat on, so some bias i assume there is whether or not one try to look aside for such things.
And as their stuff have always just worked for me i am of course happy about it, the only problems i had was the very first camera from SG back in 2013 the lens slipped out of focus but i adjusted that myself, and in the 2017 batch of 3 cameras the SGGCX2 camera after a few months it somehow backed itself into a corner, but loading the same firmware again fixed that up permanently, o and then i am one of the very few that have gotten a faulty GPS antenna, but that one i just swapped out with a older one i had lying around.
Fortunately people don't have to take my word for anything in regard to SG, a look around these forums and elsewhere i assume can attest to their work.

A few months ago i donated the 2017 SGGCX2 to a friend of my nephew, and the kid is very happy about his nice free camera, and i also don't hear any complaints from my friend that have the V3 version of the SGGC9665 in his car.
And my friend is a 8 degree black belt master complainer, with a master degree in whining.
He also have the V1 camera from back in 2013, it still work just fine and the focus never moved again, so sit in his drawer as a slide in replacement if the V3 camera should ever fail.
Other times i send parts of old test cameras to users around the world that suddenly have a need for a part, but this for the most happen with other brands of cameras i have been sent, i have yet to send old street guardian parts out.

I don't just think SG charge a higher prize cuz they can, it is still a small company clawing its way up the ranks, so they cant afford to just screw over people on the price.
But i must admit i can not tell for sure why they cost more, only the lens i can see are different, and on the inside some things might also be little upgrades, but i have no way to be sure other than taking 2 cameras and power supplies apart and compare them on a component base.
And the internet sites that do this with some things i have never seen do it with dashcams, but on phones they do it often, calculating that the new fruit phone or whatever you got for 1000 USD, well it just cost them 600 to make.

I’ll try the SG first. Its hard to decide these things, but consistent video coverage is definitely important. Good video quality is too, but only if the camera captures whats needed!
 
With a 128GB card, most 2-channel cams will give about 8-9 hours of recording time; half that for a 64GB card. Another consideration is that the larger the card the longer it will last, as these are only good for a limited number of write cycles. So while you probably don't need more than a 32GB card to handle one incident in totality, it's lifetime will be short. Right now card prices are relatively low so I'd get the 128GB package from SG as the best value in the long run.

Phil
 
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