Ray from NY here

[RayJ]

Hey all, didn't realize there was an introduction section. Name is Ray, I am from Long Island, NY where a dashcam is a must, as there is soooo much traffic and congestion, and everyone drives like lunatics here. The main highway that runs the length of the island has a speed limit of 55pmh, if you are not doing at least 75 you are getting cut off, cursed at, honked at, you name it!! I have been using dash cams for a good few years now. I got started with them via Kickstarter. I first purchased a Waylens Horizon dash/action/data cam back in 2016. I am actually still running it in one of my vehicles, and it is still working fine. This camera in the car in particular (2008 Dodge Caliber SRT4) is great because it captures all sorts of data from the OBD port, and overlays it, as well as a little GPS map, on the video. I plan to eventually take this car to the track so that camera, if it keeps working, will be cool to have with that. After that I backed Waylens again with their Secure 360 4G dash cams. I bought 4 of those cameras because there are 4 cars in the family. Those worked decently. I liked the 360 views, even though the video quality wasn't the best even being a 1080 camera. Being able to connect remotely was a plus, along with bump notifications while away from the vehicle. The company pretty much wiped its hands of consumers and went to support fleets only which pretty much pissed me off. I sold off 3 of them when I backed the Dride 4k cameras on Kickstarter. Probably should have just kept the Waylens as the Dride is an abomination! In between those 2 cameras though, I purchased a few Navycrest "4k" cameras off Amazon. Those were decent for the price, and I have them running in addition to the 2 Dride cameras, as I need something that actually works. Dride will probably end up being destroyed by a hammer by me at some point. Looking into what my next one may be. Was thinking maybe a Nextbase camera as those seem to have some decent quality. I saw someone post somewhere they are coming out with a connected smart camera, so may hold off and see where that goes, not really sure what direction I am going to go. Lots of info on this forum, so lots of reading to do before I start to narrow down.

 

[el-guapin]

Congrats and Welcome!!!.

 

[kamkar]

Welcome to the forum Ray.

 

[Agie]

Hey all, didn't realize there was an introduction section. Name is Ray, I am from Long Island, NY where a dashcam is a must, as there is soooo much traffic and congestion, and everyone drives like lunatics here. The main highway that runs the length of the island has a speed limit of 55pmh, if you are not doing at least 75 you are getting cut off, cursed at, honked at, you name it!! I have been using dash cams for a good few years now. I got started with them via Kickstarter. I first purchased a Waylens Horizon dash/action/data cam back in 2016. I am actually still running it in one of my vehicles, and it is still working fine. This camera in the car in particular (2008 Dodge Caliber SRT4) is great because it captures all sorts of data from the OBD port, and overlays it, as well as a little GPS map, on the video. I plan to eventually take this car to the track so that camera, if it keeps working, will be cool to have with that. After that I backed Waylens again with their Secure 360 4G dash cams. I bought 4 of those cameras because there are 4 cars in the family. Those worked decently. I liked the 360 views, even though the video quality wasn't the best even being a 1080 camera. Being able to connect remotely was a plus, along with bump notifications while away from the vehicle. The company pretty much wiped its hands of consumers and went to support fleets only which pretty much pissed me off. I sold off 3 of them when I backed the Dride 4k cameras on Kickstarter. Probably should have just kept the Waylens as the Dride is an abomination! In between those 2 cameras though, I purchased a few Navycrest "4k" cameras off Amazon. Those were decent for the price, and I have them running in addition to the 2 Dride cameras, as I need something that actually works. Dride will probably end up being destroyed by a hammer by me at some point. Looking into what my next one may be. Was thinking maybe a Nextbase camera as those seem to have some decent quality. I saw someone post somewhere they are coming out with a connected smart camera, so may hold off and see where that goes, not really sure what direction I am going to go. Lots of info on this forum, so lots of reading to do before I start to narrow down.

Welcome Ray, have seen you floating around. Sounds like at this point you're after long term after sales support and dependability. Honestly Nextbase shouldn't even be in the question as they have battery models not capacitor like established players like Thinkware, Blackvue, Viofo have.

Look into the ones that have the latest Sony Starvis 2 sensors, i.e. Viofo, Vantrue and to a lesser extent, 70mai. I wouldn't count heaps on 70mai for after sales support the way that Viofo has proved itself. In fact, I'd go for Viofo any day of the week over the others.

 

[RayJ]

Hey Agie, thanks for the suggestions. I have the Vantrue S1 Pro that they sent me for evaluation, and it's a pretty nice setup. Only downside is it's not 4K. I picked up an X4S duo, which I like also, but the suction cup mounting kinda leaves the lens far from my windshield, so probably going to return it and look into one of the Viofos. I'm torn if I really care about an in cabin camera,or just focus on front and rear. The A229 Pro looks pretty sweet. I'd love a remote connection too, but no good 4k 4g cameras I have seen yet.

 

[Agie]

Hey Agie, thanks for the suggestions. I have the Vantrue S1 Pro that they sent me for evaluation, and it's a pretty nice setup. Only downside is it's not 4K. I picked up an X4S duo, which I like also, but the suction cup mounting kinda leaves the lens far from my windshield, so probably going to return it and look into one of the Viofos. I'm torn if I really care about an in cabin camera,or just focus on front and rear. The A229 Pro looks pretty sweet. I'd love a remote connection too, but no good 4k 4g cameras I have seen yet.

No worries mate, probably wait for Blackvue or Thinkware to come out with 4g LTE dashcams that have the new Starvis 2 sensors .or just bite the bullet and grab the A229 Pro.

Suction cup mounting sucks for sure, even with the clamp. You still get the vibrations turn up in videos, I can attest to that.

I would say the interior cabin camera isn't essential, I don't mind it on my Vantrue Nexus 4 Pro - it makes it handy in case someone comes up to your window and is aggressive - but probably the most utility would come to rideshare drivers. 4k in the Nexus 4 Pro is handy for resolution details, but in night isn't as ground breaking when it comes to low low light. For well-lit night driving, yes for sure. So I don't think you're missing out on much with the jump to 4k when it comes to specific scenarios like that - we are still constrained by the sensors after all.