Hi guys,
Buying at dash cam and have been researching them all day. Gotta say, I'm a little disappointed with a lot of the options. Granted, all the footage I've seen has been on youtube and it's all compressed by youtube again so I imagine the real footage is a bit better. Even the most expensive cams have rather disappointing image quality and being able to read license plates is generally poor unless they are really close.
I think I've narrowed it down to the Viofo line, however, begrudgingly. I'm hoping someone with hands-on experience can help fill in the gaps here as it's hard to truly judge these cams based on youtube videos and review articles.
Right now I'm thinking the Viofo A139, I like that it's smaller and has no screen unlike the bulkyie 129 Plus/Pro. My second choice is the 129 Pro but the quality actually almost looks worse in every comparison I've seen. It's a little less over sharpened but seems too soft and license plates don't seem as cler. Night time seems a bit overexposed. I wish the A119 V3 came with a rear camera option because it looks like the best readability both day and night from what I've seen.
I've looked at the BlackVue cams but for the price the video quality doesn't look great to me until you hit the 900. You would have to really want cloud storage to buy one of their cams.
I considered the Thinkware U1000 but it is quite expensive and the video has terrible chromatic aberration and is oversharpened.
The Garmin cams look decent but there's no way to just add a rear cam. You have to buy a second one and then mess with wiring it, not a fan. If I wanted to go through all that I'd just get 2 A119 V3's for half the price.
Took a look at Street Guardian, solid firmware but the video leaves a lot to be desired, especially since they seem to be stuck at 1080.
So I'm sort of stuck, the A139 seems like an OK choice. I wish the main camera wasn't quite so wide, not sure what benefit the extra wide-angle provides, especially as it's at the cost of image quality and readability. There's a chance they will bring HDR to it, like the A119 V3, so that would be nice as it seems to greatly improve nighttime readability.
Would be very interested in hearing others' experiences with some of these or if there are some other options I'm not looking at.
Buying at dash cam and have been researching them all day. Gotta say, I'm a little disappointed with a lot of the options. Granted, all the footage I've seen has been on youtube and it's all compressed by youtube again so I imagine the real footage is a bit better. Even the most expensive cams have rather disappointing image quality and being able to read license plates is generally poor unless they are really close.
I think I've narrowed it down to the Viofo line, however, begrudgingly. I'm hoping someone with hands-on experience can help fill in the gaps here as it's hard to truly judge these cams based on youtube videos and review articles.
Right now I'm thinking the Viofo A139, I like that it's smaller and has no screen unlike the bulkyie 129 Plus/Pro. My second choice is the 129 Pro but the quality actually almost looks worse in every comparison I've seen. It's a little less over sharpened but seems too soft and license plates don't seem as cler. Night time seems a bit overexposed. I wish the A119 V3 came with a rear camera option because it looks like the best readability both day and night from what I've seen.
I've looked at the BlackVue cams but for the price the video quality doesn't look great to me until you hit the 900. You would have to really want cloud storage to buy one of their cams.
I considered the Thinkware U1000 but it is quite expensive and the video has terrible chromatic aberration and is oversharpened.
The Garmin cams look decent but there's no way to just add a rear cam. You have to buy a second one and then mess with wiring it, not a fan. If I wanted to go through all that I'd just get 2 A119 V3's for half the price.
Took a look at Street Guardian, solid firmware but the video leaves a lot to be desired, especially since they seem to be stuck at 1080.
So I'm sort of stuck, the A139 seems like an OK choice. I wish the main camera wasn't quite so wide, not sure what benefit the extra wide-angle provides, especially as it's at the cost of image quality and readability. There's a chance they will bring HDR to it, like the A119 V3, so that would be nice as it seems to greatly improve nighttime readability.
Would be very interested in hearing others' experiences with some of these or if there are some other options I'm not looking at.
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