Nigel
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- Joined
- Jul 7, 2014
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- Gitup F1+G3ꞈꞈꞈꞈꞈ Viofo A229ꞈꞈꞈꞈꞈ Blueskysea B4K
RedTiger sent me their new ViewClear 70 for "review", they are making a feature of its night time performance, and I was interested in seeing what the new Omnivision OS04J10 "1/1.88" Color 4‑Megapixel (2560 x 1440) CMOS Image Sensor with Wondrix TM, PureCel®Plus and Nyxel® Technologies" can do:
This is a large image sensor, for a dashcam, the same size as the big Sony IMX678 4K Starvis 2 image sensor, so performance should be similar, except the Omnivision is only 4MP, not 4K. RedTiger are accurately calling it 2.5K, the rest of us can call it 2K, as normal for 2560x1440.
The RedTiger ViewClear 70 dashcam actually has a Sony IMX678 for the front image sensor and the Omnivision OS04J10 at the rear, so I mounted both front and rear on the windshield with similar views for comparison. Obviously you don't get the PureCel®Plus etc. on the front image sensor, so RedTiger's night performance advertising is mainly about the rear, where it is important because we don't have headlamps at the rear of our vehicles and tail lamps give out a very limited amount of light. Thankfully RedTiger have implemented HDR on the both front and rear, with both working well, so that puts the VC70 ahead of a lot of the competition. It is not a premium dashcam though, it has been built from lower cost components than you would get in a Viofo, it may have the same front image sensor, but the lens is lower quality, as it the processor, but it is made from 2025 components and everything works easily, even if not perfectly.
The Omnivision OS04J10 image sensor is good, it was released June 2024, although I don't think it was available until this year, so it is new to dashcams. Normally, Omnivision technology is a bit behind Sony, so they need a larger image sensor for the same sensitivity, so a 1/1.8" Omnivision like this tends to have similar performance to the smaller 1/2.8" 2K Sony IMX675 Starvis 2 used in Viofo rear cameras, and a lot of other brands. In the VC70, it seems to be a little more noisy than the Sony IMX678 at the front, but normally matches the amount of motion blur and has very similar dark performance. I tested it alongside a Vantrue E1 Pro, which also has a Sony IMX678 running the Vantrue PlatePix TM technology, the Vantrue was consistently darker, and although it did sometimes do better at reading plates at the expense of image brightness, the RedTiger collected more detail in the shadows and was a generally nicer, more detailed image. I also noticed that the Redtiger was consistently easier to use, a nicer dashcam. It does have a few issues such as vibration in the mount, lack of a CPL, lower quality anti-reflection coatings in the lens, but everything worked as expected, I was able to use the phone app to download videos to my phone quickly and easily, then press the share button and airdrop them to my MacBook and have them in the video editor within seconds, while with the Vantrue E1 Pro, I still haven't found a share button and ended up removing the memory card taking it into the house, and using a USB card reader to transfer the files - the basics are important, an easy to find share button on your app is basic functionality, and if you are on the road and want to share (AirDrop) a video clip with the police officer, then it is essential functionality! The RedTiger passed that test with flying colours! (Another nautical phrase for @Chuck McCoy )
If you are looking for a nice dashcam, with good performance, at a lower price than Viofo then the Redtiger VC70 is worth considering, it definitely doesn't match Viofo standards, but I would choose it over a Vantrue just because of ease of use. Some people won't be happy with the front camera being limited to 25fps, 25fps is fine for accident recording, but if you are going to be making holiday movies, it is far from ideal. RedTiger could easily do better, why have the Front camera at 25fps and the rear at 30fps, it means that you can't make a combined video with the rear view overlayed on the front, without mismatch of the frame timing causing obvious glitching, much better to have them both at 25fps, which the hardware is obviously capable of. It would be a very quick change and the combined video could then play smoothly, even if the steps between frames are quite obvious compared to 60fps video. How smoothly it would play would depend on your playback device, but most will play 25 fps reasonably as long as the 25fps video hasn't been converted to 30fps because of mismatched framerates.
Some example videos in different lighting conditions, tests to follow:
This is a large image sensor, for a dashcam, the same size as the big Sony IMX678 4K Starvis 2 image sensor, so performance should be similar, except the Omnivision is only 4MP, not 4K. RedTiger are accurately calling it 2.5K, the rest of us can call it 2K, as normal for 2560x1440.
The RedTiger ViewClear 70 dashcam actually has a Sony IMX678 for the front image sensor and the Omnivision OS04J10 at the rear, so I mounted both front and rear on the windshield with similar views for comparison. Obviously you don't get the PureCel®Plus etc. on the front image sensor, so RedTiger's night performance advertising is mainly about the rear, where it is important because we don't have headlamps at the rear of our vehicles and tail lamps give out a very limited amount of light. Thankfully RedTiger have implemented HDR on the both front and rear, with both working well, so that puts the VC70 ahead of a lot of the competition. It is not a premium dashcam though, it has been built from lower cost components than you would get in a Viofo, it may have the same front image sensor, but the lens is lower quality, as it the processor, but it is made from 2025 components and everything works easily, even if not perfectly.
The Omnivision OS04J10 image sensor is good, it was released June 2024, although I don't think it was available until this year, so it is new to dashcams. Normally, Omnivision technology is a bit behind Sony, so they need a larger image sensor for the same sensitivity, so a 1/1.8" Omnivision like this tends to have similar performance to the smaller 1/2.8" 2K Sony IMX675 Starvis 2 used in Viofo rear cameras, and a lot of other brands. In the VC70, it seems to be a little more noisy than the Sony IMX678 at the front, but normally matches the amount of motion blur and has very similar dark performance. I tested it alongside a Vantrue E1 Pro, which also has a Sony IMX678 running the Vantrue PlatePix TM technology, the Vantrue was consistently darker, and although it did sometimes do better at reading plates at the expense of image brightness, the RedTiger collected more detail in the shadows and was a generally nicer, more detailed image. I also noticed that the Redtiger was consistently easier to use, a nicer dashcam. It does have a few issues such as vibration in the mount, lack of a CPL, lower quality anti-reflection coatings in the lens, but everything worked as expected, I was able to use the phone app to download videos to my phone quickly and easily, then press the share button and airdrop them to my MacBook and have them in the video editor within seconds, while with the Vantrue E1 Pro, I still haven't found a share button and ended up removing the memory card taking it into the house, and using a USB card reader to transfer the files - the basics are important, an easy to find share button on your app is basic functionality, and if you are on the road and want to share (AirDrop) a video clip with the police officer, then it is essential functionality! The RedTiger passed that test with flying colours! (Another nautical phrase for @Chuck McCoy )
If you are looking for a nice dashcam, with good performance, at a lower price than Viofo then the Redtiger VC70 is worth considering, it definitely doesn't match Viofo standards, but I would choose it over a Vantrue just because of ease of use. Some people won't be happy with the front camera being limited to 25fps, 25fps is fine for accident recording, but if you are going to be making holiday movies, it is far from ideal. RedTiger could easily do better, why have the Front camera at 25fps and the rear at 30fps, it means that you can't make a combined video with the rear view overlayed on the front, without mismatch of the frame timing causing obvious glitching, much better to have them both at 25fps, which the hardware is obviously capable of. It would be a very quick change and the combined video could then play smoothly, even if the steps between frames are quite obvious compared to 60fps video. How smoothly it would play would depend on your playback device, but most will play 25 fps reasonably as long as the 25fps video hasn't been converted to 30fps because of mismatched framerates.
Some example videos in different lighting conditions, tests to follow:
