VIOFO A119 Mini 2 - Test and Review RCG

[rcg530]

I was issued a discount code for the A119 Mini 2 when purchased on the Amazon.com or Viofo.com websites. Please check out my company's website blog post with that information.

Save Money On Your Purchase Of A VIOFO A119 Mini 2

 

[Han Solo]

Many thanks but I already acquired A119 Mini 2 from local Viofo representative.

 

[JDtime]

Sigh to buy the mini 2 or to just keep using the mini gen 1.. not really interested in the voice commands just image quality and is it a big enough of a jump to switch... thoughts?

 

[rcg530]

Sigh to buy the mini 2 or to just keep using the mini gen 1.. not really interested in the voice commands just image quality and is it a big enough of a jump to switch... thoughts?

IMO, the Mini 2 HDR feature overall work "better" and the Mini 2 image quality is improved over the Mini 1. If your Mini 1 is working well for you, the Mini 2 would be a "nice to have" upgrade and not necessarily a "must have" upgrade. I think it's close to being a "must have" upgrade!

 

[Dashmellow]

IMO, the Mini 2 HDR feature overall work "better" and the Mini 2 image quality is improved over the Mini 1. If your Mini 1 is working well for you, the Mini 2 would be a "nice to have" upgrade and not necessarily a "must have" upgrade. I think it's close to being a "must have" upgrade!

It's always compelling when a newer technology upgrade comes along for an existing camera but In most circumstances will the Mini 2 protect your interests better than the Mini 1 if you should be involved in an accident? Probably not.

I've been there before with this kind of dash cam purchasing decision and my philosophy over the years has been to be patient. I'll wait until prices start to come down after the camera has been on the market for a while or an especially attractive deal comes along like maybe on Prime Day.

 

[rcg530]

VIOFO just published a 30 second promo video for the A119 Mini 2. I supplied VIOFO some sample footage from my Mini 2 and they used a few seconds of my footage (daytime driving in a nearby city - Folsom, CA).

 

[Han Solo]

I understand that you want to use time-lapse parking mode. My statement about motion was related to the criteria for the dash camera to switch from normal recording mode to parking mode. There's a 5-minute requirement for the vehicle and objects within the view of the dash camera to be motionless before this approach to entering parking mode will allow the dash camera to enter parking mode.

I've been trying to get clarification from VIOFO about entering parking mode when not powered by one of their hardwire kits and it's been a bit mixed in the definition. They have stated you should use the VIOFO supplied USB cable and not a third party cable. The 5-minute period of no motion seems to involve what is visible within the field of view of the dash camera(s). It can take longer than 5-minutes if motion is detected within the field of view of the camera(s) or if the is an obvious light level change.

If it were me, I might still get the HK4 hardwire kit and create a wiring harness for the battery pack power source that allows the HK4 to get 12-volt power from the battery pack. The battery pack will of course provide constant power, but you can simulate ACC power by having one wire from the battery pack's 12V power connect to the HK4's battery wire, another wire from the battery pack's 12V power would have a SPST switch which will let you simulate ACC power. When you plug the HK4 into the battery pack's 12V power port (with this custom cable), you'll have the ACC+ switch "On". Let the dash camera boot and after it starts recording in normal mode, turn off the SPST switch for the ACC power in that cable and the dash camera will enter parking mode immediately. I've had to create a few of those 12-volt to hardwire cable/kit cables with a switch to simulate the ACC power to power the dash cameras in my filming studio with a 12V AC-to-DC power supply.

Well, I installed my camera and did a little testing and to my surprise there is a time-lapse mode available in normal mode, other than in parking mode.
I successfully started and recorded with no HW kit or other tricks a time-lapse video at 1fps.
Time-lapse is mutually exclusive with normal recording mode, so to return to normal recording mode you have to disable time-lapse mode.

 

[Ousayo]

Here are my preliminary power consumption results with the v1.0_20230423 firmware that was installed in the A119 Mini 2 when it was released (at least my test version of the A119 Mini 2). This firmware does allow the recording bitrate to vary depending on the amount of activity within the field of view. A firmware which uses a constant bitrate is believed to be in the works for the A119 Mini 2.

View attachment 65551

Have you tested Time Lapse Recording power consumption at 1/3/5 fps as well? Was the difference too marginal to the 10 fps to include it in the table?
From looking at your table, it's not really worth it to use LBR when AED has the same (or even less without motion) power consumption.
Would be interesting to see if 1/3/5 fps can reach <2 Watts (max/avg).

 

[rcg530]

Have you tested Time Lapse Recording power consumption at 1/3/5 fps as well? Was the difference too marginal to the 10 fps to include it in the table?
From looking at your table, it's not really worth it to use LBR when AED has the same (or even less without motion) power consumption.
Would be interesting to see if 1/3/5 fps can reach <2 Watts (max/avg).

No, I have not tested each FPS setting for time-lapse parking mode. I test the highest FPS setting in that mode which should result in the highest power consumption. I prefer to use low bitrate parking mode (when a dash camera supports it) so I capture everything going on near my vehicle or the the general area that AED would not necessarily detect and record.

 

[nelim]

Here are my preliminary power consumption results with the v1.0_20230423 firmware that was installed in the A119 Mini 2 when it was released (at least my test version of the A119 Mini 2). This firmware does allow the recording bitrate to vary depending on the amount of activity within the field of view. A firmware which uses a constant bitrate is believed to be in the works for the A119 Mini 2.

View attachment 65551

Hello, new to Parking Mode dashcams and wondering if its ok to buy HK4 kit and attach Mini2.
I'm noticing power consumption when PM is almost the same as recording permanently, so PM is only good for saving SD card space?

How much time will normal car battery(for example 100ah) last before reaching 11.8 cut-off voltage ? Can it make it for 24hours at least without additional power bank?

 

[rcg530]

Hello, new to Parking Mode dashcams and wondering if its ok to buy HK4 kit and attach Mini2.
I'm noticing power consumption when PM is almost the same as recording permanently, so PM is only good for saving SD card space?

How much time will normal car battery(for example 100ah) last before reaching 11.8 cut-off voltage ? Can it make it for 24hours at least without additional power bank?

There are too many factors involved with regard to estimating how long a dash camera will operate with a vehicle battery (age of the battery, charge level, temperature, other vehicle power draws) to give any sort of accurate estimate with a vehicle battery powering a dash camera. The parking modes for the A119 Mini 2 do consume nearly as much power as it uses while in normal recording mode. The VIOFO auto event detection parking mode implementation consumes power to have it monitor for motion to allow it to have a buffered recording (15 seconds before triggering motion / 30 seconds after). Depending on the vehicle, draining the vehicle starting battery down to 11.8 volts may be too low. I usually recommend to set the low voltage cutoff to 12.2 volts or at a minimum of 12.0 volts. The low voltage cutoff detection logic can vary a bit from unit to unit and there's usually a +/- 0.1 to 0.2 volts variance allowed. That means the 11.8 setting might result in an actual 11.6 to 12.0 voltage cutoff.

I would suspect your vehicle's battery should be able to power the A119 Mini 2 in parking mode for 1 to 2 days without a problem, but that depends on the factors mentioned above.

My current estimates for parking mode runtimes using a dash camera battery pack:

 

[Karagandinez]

Hello, new to Parking Mode dashcams and wondering if its ok to buy HK4 kit and attach Mini2.
I'm noticing power consumption when PM is almost the same as recording permanently, so PM is only good for saving SD card space?

How much time will normal car battery(for example 100ah) last before reaching 11.8 cut-off voltage ? Can it make it for 24hours at least without additional power bank?

The best way is to leave the DVR in parking mode for 24 hours and see what happens.
My Mini 2 and WM1 work out 12 hours in the parking lot without problems for the battery.
The cutoff is set to 11.8V. Both DVRs are set to turn off after 12 hours of parking and they turn off based on time, not lack of power.
Battery = 90Ah.

 

[JDtime]

Is there an option to turn off the LEDs on the mini 2 camera like their is on the mini gen 1?

 

[JDtime]

Eat.

??

 

[Karagandinez]

??

Yes. There is such a function.

 

[safedrivesolutions]

Another comparison of Mini 2

 

[Panzer Platform]

Another comparison of Mini 2

Yo Ben,
I love your testing videos.
But, you may want to consider posting them in your own testing thread.
-Chuck

 

[safedrivesolutions]

Yo Ben,
I love your testing videos.
But, you may want to consider posting them in your own testing thread.
-Chuck

oh this is roberts specific thread. ha ha Sorry @rcg530

 

[rcg530]

Over the past few weeks of testing the A119 Mini 2, I've found that the new lens used in the A119 Mini 2 compared to the one in the A119 Mini will lose focus clarity as it is exposed to normal use in direct sunlight. I've tested a preproduction unit, a replacement production unit sent to me by VIOFO and a production unit that I purchased from Amazon. All three had varying levels of this problem. All three were out of focus to some degree when cool as well. I've been submitting info to VIOFO and they are investigating the issue. For now, I'm suspending my review of the A119 Mini 2 until I have feedback from VIOFO on when this will be corrected. I really like the A119 Mini 2 with its new Sony STARVIS 2 IMX675 image sensor and the addition of voice commands.

Here are a couple of screenshots from today's driving trip (warm outside temps in the low 80s F to start and low to mid 90s at the end). This A119 Mini 2 doesn't start off with too bad of a focus when cool, but definitely gets worse as it's exposed to my heat/sunlight.

Near the start of my trip / Just after the third parking mode session - High bitrate, CPL installed, HDR Off


Other Dash Cameras near the start of the trip
BlackVue DR970X / Thinkware U3000 / Vantrue N5

 

[Panzer Platform]

Over the past few weeks of testing the A119 Mini 2, I've found that the new lens used in the A119 Mini 2 compared to the one in the A119 Mini will lose focus clarity as it is exposed to normal use in direct sunlight.

I remember @Mtz saying one of the reasons Viofo dash cams have such good image quality was the use of a high quality lens.
I wonder if they have started using a lower quality lens as a cost saving measure?