Viofo A119 Pro Dash Cam - (Banggood.com)
-I am trying to get a discount code for forum members, if I do I'll post this here.-
A few weeks back I received the Viofo A119 Pro from Banggood.com and wanted to give it a few days/weeks to see how I got on with it before I posted a review. Annoyingly my car was in the dealership for almost two weeks so I had a lot less time with the camera than I'd hoped. I wanted to get the review posted sooner but I needed more time to make up my mind.
My dashcam history isn't that amazing but I've had the opportunity to test a few cheaper cameras over the last couple of months and the A119 Pro beats the rest hands down. The other cameras were all sub £50(ish) such as the Vikcam V168, "Apeman FHD 1080 Dashcam", "Jeemak Full HD mini car camera" and a couple of others that I wont name because they were utter rubbish. I also tested a couple of other cameras that claimed 4k resolution but they all lied.
I've had my eye on the A119 style cameras for a long time as it seems they are the camera that lots of the cheaper ones are trying to immiate and they are clearly trying to imitate something that works very well. The unit is compact yet feels sturdy. Comparing it to any of the other cameras you can feel that this is in a different class. The plastic feels more expensive. The unit feels better weighted and it just feels like it should cost more. When you move on to the screen and other functions it is obvious it costs more.
Out of the box the first thing I did was to check the firmware was updated. It was up to date but since I've had the camera I've updated it again making slight improvements. This is the most recent firmware at time of writing - http://support.viofo.com/support/so...81662-viofo-a119-pro-car-dash-camera-firmware
Honestly the firmware seems a bit lagging and I'm hoping a revision doesn't take too long. I made a school boy error when I first tried updating the firmware and I honestly thought I'd bricked the camera. Read the insructions but basically whilst it's updating the screen goes completely black and a single red light flashes dimly indicating the firmware is being updated. The manual does say this and it is VERY clear I just happened to skip over this bit.
Installing the dash cam was simple as per all of the other cameras. I mounted it as high up as possible on the thinner of the backing plates. My windscreen is of such an angle that I can get away with the thinner backing plate meaning there are fewer reflections. I straight away removed it and put on the circular polarising filter. My dashboard must be super reflective or something as I was showing more of my dashboard than outside before I fitted the CPL. My camera didn't include one in the box but I'd already ordered one from Amazon. I noticed that there was two sellers of the "A119 CPL" and one was £3 or so cheaper than the other. Both sellers are selling the exact same item so I kept the cheaper one and returned the more expensive one. They wasn't just similar, the boxes were the same and the product was identical. I found this amusing seeing people give amazing praise for the more expensive one but not so much for the cheaper one. I tested them side by side and I'm 99.9% certain they are the same product. From outside the car the camera is almost invisible due to the black dots on the glass. If there is any form of sunlight reflection you're really hard pushed to see the camera. At night it is invisible.
https://chrisc.uk/IMG_20180508_084303.jpg
https://chrisc.uk/IMG_20180508_084320.jpg
From the passenger's seat it looks like this:
https://chrisc.uk/IMG_20180508_084043.jpg
From the driver's seat it looks like this:
[photo from drivers seat]
The power cord is long enough and I appreciate the fact that this cable terminates in a full size USB rather than direct to a 12v plug like lots of the cheaper ones. This is useful as I've got a nice 12v port under the dash and with the supplied 12v USB adapter it is really discreet compared to the much larger plugs that my passengers have said get rather close to their knees.
[photo showing small vs large]
Video
There is a growing selection of videos to view online from this camera and I've not got the ability to do a side by side video showing this camera against others but hopefully seeing this video will show you how well it performs in different situations. Due to youtube messing up bit rates I've also uploaded the full file for download. All video is recorded in 2560×1440 @ 30fps with the CPL filter. I've merged multiple snippets together.
Youtube Link:
Direct File: https://chrisc.uk/dashcam.mp4
Still photo - for some reason this comes out at 1920 x 1080 rather than the larger resolution for the normal video.
http://chrisc.uk/2018_0531_143437_409.JPG
I will let you make judgement on the video but personally I am very happy with the video. The dashcam also has decent audio for a dashcam which some might appreciate. Often you'll hear me laughing or me playing with my loud exhaust but I'm sure there could be times when people find a use for this sort of thing.
I have tried numerous features on the camera like lane departure warning (don't bother) and front collision warning (again, don't bother) and I've got to agree with leaving the g-sensor set to middle rather than high as I've found I can get emergency recordings with aggressive driving or sometimes even with speed bumps! I have tested the time lapse option which I don't need and the parking mode which is far more useful but at the moment I have the dashcam only on with ignition (and 5 mins after) so I don;t get much from these recordings. They do work well if you've got it hardwired as I have tested with a powerbank and the flexibility of choosing a frame rate for the parking recordings is useful. I tested with just 1fps and this works very well.
I have not tested the additional GPS module as when I received the item it did not include one but since I received the camera I have purchased the GPS module separately on ebay for £10 or so. These work with all of the A119 models so this should "just work".
I've love to say that this is a perfect dashcam but honestly it's not. It's a 4 star dashcam with the potential to be a full 5. All it needs is for Viofo to put a bit more time into the firmware to make it right.
If you use banggood please remember that there is a 10% off coupon the first time you log into the app on your phone
Also there is a mid year sale on at the moment with 80% off of some items
-I am trying to get a discount code for forum members, if I do I'll post this here.-
A few weeks back I received the Viofo A119 Pro from Banggood.com and wanted to give it a few days/weeks to see how I got on with it before I posted a review. Annoyingly my car was in the dealership for almost two weeks so I had a lot less time with the camera than I'd hoped. I wanted to get the review posted sooner but I needed more time to make up my mind.
My dashcam history isn't that amazing but I've had the opportunity to test a few cheaper cameras over the last couple of months and the A119 Pro beats the rest hands down. The other cameras were all sub £50(ish) such as the Vikcam V168, "Apeman FHD 1080 Dashcam", "Jeemak Full HD mini car camera" and a couple of others that I wont name because they were utter rubbish. I also tested a couple of other cameras that claimed 4k resolution but they all lied.
I've had my eye on the A119 style cameras for a long time as it seems they are the camera that lots of the cheaper ones are trying to immiate and they are clearly trying to imitate something that works very well. The unit is compact yet feels sturdy. Comparing it to any of the other cameras you can feel that this is in a different class. The plastic feels more expensive. The unit feels better weighted and it just feels like it should cost more. When you move on to the screen and other functions it is obvious it costs more.
Out of the box the first thing I did was to check the firmware was updated. It was up to date but since I've had the camera I've updated it again making slight improvements. This is the most recent firmware at time of writing - http://support.viofo.com/support/so...81662-viofo-a119-pro-car-dash-camera-firmware
Honestly the firmware seems a bit lagging and I'm hoping a revision doesn't take too long. I made a school boy error when I first tried updating the firmware and I honestly thought I'd bricked the camera. Read the insructions but basically whilst it's updating the screen goes completely black and a single red light flashes dimly indicating the firmware is being updated. The manual does say this and it is VERY clear I just happened to skip over this bit.
Installing the dash cam was simple as per all of the other cameras. I mounted it as high up as possible on the thinner of the backing plates. My windscreen is of such an angle that I can get away with the thinner backing plate meaning there are fewer reflections. I straight away removed it and put on the circular polarising filter. My dashboard must be super reflective or something as I was showing more of my dashboard than outside before I fitted the CPL. My camera didn't include one in the box but I'd already ordered one from Amazon. I noticed that there was two sellers of the "A119 CPL" and one was £3 or so cheaper than the other. Both sellers are selling the exact same item so I kept the cheaper one and returned the more expensive one. They wasn't just similar, the boxes were the same and the product was identical. I found this amusing seeing people give amazing praise for the more expensive one but not so much for the cheaper one. I tested them side by side and I'm 99.9% certain they are the same product. From outside the car the camera is almost invisible due to the black dots on the glass. If there is any form of sunlight reflection you're really hard pushed to see the camera. At night it is invisible.
https://chrisc.uk/IMG_20180508_084303.jpg
https://chrisc.uk/IMG_20180508_084320.jpg
From the passenger's seat it looks like this:
https://chrisc.uk/IMG_20180508_084043.jpg
From the driver's seat it looks like this:
[photo from drivers seat]
The power cord is long enough and I appreciate the fact that this cable terminates in a full size USB rather than direct to a 12v plug like lots of the cheaper ones. This is useful as I've got a nice 12v port under the dash and with the supplied 12v USB adapter it is really discreet compared to the much larger plugs that my passengers have said get rather close to their knees.
[photo showing small vs large]
Video
There is a growing selection of videos to view online from this camera and I've not got the ability to do a side by side video showing this camera against others but hopefully seeing this video will show you how well it performs in different situations. Due to youtube messing up bit rates I've also uploaded the full file for download. All video is recorded in 2560×1440 @ 30fps with the CPL filter. I've merged multiple snippets together.
Youtube Link:
Still photo - for some reason this comes out at 1920 x 1080 rather than the larger resolution for the normal video.
I will let you make judgement on the video but personally I am very happy with the video. The dashcam also has decent audio for a dashcam which some might appreciate. Often you'll hear me laughing or me playing with my loud exhaust but I'm sure there could be times when people find a use for this sort of thing.
I have tried numerous features on the camera like lane departure warning (don't bother) and front collision warning (again, don't bother) and I've got to agree with leaving the g-sensor set to middle rather than high as I've found I can get emergency recordings with aggressive driving or sometimes even with speed bumps! I have tested the time lapse option which I don't need and the parking mode which is far more useful but at the moment I have the dashcam only on with ignition (and 5 mins after) so I don;t get much from these recordings. They do work well if you've got it hardwired as I have tested with a powerbank and the flexibility of choosing a frame rate for the parking recordings is useful. I tested with just 1fps and this works very well.
I have not tested the additional GPS module as when I received the item it did not include one but since I received the camera I have purchased the GPS module separately on ebay for £10 or so. These work with all of the A119 models so this should "just work".
I've love to say that this is a perfect dashcam but honestly it's not. It's a 4 star dashcam with the potential to be a full 5. All it needs is for Viofo to put a bit more time into the firmware to make it right.
If you use banggood please remember that there is a 10% off coupon the first time you log into the app on your phone
Also there is a mid year sale on at the moment with 80% off of some items
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