What is your top 3 brands to look for when looking for a dashcam?

[Finn Jensen]

Hey all,

I'm working for a Danish dashcam webshop called Dcams.dk, and we're thinking about improving our brand selection on the site. Right now, we only have our own brand there.

If you had to mention 3 brands that every serious webshop selling dashcams should have, which brands would you choose?

Looking forward to see which brands you guys prefer - thanks!

 

[kamkar]

Hej Finn.

After having observing the Danes choices of dashcams for a decade, at least as far as i have been able to tell from parked cars, or in traffic.
Then Danes tend to focus on either very cheap systems, or the expensive ones like blackvue and Thinkware, but mostly cheap Chinese systems.

My favorite brand, and one which i am affiliated with as a tester for them are street guardian, their cameras are fine, and their service outstanding, which is probably also why the company boss are the top ranked user on this forum.
In general its only in the weekends you can be unlucky and not get a official RPLY in here on that brand in minutes, though they have resellers in every corner of the world today even they have to sleep some times.

If you want any of the smart cameras then Blackvue and Thinkware are the main players, also some of the first ones to put out 4K systems.
Personally i am not that big on smart features in dashcams, so i have never sampled those brands, but their sub forums in here see a fair amount of traffic.

Viofo are also a okay brand, they support their products okay and quality are fine too, and the brand also see the biggest modding scene of custom firmware's with tweaks made by users.

 

[Mtz]

I don't know how he will sell brands like Viofo, Thinkware, Blackvue near all his no-name cameras. For me is a surprise that danish people are buying cameras with no brand name.
If the unknown T10 dashcam from that website costs $220 when China price is about $30 I imagine that a Thinkware will cost over $1000. So better to stay with most cheap chinese dashcams, but to be sure to offer 2 years warranty.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[kamkar]

Danes are cheap bastards, at least if it don't have any bragging rights like smartphones / TVs or cars, for those things Danes will break the bank.
But still dashcams are not really a big thing here, though i do see more and more of them, so most buy something cheap and forget about it, and will probably be let down when they finally need the footage.
Or they buy something fancy like the blackvue and thinkware systems, with trigger words / features like wifi / APP / cloud storage and what not.

Every other dashcam owner i have engaged with ( except one ) have all looked strange like me when i told them to check their camera footage on a regular basis and do a in camera format now and then.
Now i have never said anything about my experience in this field, but the around 10 cameras in my car i would assume should make people think " this guy are serious about it"

 

[USDashCamera]

For me it is blackvue, thinkware, and viofo. Personally thinkware has become my fav.

blackvue has the best cloud feature hands down, especially once they get their 4G LTE feature out, but it seems their cameras suffer from over heating more than comparable brands like thinkware. supposedly the new 750X/900X models will help that. Also in the 5 1/2 years I've been apart of the community it seems like they suffer from focus issues. My DR900 seems to be suffering from it, as my DR550 5 years ago did too. I remember one of my first youtube videos was how to fix the focus.

thinkware doesn't have as good of cloud features, but i think overall they are my fav because they do everything, cloud, good parking, decent video quality (especially the new U1000). I have never had one overheat in the 3 or so years I have been using their models. I have used the F770, F800, F800 Pro, Q800 Pro, and now recently the U1000. Although the U1000 I just got recently and live in Minnesota so I havent had a chance to test that one in heat yet.

for the record, advanced buffered parking mode is one of my most important features, for some thats not what they want, but it is for me. So thats a huge reason those two brands are in my top 3.

Viofo seems to be hit or miss, but at the least they tend to bring great video quality for a low price. Now with parking mode 2.0 and buffered parking mode they are getting more and more advanced. They definitely are behind blackvue and thinkware in terms for parking mode and no cloud, but you look at the A119 V3 and the video quality is just so great. Blackvue and thinkware don't offer cheaper models that lack fancy features, but have better video quality. Its basically all or nothing with them.

I know street guardian is loved around here, and I know they have great quality and customer service. Honestly tho, I lost some excitement waiting so long for the dual remote lens model. @jokiin whens it coming!!!!???

 

[SawMaster]

For the purposes or retailing at a profit, I'm not sure any of the noteworthy cams or brands will work unless you can arrange for a steep purchasing discount. Even then, that's probably not going to allow you an equal or better price than people can find online by themselves. Something of the same goes with cheap cams unless the buyers aren't aware of or willing to do business with the Chinese mega-stores like GearBest, Banggood, or AliExpress. It's a tough situation.

So my advice would be to contact the manufacturers of cams you want to sell and see what kind of prices they will offer you- also whether you can become an official distributor of their goods in your area (if nobody else hasn't taken that position by now). For cheap cams, perhaps find one or two with decent reputations like the G1W/H or 'orphans' like the G1W/S that may be available at volume-discounted prices.

I've considered going into the dashcam retailing business in my area, as the huge and growing population here should well support it. I've also got an idea which would probably increase possible sales and profits here considerably, along with other ideas which would also help. AFAIK nobody else is using these techniques to sell dashcams locally but they're already working reasonably well for several other products which are less suited for these kinds of concepts. Only a lack of time and capital funding deters me right now- I already know enough about business to make it work out. I don't see enough potential for my plans to generate great profits; TBH I don't see any but national-level authorized sellers of well-known brands making a living through dashcam sales alone, and those positions are already taken but it could make a good supplemental income. I'm hoping to get this going in my retirement years (not too far away) but things may change in the world by then so who knows...

Phil

 

[kamkar]

Well if you sell a cheap Chinese camera here, then you have to adhere to the Danish / EU warranty rules.
So you risk having to send a customer a new camera now and then when the cheap camera have failed, and no matter the price they have paid most people will get infuriated when it fail.
Especially if they had a event where they actually need the footage.

SO if i was to sell a dashcam in Denmark i would only sell the brands that would ensure i was able to do really good customer care, without me constantly having to blow my personal profit on that.
And i would also only sell the dashcam brands that are proactive in the support of their old and new models, so this mean that there are precious few dashcams i would be able to sell to the Danes.
Also with the Danish sales tax being higher than just about any other EU country, in a competitive perspective i am on the loosing end to start with.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

For the purposes or retailing at a profit, I'm not sure any of the noteworthy cams or brands will work unless you can arrange for a steep purchasing discount. Even then, that's probably not going to allow you an equal or better price than people can find online by themselves. Something of the same goes with cheap cams unless the buyers aren't aware of or willing to do business with the Chinese mega-stores like GearBest, Banggood, or AliExpress. It's a tough situation.

So my advice would be to contact the manufacturers of cams you want to sell and see what kind of prices they will offer you- also whether you can become an official distributor of their goods in your area (if nobody else hasn't taken that position by now). For cheap cams, perhaps find one or two with decent reputations like the G1W/H or 'orphans' like the G1W/S that may be available at volume-discounted prices.

I've considered going into the dashcam retailing business in my area, as the huge and growing population here should well support it. I've also got an idea which would probably increase possible sales and profits here considerably, along with other ideas which would also help. AFAIK nobody else is using these techniques to sell dashcams locally but they're already working reasonably well for several other products which are less suited for these kinds of concepts. Only a lack of time and capital funding deters me right now- I already know enough about business to make it work out. I don't see enough potential for my plans to generate great profits; TBH I don't see any but national-level authorized sellers of well-known brands making a living through dashcam sales alone, and those positions are already taken but it could make a good supplemental income. I'm hoping to get this going in my retirement years (not too far away) but things may change in the world by then so who knows...

Phil

I think you would do a great job! Knowledge, integrity and work ethic will indeed set you apart from any competition...if any

 

[Mtz]

Well if you sell a cheap Chinese camera here, then you have to adhere to the Danish / EU warranty rules.
So you risk having to send a customer a new camera now and then when the cheap camera have failed, and no matter the price they have paid most people will get infuriated when it fail.

Just imagine the quality of the dashcams from the OP website if all are no-name, support max. 32GB cards. That website is like selling cameras from some chinese manufacturer, he imported all his models. I can not imagine how can I pay ever $225 for a no-name full hd dashcam which is looking like this:

Is $200 cheap in Danmark?

If the OP is selling above dashcam for $225 I expect the Thinkware or Blacvue to have prices like $1000 and Viofo like $600.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[kamkar]

No 200 EURO are substantial money i think, it is about 10% of a monthly wage for a unskilled worker after tax. or my monthly pension and pretty much what i have for "fun" and games or savings every month after the normal expenses.
Or 3 tanks of gasoline for my little Suzuki car, or it is 1/3 of the rent i pay for my 2 room apartment ( which are fairly cheap, if you go the the inner city of a major town a apartment like mine will easy be 3-4 X of what i pay here.
I would save some money and go for a viofo A 119 V3 instead, or a A 129 if i wanted 2 channels, or add 50 more and go for the A 129 pro for dual + 4K on the front camera.

I am sort of hoping to see a dual 1440p system, but 4K / 1080 are probably going to thump that.

 

[Mtz]

In 2020 will be full of 2K + FHD dashcams.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[lacibaci]

Past two or three years I've been using Garmin offerings and at least for now I found no reason to switch. Both models have been very reliable, picture quality is decent and parking mode works well.

 

[kamkar]

Yeah i think the Garmins are okay too, don't get all too much flack, and i actually think many use them as it is a brand they are familiar with.

 

[Finn Jensen]

Thanks a lot for all your comments, much appreciated! I will look into some of all the brands and ideas mentioned.