Where are the 4k dual motorcycle dashcams?

DesertBike

Active Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2018
Messages
310
Reaction score
168
Country
United States
As far as I can tell, there still is no such thing as a true 4k dual camera motorcycle dashcam system.

I can't even find "pseudo" 4k. Those do exist in the car dashcam world. Typically you have a 4k front cam and a 1080 or 1440 rear cam. Possibly there's at least one with a 2k rear cam.

Don't see anything like that in the motorcycle dashcam world, and definitely not a real dual 4k system.

Why is this? Some technical limitation?
 
Dual 4K is doable with a range of different hardware available now, the big question is if anyone can lift the burden of development and come up with something they can also make a buck on.
 
Part of this is the market- Nowhere near the sales (and therefore profit) potential as for cars.
Part is the build- Remote cams and a "head unit" which can overheat/suffer interference/see vibration more than car cams do.
Part is allowing for RMA's- Probably a higher percentage of returns from dissatisfied customers.

But I think mostly it's the build. Even well-ventilated 4K cams tend to overheat, and moreso the multi-channel cams, so when you have to watrproof which blocks air cooling you've got problems handling 4K data levels. Not to mentuion most bikers want a GPS that functions well and you already know the problems with that.

I've long ago seen that the SOC approach to dashcams was their biggest limitation but I can offer no alternatives, and in the end that's the biggest problem here. We can't get small, easy, and affordable cams any other way right now so we will continue to see fewer, lesser, and more costly motorcycle cams until that change happens.

Phil
 
Dual 4K is doable with a range of different hardware available now, the big question is if anyone can lift the burden of development and come up with something they can also make a buck on.
so it's economics. Makes sense.
 
Part of this is the market- Nowhere near the sales (and therefore profit) potential as for cars.
Part is the build- Remote cams and a "head unit" which can overheat/suffer interference/see vibration more than car cams do.
Part is allowing for RMA's- Probably a higher percentage of returns from dissatisfied customers.

But I think mostly it's the build. Even well-ventilated 4K cams tend to overheat, and moreso the multi-channel cams, so when you have to watrproof which blocks air cooling you've got problems handling 4K data levels. Not to mentuion most bikers want a GPS that functions well and you already know the problems with that.

I've long ago seen that the SOC approach to dashcams was their biggest limitation but I can offer no alternatives, and in the end that's the biggest problem here. We can't get small, easy, and affordable cams any other way right now so we will continue to see fewer, lesser, and more costly motorcycle cams until that change happens.

Phil
Bet you're right, with 4k there's no getting away from the extra processing power required, which implies heat generation.

GoPro apparently does 4k very well, including some of the best image stabilization, under motorcycling conditions. But, no one would want to pay the cost of two GoPros + the hardware necessary to coordinate their recording. Would probably be close to $2k per unit altogether.
 
Yeah, if it was just a 4K action camera it would be no problem, even if it was a 2 X 4K - 360 camera.
But a 2 X 4K motorcycle camera, that probably keep people from taking the chance at least with the current price for such a project, cuz while there are many bikers out there the market for such a camera are probably small, not least with the price tag such a product would carry ATM.
 
I think it's currently possible if the bitrate were low enough and it were well-engineered for cooling. But a lower bitrate kind of defeats the purpose. It's the sum total of all functions when it comes to heat production, but there's an advantage in having the CMOS's located away from the main unit. When you look at how well some companies like Viofo and Street Guardian can do with lower res video, the need for 4K may not be as strong as what most people think. It's as much in how well it's done as anything else.

IMHO it should be implemented as soon as it can be done well enough, but I don't see it happening quite that quickly. Such is the world of dashcamming :rolleyes:

Phil
 
Quite right, the extra pixels of 4k are of no benefit if the video is full of compression artifacts.

Give me a high-bitrate 1080 picture any day. That's what I'm doing with my two systems. Front cam records at 28 Mbit/s, to maybe have a chance of reading a license plate.

Funny enough, the one time so far I actually used dashcam video to recover damages, it was the rear cam vid that was critical. Front cam vid was not useful, because too much of its field of view was looking through a dirty windshield. I've moved that camera since then.
 
I think if bikers are hit by,,,,,, "misfortune" it is probably a safe bet it is coming from behind.
On the other hand if a biker bring himself in trouble, chance are the best footage will probably be from the front camera.

But the same are probably the case for car drivers.
I have only had 2 events while i have owned dashcams, first time was me getting rear ended in 2016 or so, and second time was that front seat i had in 2019 when a guy ran a red light and was T boned right in front of me.
Other than that the shenanigans i save and share mostly come from my front camera.
 
In my country most vehicles only have a plate on the rear. That's why the front camera needs to capture more detail.
 
Yeah you guys are additional challenged in that department, aside for the small plate witch also often have other graphics on them.
For a euro boy like me its like the Americans do not want their cars to be identifiable :)
 
Last edited:
Identifying the responsible party isn't usually the problem, it's getting them to pay.

Some states do require front plates on cars, but there is no evidence that this has any benefit other than increasing revenue to that state's MVD or MVD-equivalent.

Worked out pretty well for me this last time though.
 
You find no problems seeing me shredding if you dropped my old wrinkly ass in a UTV,,,,, those look helluva fun, and probably more healthy to this now even older Yamaha raptor driver.
I would also like to try MC, but stunt driving, in which case both cameras in a K5 system would have to be installed rather creative, not licensed or brave enough to drive a MC on the road, too dangerous with today's car drivers around.
 
Part of this is the market- Nowhere near the sales (and therefore profit) potential as for cars.
Part is the build- Remote cams and a "head unit" which can overheat/suffer interference/see vibration more than car cams do.
Part is allowing for RMA's- Probably a higher percentage of returns from dissatisfied customers.

But I think mostly it's the build. Even well-ventilated 4K cams tend to overheat, and moreso the multi-channel cams, so when you have to watrproof which blocks air cooling you've got problems handling 4K data levels. Not to mentuion most bikers want a GPS that functions well and you already know the problems with that.

I've long ago seen that the SOC approach to dashcams was their biggest limitation but I can offer no alternatives, and in the end that's the biggest problem here. We can't get small, easy, and affordable cams any other way right now so we will continue to see fewer, lesser, and more costly motorcycle cams until that change happens.

Phil
Lexus Fam can you guys l give me some of yalls recommendations on dash cameras? Thanks for the feedback!!
 
Back
Top