Snagger Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Hi folks. I’m going to have front and rear Dashcams fitted to my RR as part of the restoration - it seems prudent from an insurance perspective for an expensive car. I have watched at quite a lot of reviews and the VIOFO A229Pro seems to be a good (if expensive) option. Does anyone have experience of these or any other good quality cameras that they’re willing to share? The parked modes are a distinct advantage over those systems which only record while the engine is running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreePointFive Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 I have just installed a Nextbase 222xr, it was very easy to install and the picture clarity is excellent. It's not the cheapest though and I need more usage before I can give any sort of endorsement. It allegedly has parking mode but I've not yet investigated it, noting that if someone is going to steal the car, they've stolen the camera and my access to the recordings. Would be useful for damage, though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snagger Posted January 17 Author Share Posted January 17 1 hour ago, ThreePointFive said: I have just installed a Nextbase 222xr, it was very easy to install and the picture clarity is excellent. It's not the cheapest though and I need more usage before I can give any sort of endorsement. It allegedly has parking mode but I've not yet investigated it, noting that if someone is going to steal the car, they've stolen the camera and my access to the recordings. Would be useful for damage, though. Ability to record damage from other cars while parked is what I want. Some have a wake up function that starts recording after sensing a bump, some sense visual motion. The VIOFO can video continuously and put a marker and save when sensors are triggered or can be passive and then start recording if triggered, depending on settings. Expensive at £300 for the clearer “Pro”, though… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy996 Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 I have a front/rear dashcam in the Grenadier, I would be happy to recommend it as it does its job. It came from Costco, but there is a deal on the Road Angel site, https://www.roadangelgroup.com/products/road-angel-halo-pro-front-and-rear-dash-cam-tradesperson-bundle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPendrey Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 I use the Viofo A119 (front only) camera and it is pretty good. Good image quality, offers the same features of "parking mode" etc., but is front only. It hasn't liked being wet, had a windscreen leak, the LCD is now useless but the camera still works. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 Techmoan used to do very good reviews of dashcams and the Viofo always came out tops as the budget option. You do see a fair bit of decent quality footage with Nextbase watermarked on it too. From what I've seen a hell of a lot of the rest (all the millions of Chinese non-brands) are basically the same junk endlessly re-badged and sold for a lot more money. All the claims made online about resolution & quality are basically meaningless / as all the pictures are badly photoshopped fakes at best, and shooting blurry video through a carp lens and then upscaling it to 4k just to be able to say it records 4k is a waste of everyone's time. Most of the "western" brands (EG stuff sold by Halfords or the AA / RAC etc. etc.) are mostly some random mid-quality Chinese thing with 300% markup. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy996 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 As an example of my Road Angel Halo Pro, here are front and rear shots taken by the system automatically as the pothole rattled the sensor enough. They're taken as the light fades in the centre of Leicester, yesterday. The rear camera is noticeably less clear, as expected with the specification. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snagger Posted January 18 Author Share Posted January 18 Thanks for those pictures, Jeremy. Viofo and Nextbase seem to be the two main competitors on the reviews I have seen, Mia lagging a bit behind but cheaper. Like you said, John, a lot of brands repackage the same parts, but some do use different software to process the output of the two brands of optical sensor with differing results. There is a new generation of Sony sensors that seems higher quality even though same definition, but I think Nextbase and VIOFO are using the same sensor and still get different results, suggesting the software does more than I would have expected. Thanks for the Techmoan review link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 1 hour ago, Snagger said: I think Nextbase and VIOFO are using the same sensor and still get different results, suggesting the software does more than I would have expected. There's a world of stuff that affects the eventual quality - the already mentioned choice of cheap lenses (glass vs plastic, different coatings, general quality, field of view, etc.) plus their whole processing scheme behind it to manage the image quality, and then you have a whole universe of image compression levers you can twiddle (not that those are available to the end user). That's why you can pick a webcam or dashcam with the same claims about resolution as your iPhone but the iPhone will record video that's 10x better quality, because Apple spent a billion dollars on theirs, uses super high quality optics, etc. etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPendrey Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 My dashcam is used to record the lanes I drive. As seen above and below, the quality for "accident evidence" I suspect is dubious. Above I can see there's a white car, maybe a Pug? But that's about all. I suppose in an accident it is better to have some evidence, even if a little fuzzy? Likewise, my own example of when I entered Kents Bottom (shown as Ken's bottom, ooer) at 40mph, number plates are too blurry. Slow down to 5-10mph and it is clear enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 5 minutes ago, SPendrey said: As seen above and below, the quality for "accident evidence" I suspect is dubious. There's a difference - most cameras will be good enough to show what happened, but if it's a hit & run or something they may not be good enough to show who dunnit (pick out a clear number plate or face). Depends what you're looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy996 Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Stills are not the best way to view video footage; it's often better to view a video clip to try and deduce a registration. There is some commercially available software for producing a composite still from a video clip which appears to sharpen a resultant still image. Dashcams will always be a compromise and cost is not always a good indicator of quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snagger Posted January 20 Author Share Posted January 20 This is one of the features that is important for me and why I am looking at the expensive options - most of them seem to do better on number plate clarity and some have software to specifically enhance them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troll Hunter Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 I have a dashcam in my pick-up and a reversing camera in my 110. The latter communicates with my windscreen mounted screen by bluetooth. This is very useful because it saves me having to run wires from the back to the front. Also, the reversing camera is weatherproof and is mounted just above my tow hitch. I get a lovely picture to help me reverse onto my trailer. What I am looking for is a dual camera setup that provides a decent dashcam and a weatherproof back-up camera with bluetooth communication. I don’t want two screens at the top of my windscreen! Has anyone got a recommendation, or even found, such a setup, please? Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snagger Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 Wouldn’t it be great if those double-DIN ICE units could take a second high resolfront camera in addition to the rear camera so they would work as high-end dashcams as well as an entertainment system with reversing camera? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 It's not bluetooth but I've got a very cheap (<£30) eBay rearview mirror camera that accepts a reversing camera input as well as having a forward-facing camera built-in and claims to record to SD card, I only got it as a somewhat-unobtrusive rear-view camera for my trucks as a standard mirror is useless on both of them so it will blend in and fit the muscle memory of glancing in the mirror. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishbosh Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Linky please @FridgeFreezer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Something like but not exactly this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314825880972 Obviously all the usual claims about it being super high quality 4k resolution yet somehow only £23.99 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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