Dash cam recommendations for 2021

You said,"coming from a much more expensive blackvue camera..." Why did you choose this model over the blackvue models? I have been looking at the blackvue but now you have me thinking I don't need to pay for a brand. Does yours have parking mode?

 

The cmos sensor failed on my blackvue and I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money again. Time will tell if this one will last, no complaints so far though. I believe it does have parking mode, but I don’t use it because I need to get a new battery first

 

Viofo A119 V3 is amazing quality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr4ha-OhKn8

 

Man, the quality of these 4k cams is night and day compared to my roav lol. I'm so eager now to throw both of our cams in the trash after my final test with the hardwirekit failed. Both of our cams are still struggling and randomly freezing. So moving forward, we're probably going with the viofo, blueskysea or thinkware models. Still trying to decide on that.


On another note, we should turn this thread into a collection of our video captures

Here's when my camera decided to work. Guy cuts me off while flipping me the bird at the same time.

https://youtu.be/9Wt5to2ITZ8

 

Wow. Good thing you had the camera too, he probably would have said you rear ended him.

 

GRRRRR what on earth....how bad was the damage to your rig?

 

So I've had it with my current set up. I tried everything. So I settled with Viofo A139, it has everything I want and need for a decent price and I was also able to find a promo code.

Thanks to @Bannerman for recommending this brand.



I'll give my review when it arrives from the other side of the world.

 

I have a front bumper so not a mark

 

The new dash can has been an absolute treat. I highly recommend Viofo.

I caught this minor misshap today. Who's fault?

https://youtu.be/_cbqX4ztiiw

 

I run the blackvue dr900x-2ch plus a viofo a119 v3 in my Tacoma currently.

Blackvue is known for not having the best video quality out there but their parking mode is the most advanced, at least especially if you use the 4G LTE option that lets you watch live streams and get impact notifications while your truck is parked sent to your phone.

I run the a119 v3 as a second front camera because it has excellent video quality, and just a nice way to have redundancy for me.

Thinkware is up there in terms of parking mode, but it's cloud features are not as advanced. Blackvue has been in the cloud dash cam business for over 5 years now and really ahead of other companies.

Viofo is hit or miss, some of their cameras have good automatic buffered parking mode, but not all. They are inconsistent because they just started recently offering buffered parking. Buffered parking means it saves 10-15 seconds before the motion or impact triggers it, cams without this feature will start recording a second, sometimes 5 seconds, after it senses something so you might miss the important part.

I am currently testing a Garmin Mini 2 and from what I've seen they have really upped their parking mode and added cloud features (although you need wifi, no 4G LTE) and hope to have my review up next month.

 

Reading your post, I am now highly considering the Blackvue DR900. Did you find running both has no interference with each other?

 

I have not had any issue with them. The A119 V3 is such a basic cam, part of the reason I like it. My friend says his vantrue camera for some reason blocks his proximity sensor in his tundra, or something like that, not sure how that is possible, but can't think of any instances of dash cams interfering with other gadgets besides that.

There is a new "dr900x-2ch plus" out this month. i know it sounds weird that i said "I run the blackvue dr900x-2ch plus a viofo a119 v3 in my Tacoma currently." but I do mean the original dr900x-2ch and the viofo. I also have the new new "plus" model which is new for 2021 this month that added a few updates. I have the new plus model but haven't installed it yet as I am in the middle or reviewing a few other cams too. I am considering finally after a few years swapping out the A119 V3 for the garmin mini 2 because I have been using that and really liking it.

Some people think the DR750X cams are the better option because they are cheaper and some think the 4K in the DR900 isn't a big enough difference. I would compare the two and see if you think its worth it. I use it because the companies send them for review and they usually send the top end model lol. Sometimes when you are driving fast, the video gets a bit blockier and you might not notice a huge difference in the 4k when its getting pixelated. but during parking mode when everything is still it is more noticeable.

 

Over the past few months the A139 has only let me down couples times.

1. I've come out to my truck to find my car battery is dead. I have the cam wired into my fuse panel and I'm certain I installed everything correctly. Parking mode must be the culprit.

2. A few times I found the camera has completely froze and had to be rebooted. (I feel like this might also be the cause of my battery dying.)

But other than that, it's been awesome. I just wish it had a wifi anytime option so that I can check on the truck from anywhere.

 

Does it have the parking timer in the settings? If so I would use a timer. Even though its supposed to cut power before your battery gets too low, if you are always running parking mode and not driving enough you eventually are just always running a low battery. Viofo's parking mode is pretty good on some cams, but its inconsistent so not all features are available on all cams. A timer function was something they didn't have a few years ago and when I had reviewed one of the cams for Viofo that was one of the main features I said they should have. If you don't have that feature you might be able to get it with a firmware update.

I am testing the new Viofo T130 and the parking timer is already in it. I think the A139 did not when I first got it.

 

Update to this purchase. Finally had an incident (no actual accident occurred) that was super close. Guy tried cutting me off on the freeway getting over onto an interchange ramp cause he apparently couldn't read the signs a half mile back... i slammed on my brakes because he was coming right for the side of my truck, he ended up driving into the "V" between where the two freeways split off and then proceeded to pull out right in front of the car that was behind me. Anyways, no accident but i did end up pulling the memory card out of the Apeman C450 to see how it looked. Caught everything on camera (front a front point of view), quality was very good... overall, very happy with this purchase!

 

Right on! Any chance we can see the footage?

 

Sorry I just saw your reply. Yeah it has the parking recording timer.

I recently had AAA come check the battery they sold me and the guy ended up replacing it for free. I feel I got a bit lucky there.

I continue to monitor the voltage on the new one through my head unit. Nothing out of the ordinary yet.

Ya since the pandemic started I haven't been forced to drive as much as I use to. What would you recommend I set the timer feature to?





Also, What would you recommend to help it from freezing?

Thanks

 

I personally always used 12 hours but if I parked somewhere sketchy and knew I'd be there longer I'd switch it to 24 hours. I don't often park in public for long periods tho.

It's hard to know what's best because different cams use different amounts of power. I am currently upgrading from the blackvue dr900x to the dr900x plus which goes from 6 hour timer increments to hour increments. 12 hour was too much for my 92ah dual purpose battery but I use the 4G LTE which has to use quite a bit more power. After about 5 days it was giving me low voltage warnings. That's one of the cool features of Blackvue cloud cams, your phone gets notifications if your battery is getting low. But I also only drive 10 min each way to work, and any typical shopping I do is only a few min out of the way.

I'd just keep testing your battery. What I did is used a voltage reader to check my trucks battery in the morning to see how much it dropped over night. Now that I have hour increments I am gonna see if I can manage 9 hours.

 

Right on! Thank you for the info, much appreciated. Have you encounter any of the cams you've tested freeze? I've come out to my truck to find it non-responsive and I'll have to do a unplug reboot...

This is the third cam that I've owned that does this.