[bravo6]

Originally Posted by Happyrev

Need your opinion before i implement this solution. Do we really need a 4K or even 2K rear camera with a Starvis sensor?

You definitely don't need 4k, it's overkill for dashcams. 2k (1440p) is the sweet spot in terms of resolution vs price, and Starvis sensor gives you more usable low light footage. If I had to buy a dashcam today I'd get 1440p front + 1440p rear (both Starvis v2) instead of my current 4k (regular) + 1080p (Starvis v1).

Has anyone tried buying a 4K cam separately for the front and the back?

Separately as in two separate units, with 2 memory cards, 2 power supplies/hardwire, yes it's possible. They will operate independently of each other. You just need to worry about supplying power to the rear camera as a long USB cable will drop voltage, so you need to send 12V close to the camera and then step it down to 5V.

Does it make sense economically to get a higher resolution back camera separately?

1. No camera can record properly when there's a bright high beam shining right at it, so extra resolution doesn't matter.
   
2. This might be the only way to get dual 4k, which is a lot of data to write to a single micro SD.
   
3. The rear camera might overheat depending on how bad AC airflow is at the back. Even my front will overheat in the daytime when parked (i.e. AC is off) if set to 4k. 1440p is fine though.

I understand the only difficulty would be to connect to two different cameras, this could be cumbersome. Can anyone let me know, are there instances wherein you need footage from both the cameras together?

If you get two of the same cameras with GPS, and enable time stamps in both, it's easy enough to sync both front and rear footage in a video editor. If you start with empty cards, even the filenames should be the same.

Example scenario: In the Accidents thread, in username Funny's video, the rear cam proves the bike was travelling on the wrong side of the divider.

My budget is around 15K and i'm yet to install a dashcam. The sub-standard rear camera available in the bundle is keeping me away from the current dual channel offerings.

Start with a 1440p Starvis v1 or v2 camera on the front and see how you like the video quality. If you're happy, buy another when budget permits and you're done.

Originally Posted by Happyrev

.
- 128 GB internal eMMC storage (Did not notice this feature in the other models).

Don't depend on inbuilt memory, it's useful when (not if) your micro SD fails and you want to keep recording. If you use it regularly, it will fail (just like all solid state memory)

- Older gen Starvis Sensor, how bad can this be?

v1 had worse image quality (but usable) in the daytime and slightly better in low light compared to regular sensor. v2 seems to be much better in low light

Deal breaker: No 60 FPS recording. Not much useful at highway speeds.

enabling 60 fps will force the camera to use a faster shutter speed, which in turn will reduce motion blur. A blurry plate might be unreadable, a dark, sharp plate might be readable.

I see myself leaning towards the Voifo 229. But that's almost INR 25K to buy. Way beyond my budget.

Have a look at the Viofo Mini 2 with the 1440p Starvis v2 sensor. I think that's the cheapest v2 currently.

----------------

Keep in mind that ANY dashcam is infinitely better than having NO dashcam at all. Don't worry about budget/sensor too much. A couple of cheap 1440p ones for 5k will do a good enough job to record what actually transpired, which is what you want, not cinema quality footage. Starvis v2 is nice to have, but it isn't perfect and is limited by motion blur at night, just like any other camera.

[binand]

Originally Posted by Aviator_guy

Also, there are newer models from 70mai such as A510/A810, which you can explore.

Thank you. After reading through (and watching through) several reviews I eventually decided to buy the A810. Another BHPian recommended Konark in HSR Layout; but they said they were out of stock (apparently huge demand in Bangalore for dashcams, I wonder why) and were expecting new stock later Thursday. So today I went there and got it installed.

This video (and channel) helped a lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcbWsqcx0-4

Now I have a hardwiring kit for my old Transcend DP230 to give away. Anyone wants, do let me know. The camera itself is no good; it has ruined 3 SD cards of mine so far.

[binand]

Originally Posted by binand

I eventually decided to buy the A810...

I have a few questions about the parking monitor mode of this model. The staff at Konark repeatedly warned me about activating it ("sir if you leave the car parked for 1-2 days it can completely drain your battery"). Their suggestion is for me to pull out the power cable if I intend to park for a long time. But that defeats the whole purpose of having the feature.

The dashcam's parking monitor setup section has three settings (screenshots below). Right now I have disabled everything.



Question 1: Do I really have to disconnect the Dashcam when parked, or is it fine to simply disable these three? I imagine the camera draws energy from the battery to power its detection algorithm's runs.

Question 2: I would like to activate the first; I don't think I really care about the last and the middle one seems nice to have but not indispensable. When I go to Calicut I do leave the vehicle in a public parking area for 36-72 hours at a stretch; and it is there I definitely want the functionality of #1.

So - is it OK to leave the first on and the remaining two off and leave the vehicle parked for say, 2 days?

Question 3: What is the longest risk-free duration I can leave these three settings on?

[mxx]

I was looking to purchase 4k dashcam with IMX 678 sensor.
Why is that viofi A229 pro costs around Rs.34,000/-, but 70mai A810 costs only around Rs.20,000/- while both have same sensor? The only major different I see is that viofi has super capacitor. But super capacitor is not a Rs.14,000 part.
What am I missing?

[tbppjpr]

Originally Posted by mxx

Why is that viofi A229 pro costs around Rs.34,000/-, but 70mai A810 costs only around Rs.20,000/- while both have same sensor? The only major different I see is that viofi has super capacitor. But super capacitor is not a Rs.14,000 part.
What am I missing?

A229 Pro supports 3 channels whereas A810 is only a dual channel dashcam. You need more processing power to compute the data from 3 cameras. The rear camera also has 1st gen Starvis sensor in A229 pro, these are the reasons I see for the higher price.

You can also consider Vantrue dashcams, they also have models with Starvis sensors and super-capacitor.

[bravo6]

TLDR: a dashcam is for recording while driving. It is not meant for 24x7 CCTV type recording. Short 2-3 hours of parking mode usage is ok. Any longer and you will significantly reduce the life of your car battery. If extended usage of parking mode is required, get a separate battery to power the dashcam.

Originally Posted by binand

Question 1: Do I really have to disconnect the Dashcam when parked, or is it fine to simply disable these three? I imagine the camera draws energy from the battery to power its detection algorithm's runs.

• Hardwire kit should have a low voltage cutoff to prevent draining car battery. If you're parking only for 2-3 hours, then it's fine.
• I personally wouldn't trust it though, so I have a switch that can completely disconnect the dashcam circuit for zero power drain when I'm parking at home for a few days. Since my car is an automatic, I don't want to deal with a flat battery.
• Even if the camera is not recording, it will still consume some power in standby state.

Question 2: I would like to activate the first; I don't think I really care about the last and the middle one seems nice to have but not indispensable. When I go to Calicut I do leave the vehicle in a public parking area for 36-72 hours at a stretch; and it is there I definitely want the functionality of #1.

G sensor triggered recording might actually consume less power than constant recording. However this mode will not record the actual event itself, the there will be a slight delay for it to start recording.

Viofo has "buffered recording" where it is constantly recording to the camera's RAM. If there is a G sensor trigger, it will save 15 secs before the event + 30 secs after the event to the SD card, to get the full story of what happened
While this sounds like the perfect solution to avoid scanning through GBs of videos, there's a flaw in it that's not mentioned in any reviews: there's a gap after the 30 secs recording post the event, where the camera is ready to record again, so if there is another trigger in that interim, there will be no recording of it at all.

I mention this because this was one of the reasons I went with Viofo, but after discovering this flaw, I only use continuous 1440p/30fps recording for parking, to be certain any and all events will be recorded.

So - is it OK to leave the first on and the remaining two off and leave the vehicle parked for say, 2 days?
Question 3: What is the longest risk-free duration I can leave these three settings on?

• Hard to say without knowing how much power the camera consumes. Keep in mind the car manufacturer sized the battery to be big enough to crank the engine a few times, not to run dashcam for a couple of days.
  
• Lead Acid starter batteries are designed to provide high current for short durations. They won't handle being discharged below ~90% very well, unlike home inverter deep cycle batteries that can be discharged to 50%.
  
• As the battery ages, it will provide less recording time before it is unable to crank the engine. So if recording is critical, get a dedicated battery - I've used AGM and LiFePO4, which are heat resistant. Do NOT use Lithium ion/poly power banks.
  
• Your car's alternator may not be capable of recharging a fairly discharged battery. ("Smart" alternator)

Minor scrapes/fender benders are unavoidable and not worth the cost of replacing car battery. Better to tip the parking attendant to take good care of your car.

Originally Posted by mxx

But super capacitor is not a Rs.14,000 part. What am I missing?

A super cap doesn't cost 14k. But your car costs much, much more. Unlike Lithium ion battery, super caps don't catch fire when heated. A fire inside the car can result in total loss.

[250Nm]

Originally Posted by mxx

I was looking to purchase 4k dashcam with IMX 678 sensor.
Why is that viofi A229 pro costs around Rs.34,000/-, but 70mai A810 costs only around Rs.20,000/- while both have same sensor? The only major different I see is that viofi has super capacitor. But super capacitor is not a Rs.14,000 part.
What am I missing?

I believe this is due to Viofo's absence of a strong sales/reseller network in India yet. In the USA, it costs $300 which is around the ₹25K range and is justified for its branding/reliability it offers over other players.

[mxx]

Originally Posted by bravo6

A super cap doesn't cost 14k. But your car costs much, much more. Unlike Lithium ion battery, super caps don't catch fire when heated. A fire inside the car can result in total loss.

Dashcam setting the car on fire is an irrational fear. We have yet to hear any case of car catching fire because of dashcam .
What will happen with Li-ion battery based dashcam (if used continuously in high heat environment) is that battery will give away (bulging, leaking etc) in few years, rendering the dashcam useless. Even when those battery does explodes, the damage is to the dashcam only (like damages casing) rather than the car because the batteries in dashcam is very small to cause a major fire event.

[SaturdayRider]

I will be upgrading to a dual channel soon. Waiting for upcoming festive sales. Almost finalized on 70mai A510 but Li-ion battery is the only concern now. Will the performance degrade or issues pop up if exposed to hot climate on consistent basis? How is the performance of DDPAI Z40 & Z50?

My current setup with Nextdigitron Ace2 works brilliantly. It's a VFM device & Nextdigitron has good customer support. I'm only missing rear camera, GPS tracking & better nighttime visibility.

Thanks!

[venkat_partha]

Hello All,

Was wondering how long is the life of the MicroSD cards used by these cameras? Any real time data from members?

Regards,

[Aviator_guy]

Originally Posted by venkat_partha

Hello All,

Was wondering how long is the life of the MicroSD cards used by these cameras? Any real time data from members?

Regards,

Mine (Samsung Evo plus 128GB) is working fine for last 2.5 years.. Touchwood

[binand]

Originally Posted by venkat_partha

Was wondering how long is the life of the MicroSD cards used by these cameras? Any real time data from members?

My Polo is still running with the microSD card that I purchased one month after the dashcam (seeing that the 16GB one that it came with is not of much use). As per Amazon history: camera was purchased in June 2016, card in July 2016. That's 8 years and a couple of months so far. It is a Strontium Nitro 64GB card.

[Sridhar C E]

Originally Posted by venkat_partha

Hello All,

Was wondering how long is the life of the MicroSD cards used by these cameras? Any real time data from members?

Regards,

Mine is a Samsung Evo plus 128GB. It's been working fine for just over 3 years now.

[250Nm]

Originally Posted by venkat_partha

Was wondering how long is the life of the MicroSD cards used by these cameras? Any real time data from members?

After 5 of my Strontium Nitro's conked off within ~6 months of use, I switched over to high endurance cards:

1. SanDisk 128GB High Endurance - Bought on July 2022. Conked off Dec 2023 and replaced under warranty.
2. Western Digital Purple 128G - Bought on Feb 2024. No issues found.

[dipdawiz]

Originally Posted by venkat_partha

Hello All,

Was wondering how long is the life of the MicroSD cards used by these cameras? Any real time data from members?

Regards,

So far used 2 cards for my 70Mai A500s Plus+

1. 256gb Samsung Evo -
Worked fine from mid of 2021 till Mar 2022 - it still works but with a strange behavior. A500s max supported card size is 128gb, but I used 256gb and it works. But from Mar2022, if you format and put it in, it works till the card is full (~230gb), then it do not overwrite and loop record - errors out saying "format the memory card", you have to manually format from the dashcam menu, then it would work again. Could be an updated firmware in dashcam doing it. Used it in other cases, no crash or issue in detection either in Windows or Linux nor any issues in Raspberry PI.

2. 128gb WD Purple -
Working fine since May 2022 till date, no issues so far

So for me no conked off card yet (finger crossed).