I've been watching dash cams for a while, but I have not been in the market - for one reason: The image sucks. Everything is moving fast, the lens has to see wide, night has poor lighting for the image, and everything is far away (not at the distance you would take a picture of your Superduty to show it off). These are all elements that sabotage a good image. Those with dash cams might pop in right now "But Tugly, my dashcam has a nice picture, and I can see everything I need to see at night!" To that I would say - it's all relative. Of those with dash cams, how many of you can say that you don't have to be right on a vehicle's bumper to read the plate?

I live in a different world, display and camera-wise. My laptop has a 15" 4K touch screen (4 times the resolution of 1080P), and my desktop has a 32" 4K screen and a plain ol' 28" 1080P screen. In order to go to the bigger desktop screen, I had to drop in a very powerful graphics card on the i7 computer with a solid-state hard drive - which is my way of saying the computer was no slouch, but it still needed help when dealing with the 4K (UHD) format.

Why did I drag you through all of that (for those still with me here)? In this 90-year-old march to ever-better electronic images, 4K is about the end of the line for screen resolution. Our eyes can't distinguish one molecule from the next - so there's this "enough" line we're crossing now. I have seen 8K resolution for the uber-fanatical screen buyers, but there is no content in 8K format available. Cameras can always go higher in resolution, but that would only serve to allow digital zooming while viewing it on a 4K screen. There is no TV or disk in 4K format, as far as that goes. I have stupid-fast fiber-optic internet at home and work, so I can see some 4K Youtube videos - which I've been doing lately. I've been looking at the 4K dashcam demonstrations, for my wife.

RULE 1:
4K (UHD) format is 3840 pixels × 2160 pixels (2160P). When one searches for 4K cameras, vendors will blatantly lie about the camera being capable of 4K image.
I've seen "4K" right next to "2880 X 1440 image".

RULE 2:
Frames per second (FPS) rule in motion (ask any sports fan). At 60 FPS, you can see a lot more detail because motion isn't as inclined to blur (I work with 240FPS on a regular basis).
We're not going to get 4K 60FPS (yet), but some vendors will try to pass off 24 FPS as a good video image.

RULE 3:
Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) is crucial in too little or too much light. The bright light makes harsh shadows, and you lose a lot of information in inky shadows.

Here is not-quite WDR - but it's High Dynamic Range (HDR). Wide Dynamic Range frequently has two cameras (1 regular, and one infrared) and combines the images to fill the shadows.

 

This will be good, and timely as I have just stated looking for a good dash cam for the Superduty. I have had one in my work van for about 3 years now, a SmartWitness SVC 1080. It has been a good unit (has GPS and all the junk like impact sensing etc) but my one complaint is the only way to review the video without a magnifying glass is on your PC with the proprietary software from SmartWitness. I do like how it tracks me all day which helps for billing purposes etc but I probably don't really need that because I think Google can do that too. I am wanting one with a large enough playback screen to view in the field, or one that law enforcement can playback on their laptop without special software. II figure if I need to show video after an accident it would be best to be able to view it at the scene. I have a couple on my wish list which I'll mention later...on my way out the door now. I did notice that the prices seem to be dropping

 

I will tell you what I bought several years ago that has worked well for me. I know it is not 4K, but will give you some insight on what was important to me which is high capacity video storage, 1080p, on site playback ability.

KDLINKS x1 Camera - New versions out because the x1 is no longer available.

Once it was installed, I had a problem with it turning on when the glow plugs were on, then off right away to start the truck, then back on once the truck was running. It would turn on when the glow plugs were initialized, but would still be in its shutdown process once the truck was running and the key was back to the run position. This delay relay fixed that and all is well now.

Timer Relay -

 

I don't know if it's marketed "over there", but here in the UK I have a Nextbase 612gw which has 4k resolution, it requires the correct micro sd card though or it will keep crashing. You can download clips to your phone/tablet/pc through the built in WiFi, it ticks most boxes, no problems with having it mounted at the top of the windshield in my truck & with a spare mount I can easily swap it over to my work van.

 

Subscribing, because whenever Rich shops for something, nary a stone is left unturned. Not only the undersides of those stones are examined, but the ground upon which they once laid is analyzed with equal scrutiny.

Getting a dashcam is something I've threatened to do for years, and never get around to it, due in part to how rapidly the technology changes, how steep the prices once were, how precipitously they fall, and perhaps most vexing... how much BS one has to wade through in the marketing in order to figure out what kind of value you are getting with one camera over another. This is why Tugly's approach is so appealing... digging past the hocus pocus hyperbole into what the item really is... and isn't.

Consider what is really important in a dash cam...

Is it the camera's resolution? Or is it the camera's ability to be able to produce a portable recording that can be immediately handed over to a police officer on the spot, if it is confiscated, demanded, or if it is otherwise in one's best interest to do so for helping the officer prepare the report with the utmost accuracy, especially when the other party's story is contradicted by the camera's hard evidence?

Is it the camera's dynamic range? Or is it the camera's ability to simultaneously (and silently) retain a copy of the video for one's own records, even when the portable recording was handed over?

Is it the camera's frame rate? Or is it the camera's ability to keep recording after the collision, even if the engine is shut off, in order to capture any interactions with the other party or the domino effect of subsequent collisions?

I would be far less concerned about video quality than I would about the camera's ability to function usefully as an evidence producing device.

 

Realistically I think that you need 360° vision, there are idiots on the road everywhere & I personally think that the odds are that I'm more likely to be hit by someone from the side or behind than from my main direction of focus!

 

Subscribing...... i need one too.

 

Interesting thread. As a photographer and (as of late) getting into shooting amateur videos I can appreciate the need for quality resolution. To be honest, for me, the most important feature of a dash cam is capturing images to show what happened and have them immediately available to view on the spot to show a LEO who is lying and who isn't.

There are several action cams that are relatively inexpensive and can record in a loop. It would be easily affordable to mount one facing forward and one facing backwards while set to wide view. Given the length of vehicles what happens on the side is pretty obvious when the cameras are set to wide view.

I have several action cameras including the GoPro Fusion 360 camera but it is way more than what would be useful. The computing power for 360 filming is very demanding and footage is not immediately available for review.

Keep in mind that they record whatever is going on - it will show the faults, if any are made, of whoever made them. If you are prone to let's say...excessive speeding........ it may be wise to have the camera in mounted in a inconspicuous manner in case an accident ever happens.

 

So far, I have found two systems that really work in 4K, and yours is one of them. Amazon has it for $250, and you can select 4K at 30FPS, or 1080P at 60 FPS and work what what suits you best. The playback screen is nice, but it's smaller than a phone screen.

The BlackVue DR900S ($300 for front and cab camera, $400 and higher for front/rear, and cab) is the other candidate. Download to portable device like the Nextbase, but there is no playback screen.

I have not yet reviewed either of these any deeper than most of the specs... so more homework is needed.

 

 

This could very well be one of those things where I'm overthinking it, but "the old days" had us trying to figure out exactly what happened on camera. The higher resolution cams of today took all of the mystery out of it. If you can find a dashcam that handles 1080P at 60FPS, that would not suck. Just remember that hi res and high frame rate gobbles up storage. If you want a longer loop on board for post-accident or what have you, get a unit that accepts stupid-huge capacity SD (or micro SD) cards. Looking through the specs, you should be able to find the maximum capacity. 16G? My... how quaint. I saw one that could accept a 256 Gig micro SD card. Now we're talklin'. I noticed the Nextbase handles 128 Gig max, and specifies only a good-quality U3 Micro SD card. I see nothing wrong here.

For those who live in the desert (like myself), I'd be inclined to take it out of the window when parked on a summer day. Some of these have Lithium batteries.

 

 

I have the same thought on data storage. I am a defensive driver, I took a class and everything (judge told me to when I was a teenager). Saying that, the speed limit sign... to me... is a suggestion. I do up to 5 over - until a pokey gets in my way. I don't know about other states, but in Washington, the speed limit is for those passing as well. I learned that in defensive driving class. Wellll.... I break that little ol' law almost every day - with hair on it. The funny thing is LEOs do not enforce that one law, and almost everybody picks up the pace when they pass. When I get one of these responsible citizens passing while I wait in line, I just figure I'll nail 'em both on the next passing zone. Show 'im how the big boys do it.

Some following along wanted more storage, and I offered up options. To add salsa to your point - the GPS units show your speed and position right there on the screen. Oh Gawd help me. I'd like to think there are options to turn that crap off, but I'd need to read the instruction manual completely. I did download the manual from the Nextbase website (not a cheap Chinese unit) and read through the specs. I like this unit for my wife.

Here is the link for more info: https://www.nextbase.com/en-us/help-...612gw-support/

 

Personally, I would lean towards the Blackvue DR900. I have a DR650GW-2CH in the truck and a Street Guardian SG9663DC in the wife's SUV. The Street Guardian has a built-in screen which I think is overrated. Proper concealment of the camera means it is hidden behind/in front of the mirror (depending on your POV) which renders the screen useless.

As far as resolution goes, you are right on the money with 4k cameras. The 1080p cameras at 60fps are okay for capturing moving situations to see who is doing what but useless for freeze frame capture of things like license plates. In addition to the resolution and framerate spec, you need to look at the actual bitrate(I know that's a function of resolution and framerate but doesn't always translate directly in dashcam marketing literature) as tested. The right memory card will affect this also.

Another thing to look at is firmware stability and its effect on aforementioned factors. This is where the Blalckvue falls down a little. Their firmware updates are akin to Win 10 updates.

Lots of info in the forums here: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/

 

This is a very interesting topic. Over the last few years, I have periodically thought about buying one of these camera's in case the video evidence would serve us well. A concern is also that it does record everything. So, a small card or using only when towing which is where I experience the majority of shenanigans from other drivers would probably be my approach to the mitigate that particular concern. As usual, Tugly is pushing the envelope with his research and this is appreciated. It's like tech in F1 cars making their way to my 20yr old dinosaur the lefties cut their eyes at me for having. I just switched channels to Amazon and searched 1080P dash cams and a whole army of options comes up. Some pretty nifty stuff and I'd say for $50-$100 one could do just fine and that small investment may have a big payoff should the worst occur. That said, top-o-the line camera's would undoubtedly do the job better. My .02 and it's worth what you paid for it.