VFII Redline dashcam

[Skylarking]

Thanks @abuch47 so the BlackVue 2 channel 4K setup should be <$600 during a proper sale

Thanks also @kleanphil. I’ve also noticed prices vary with SD card size where I see the larger bundled SC cards carry a disproportionate high premium. I’d simply prefer to source my own SD card and not pay such a premium.

The problem I still have is that I don’t have a great feeling that night vision recording will be optimal and provide good number plate identification. Headlights and reflective number plates simply cause flaring within the video and few really define their camera’s low light sensitivity.

The last problem I have is whether any viewing software is provided with the cams and whether you can frame by frame advance and reverse the video. Many home security cameras don’t do such which makes getting a snap of the required frame that much harder

May be I’m over thinking it but at more than a $grand or so for 4 channels plus extra for battery management systems, I wish the car manufacturers bundled a well designed integrated crashcam data logging solution into our vehicles. Heck, like reverse cameras, this should have been mandated as part of the ADR’s years ago which would have served to also drive down prices.

 

[abuch47]

Thanks @abuch47 so the BlackVue 2 channel 4K setup should be <$600 during a proper sale

Thanks also @kleanphil. I’ve also noticed prices vary with SD card size where I see the larger bundled SC cards carry a disproportionate high premium. I’d simply prefer to source my own SD card and not pay such a premium.

The problem I still have is that I don’t have a great feeling that night vision recording will be optimal and provide good number plate identification. Headlights and reflective number plates simply cause flaring within the video and few really define their camera’s low light sensitivity.

The last problem I have is whether any viewing software is provided with the cams and whether you can frame by frame advance and reverse the video. Many home security cameras don’t do such which makes getting a snap of the required frame that much harder

May be I’m over thinking it but at more than a $grand or so for 4 channels plus extra for battery management systems, I wish the car manufacturers bundled a well designed integrated crashcam data logging solution into our vehicles. Heck, like reverse cameras, this should have been mandated as part of the ADR’s years ago which would have served to also drive down prices.

It's been as low as $530.

Tesla has inbuilt dashcam. Hopefully others will follow such as ev hilux.

Holden built a concept vehicle in the 60s with CRT reversing camera.

 

[stooge]

Another tip when buying a cam is to pay attention to the size of the sd card that will come with it , quite often it can be cheaper to get a unit with 16gb sd then go buy a separate sd , " DON'T !!! " get Sandisk as they can brick a Blackvue , I get the Samsung Evo plus , I haven't has too much trouble using them , but just like any electronics they can fail .

I use sandisk in all 3 of mine for the last 5 years without issue.
One thing that will cause issues is a higher capacity card than the blackvue supports as some only support 32gb and others 64gb the new ones finally support 128gb.

It normally destroys the card because it demounts during the write cycle once it hits the supported capacity limit.

so the BlackVue 2 channel 4K setup should be <$600 during a proper sale

The only issues i see with the 4k 2ch is the capacity in hours of video you get onto the max 128gb sd card as 4k can be large in file size.

The biggest issue have with it is the 30fps and because there is alot of movement while on the road it can cause blur or distortion when you are trying to read a number plate and night time would be even worse.
I watched their demo video can could not read most of the number plates that i know i would have been able to read on my 1080@60fps cams.
They probably went with 30 because of recording size but it is something to think about and maybe wait for a 4k@60 version.

 

[kleanphil]

I use sandisk in all 3 of mine for the last 5 years without issue.
One thing that will cause issues is a higher capacity card than the blackvue supports as some only support 32gb and others 64gb the new ones finally support 128gb.

It normally destroys the card because it demounts during the write cycle once it hits the supported capacity limit.

My first cam was a blackvue , I used a sandisk 32 gb , then the unit bricked , was then I read on a couple of cam sites not to use sandisk , I must have just been unlucky . Ive been using 128gb in my Thinkware , only prob is when it gets to 64gb it prompts me to reformat , you can ignore this and it continues to record but its annoying , the new thinkware 800 pro is 128 compatable and doesn't require a reformat it just over writes

 

[tommy_z]

I know some people have said Samsung Evo works with BlackVue but I’m sticking to the $180 128GB BlackVue SD card so neither the dash cam nor SD card breaks down... because the Blackvues come with 2 years warranty but that is nil if they find out that your SD card caused it to fail.

The instructions also recommend reformatting your SD card once a month. This is easily done on the BlackVue as a button is there to facilitate that and I have a reminder in my phone recurring monthly that I must do that.

If you go onto this website: https://dashcamsaustralia.com.au/product-category/dashcams/ the full price of dashcams are all provided (ignore the bundle packs). Take 30% off the full price and you’ll know what Autobarn will be charging when they have their sales. So a BlackVue DR750S-2CH 128 GB should be around $739, then take away 30% which should make it around the $520 mark.

@Skylarking if you head into YouTube there are quite a number of videos which will let you compare the quality of the dash cams at night... I can pick them up with my DR750 but it can be hard at times and blurred especially in parking mode when I have a reduced FPS recording.

 

[stooge]

The instructions also recommend reformatting your SD card once a month.

you should also replace the sd card because they have a write life and will begin to fail and this is why you don't want a dashcam that does not use a sd card(has internal storage) as once the internal flash chip dies the camera is landfill(ebay "slightly used").

depending on the amount of hours you drive you should replace it every 1 to 3 years for a 2ch 1080p setup and if it is a 2ch 4k setup I would be looking to 1 year for very heavy use because the write life is the amount data written.

better quality cards will last a lot longer than cheaper cards so kleanphil is making a smart choice using the evo cards because they are pretty good and the sd cards have a hard life in a dash cam with the hours of constant writing to it as you drive and in the summer extreme heat in many cases.
if the camera shuts off while writing can cause damage too, the blackvue has an internal capacitor to prevent this allowing the camera to stop writing before it loses power, other brands might not have this feature so it can be an issue for some cameras.

the 128 evo cards have come down in price to about $60 and when on special $30.

if you look through the card and recent recordings are corrupt or missing then the sd card is starting to fail and if you do one day need the footage and it is corrupt you are not going to be happy.

I change mine every year because its a cheap yearly cost of around $30 per cam/car.

 

[kleanphil]

@stooge The evo's are a good sd but they do fail , I had a 128gb fail recently but the outside temp was above 35c , I think the cellink shut off and the sd failed , unable to reformat it and unusable . I said earlier the Thinkware prompt for a reformat at 64gb , but as @tommy_z pointed out it is actually a monthly prompt .
Oh, and point taken about the DDPai 3 internal storage

 

[kleanphil]

Being this thread is still fresh , I thought I'd share todays experience

I had a minute dint in my tailgate I wanted fixed

Front view , unfortunately

 

[dgp]

Bugger, that sucks

 

[Skylarking]

Yeah, bugger.

Curious how it goes with insurance and whether they try and ping you for the excess for smashing into the car in front.