dash cams - difference between dual lens and 2channel?

bigx889

can anyone explain what the difference between the two is? i cant seem to find a clear answer anywhere :mad:

dacouch

I think it is that dual lense has two lenses but makes one recording, a dual channel has two seperate lenses / cameras but makes two seperate recordings eg one for each lense / camera

So dual channel would allow you to watch a playback of the front camera or your parcel shelf camera

Cash-Strapped.T32

The term "Dual lense" tends to refer to a single unit, that has two lenses, usually pointing in different directions.

*) Imagine a single camera up by your rear view mirror - it has a lense pointing forward, looking through the windscreen at the the road ahead.
It also has a second lense pointing backward, so that it looks into the interior of the car, between the front seats, and through the rear glass.

That would be a dual lense camera, and generally for someone who wants to be covered from the rear, it's not that useful - but if say you're a taxi driver, it might be very useful for settling any customer-related disputes.

"Dual Channel", as dacouch says, is a term that describes a device where the camera (or cameras) record two seperate video files, one for each lense.

*) Imagine a regular dashcam mounted up on your windscreen, connected by a wire routed through the car to a smaller unit, that is similarly mounted to the rear screen, looking backwards out of the vehicle.
That is a more common dual channel camera, and is probably more useful for an everyday driver who just wants to be covered from front & rear, without necessrily recording what goes on inside the vehicle (and also has room to mount a seperate rear cam)


The terms shouldn't be used exclusively - A single unit, with dual lenses might well also be a dual channel device (and often is exactly that).

An example of a single unit, two lense, dual channel; Vantrue Ns Dual Lense.
An example of a two-camera dual channel device; Viofo A129.

Both of these devices record dual-channel video, but the former is a single unit, the latter is two units connected by wire.