dashcam needed but which is best value

donemedosh

A couple of days ago I was driving along in the evening when a BMW ran into the back of me. To cut a long story short the driver sped off before I could get any details as it was to dark & I was checking my wife was ok. So to make sure we are ready for the next we want to find a dash cam that is for front & rear, good for night use & fair price. Plus the easier to use the better.

neilmcl

Viofo A129 Duo.

Grumpy_chap

Nextbase is the make to go for.

Grey_Critic

I agree - Nextbase

JustAnotherSaver

It's all opinion based. Everyone will vote what they're happy with using.

Personally I think Nextbase is a load of carp. I bought the 522GW (which is supposed to be #1 based on some websites rankings, or was at the time) and found the image quality to be poor. Night time recording was also poor.

I've ran a Mio Mivue 618 (and also own the dual cam version - the 698) which is just 'ok'. Not great.

I spent many hours trawling through dashcamtalk forum and looking at the various comparison photos and videos where people do genuine side-by-side runs.

Based on that I picked up the VIOFO A119 v3 and the image quality is superb. I would've gone for the A129 Plus Duo but for number plate detection the A119 v3 is better, the downside being it is 1CH only. The A129 Plus Duo still looks very good though.

IIRC there's an A129, A129 Plus Duo and A129 Pro Duo or something like that. Don't assume the Pro Duo is better than the Plus Duo just because it's 'Pro'. IIRC the middle one was the one I'd have gone for out of the 3 129 models. Look at the image and video quality yourself to make your own decision.

Much better than Nextbase .... in my opinion.

Goudy

https://dashcamtalk.com/

es5595

I’ve got a Nextbase 522, separate front and rear cameras and it’s superb. Highly recommended. 

BOWFER

I bought 2 x Nextbase and they were fine to begin with, but both started displaying 'SD card errors' and I can't seem to fix them.
It's good quality SD cards bought from different outlets, so I don't think it's rogue cards.
I've taken them off and shoved them in a drawer, can't be bothered with them any more.

neilmcl

BOWFER said:

I bought 2 x Nextbase and they were fine to begin with, but both started displaying 'SD card errors' and I can't seem to fix them.
It's good quality SD cards bought from different outlets, so I don't think it's rogue cards.
I've taken them off and shoved them in a drawer, can't be bothered with them any more.

Do you ever reformat the cards, particularly using the format option on the dashcams?

BOWFER

neilmcl said:

Do you ever reformat the cards, particularly using the format option on the dashcams?

Firstly, why does this need doing after months of successful use?
Secondly, yes I'm sure I tried via the camera settings and they wouldn't/couldn't do it.
As far as I could tell, both cameras were, for some unknown reason, going to need whole new SD cards.
So thrown in a cupboard in disgust.

neilmcl

BOWFER said:

neilmcl said:

Do you ever reformat the cards, particularly using the format option on the dashcams?

Firstly, why does this need doing after months of successful use?
Secondly, yes I'm sure I tried via the camera settings and they wouldn't/couldn't do it.
As far as I could tell, both cameras were, for some unknown reason, going to need whole new SD cards.
So thrown in a cupboard in disgust.

You need to reformat SD cards for this type of application regularly, ie, at least every month or so, and doing it via a PC isn't good enough, it needs to use the format facility in the camera. Not doing it is the most common cause of premature SD card failure in dashcams.