I’ve had the VIOFO 139 Pro front and rear for a couple of years now and it’s been flawless. Easy to connect to it with the phone app and view or download clips. Has parking mode if you hardwire it with movement sensor and G-sensor plus time lapse recording.
I use Viofo (specifically the A139 Pro but there are other options) and it's great. I have mine plugged into an external battery pack because I don't want to hardwire it. There's actually tons of good options now, dashcam technology has come a long way in recent years and there are some great quality cameras. There's also r/Dashcam for sample videos.
Most dashcam enthusiasts recommend Viofo and Thinkware with the STARVIS2 sensor for the dash cam of choice.
You may have to look into BlackVue for push notifications, as they have some cloud services.
I personally run a Viofo A139 Pro hardwired into a Powercell 8 external battery that is hardwired into driver side fusebox for parking mode. The setup is about $500-600.
Viofo or Thinkware, and any dashcam equipped with the Starvis2 sensor, are the go-to for dash cam enthusiasts when it comes to picture quality and license plate reading.
The most optimal parking mode setup, but most pricey, is a 2/3ch dash cam hardwired into an external LiFePo4 battery that is then hardwired to driver/passenger fuse box. This setup will provide parking mode and reduce the wear and tear on your 12v battery.
If parking mode isn't something you need, you can just to the 12v accessory socket for normal driving dash cam use.
I used Viofo A139 Pro and have installed Viofo A229 Pro on family's car.
Viofo A139 Pro (~250) + Powercell 8 external battery (~350)
For front/back 4k images + parking mode up to 8-10 hours without wear and tear on the 12v battery.
Houston - I have two VIOFO A229 Pro’s and one A139 Pro on my cars. No issues besides formatting the card every month or so. Running them over 3 years now
It's incorrect to assume that just because two cameras share an image sensor, that their performance will be the same, or even similar tbh.
I have patents in camera testing, and to believe that firmware / software is **the main differentiator** for image quality after the sensor is totally wrong.
FW/SW are important for sure, and as an example, one of the Sony image sensor developer guides I was looking at the other day had over 800 pages of potential settings, but outside of very specific applications, the vast majority of end users will keep 95% of them as Sony recommend - to the point they're simply not a differentiator between brands at any practical level.
The Lens and ISP are *far* more consequential to image quality. Mechanical design comes close after that too, since they have to keep temperatures down. My A139 Pro (Sony IMX678) can't maintain 4K in warm temperatures even in Ireland, but my A229 with an identical sensor has no issues whatsoever in the California sun.
As a further prime example of this, the IMX 335 in A119 V3 actually supports 60fps RAW, but the ISP, thermal management, or something else limits the full system to 30fps.
Comparing image sensor part numbers alone isn't a comprehensive assessment, because other key image pipeline aspects can be limited by hardware, like bitrate or output formats.
Lens MTF, chromatic abberations, distortion correction, stray light, aperture, lens alignment, and a *whole* lot more also have direct effects to image quality.
Top Dash Cams on Reddit
1
VIOFO
A229 Pro Series
91% positive of 283 users
Top-tier video, reliable evidence, but app struggles.
BazzaFox
