Dahua Dash Camera

CCTVCam

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Looks nice but as a 15-20 year dashcam user here (I was using a GoPro before they existed!), I have some feedback for Dahua:

1. 128gb isn't enough for memory support. My current Viofo offers 256gb support and in use 128gb isn't enough. I was recently unable to prove who keyed my car because my dashcamera had looped in under the 8 hours I'd been at work and that was using the reduced bit rate of a parking mode (now fixed with a 256gb card). With the falling price of cards and the amount of memory taken, support needs to be at least 256gb and preferably 500gb. 256gb is certainly not uncommon.

2. Many manufacturers specify which chips are used in their Dashcameras as there are a lot of enthusiasts out there who will buy based on chip.

3. Nightime Performance is key just like with fixed cameras. Hence the importance of using a chip that's good in no to low light. In's more important with dashcameras as movement means higher shutter speeds need to be maintained.

4. GPS - Users fall into 2 camps on this one - some like it because it can verify you were under the speed limit. Others hate it because it can prove you were speeding (even if accidentally) and could cause issues with liability. Advice here, is to make the GPS recording an option in the menu so users can choose whether to have it on or off. Must be truly on or off, not recording to the SD but not showing because the Police or insurance company may ask for the recording and be able to read the data even if it's not displayed in the video by default.

5. Parking Mode - Needs a Parking Mode as many users myself inlcuded use either an adaptation to the car battery to allow the camera to run whilst away from the vehicle or use a separate lithium Ion battery pack to power it.- in the case of work 8-10 hours, at home some people run them 24 hours a day.
 

CCTVCam

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I also like the S3, would be interesting to see how it performs against the Viofo A119 V3 that I have in my car right now.
Yeah that's what I have a Viofo A119 V3. It's one of the top performers and has parking mode, menu disable / enable for GPS and 256gb support. Would be a great camera for comparison. Would be interesting especially to see both the matching resolution Dahua and the 4k vs the Viofo as the 4K would be above in resolution but 4k has problematic on dashcams for night from what I understand.
 
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CCTVCam

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Andy, if Dahua want to see what they're up against, this is still from my A119 V3 in difficult lighting conditions.

Taken from my 4x4 just after heavy rain, with multi-surface reflections, difficult contrast caused by a skyward view partially into the sun:

The sky is blown but that's not untypical especially in the conditions but what matters is what it's captured under those difficult lighting conditions where it's done admirably depsite the water and reflections around. You can see refelctions interfering with the view of the blue car on the left, but it still captured the plate:

 

NickTheGreat

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Also for California, Arizona and other hot states, SuperCapacitor is a must. Lithium batteries tend to bulge under a year and destroy cams.
I'm in the Midwest, but my last dashcam died on me after a week on a really hot job site last summer. Poor little thing just started beeping for help and died.
 

sebastiantombs

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I was parked for a while today. When I came back to the truck the dash cam was hanging down, suction cup lost its seal. I had to work really fast to get it back into position because it was really hot from the sun beating down on it. It's always got power so I'm not concerned with battery life, but I was really surpriesed at how hot it was. Anywhere can end up like that which will kill LiPO, or any other battery for that matter.
 

dimammx

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I am surprised solder does not melt inside or image sensor not burning out . They got so hot to touch, it is impossible to hold them for longer then few seconds.
But so far had 4 Matego mg380 (i think they are mg380) cams gong for 5-6 years still chugging along. Testing one Viofo 129 and 119 now, it got so hot one time and image sensor stopped producing image, but got back working after it cooled down .
 

Coachtech

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Looks nice but as a 15-20 year dashcam user here (I was using a GoPro before they existed!), I have some feedback for Dahua:

1. 128gb isn't enough for memory support. My current Viofo offers 256gb support and in use 128gb isn't enough. I was recently unable to prove who keyed my car because my dashcamera had looped in under the 8 hours I'd been at work and that was using the reduced bit rate of a parking mode (now fixed with a 256gb card). With the falling price of cards and the amount of memory taken, support needs to be at least 256gb and preferably 500gb. 256gb is certainly not uncommon.

2. Many manufacturers specify which chips are used in their Dashcameras as there are a lot of enthusiasts out there who will buy based on chip.

3. Nightime Performance is key just like with fixed cameras. Hence the importance of using a chip that's good in no to low light. In's more important with dashcameras as movement means higher shutter speeds need to be maintained.

4. GPS - Users fall into 2 camps on this one - some like it because it can verify you were under the speed limit. Others hate it because it can prove you were speeding (even if accidentally) and could cause issues with liability. Advice here, is to make the GPS recording an option in the menu so users can choose whether to have it on or off. Must be truly on or off, not recording to the SD but not showing because the Police or insurance company may ask for the recording and be able to read the data even if it's not displayed in the video by default.

5. Parking Mode - Needs a Parking Mode as many users myself inlcuded use either an adaptation to the car battery to allow the camera to run whilst away from the vehicle or use a separate lithium Ion battery pack to power it.- in the case of work 8-10 hours, at home some people run them 24 hours a day.
If you use Dashcam Viewer regardless if you have GPS or not it will still show your speed on or off . There are other programs out there also that will still show speed and coordinates. You can download the free trail and try but you can only play 2 clips at at time. full version you play all clips. Also there is Google or MapQuest you can watch your travel as you go along in street view or any other view you want. You will have to download the codecs for the player but its all on the same down load.
 

CCTVCam

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If you use Dashcam Viewer regardless if you have GPS or not it will still show your speed on or off . There are other programs out there also that will still show speed and coordinates. You can download the free trail and try but you can only play 2 clips at at time. full version you play all clips. Also there is Google or MapQuest you can watch your travel as you go along in street view or any other view you want. You will have to download the codecs for the player but its all on the same down load.
Sorry but how can it?

The only reason a dashcamera can show your data is because the GPS data is burned into the video data. With GPS not present or off, (provided not still recorded if the latter - some cameras still record it but do not display it), there's no way to retreive speed information because there's no GPS data to reference the vehicles movement in reference to a known point.

If you're suggesting it shows your speed by comparing the video recorded to know reference points in google street view, I wouldn't be too concerned becasue the inherent inaccuracy means no Court is likely to accept it as accurate in my opinion.
 
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Waiting/hoping these are better than some of the current stuff on the market.

Would be interesting to know which image sensor and which SOC's these models use, as it seems (presently) a LOT of the cameras on Amazon are basically using the same parts.
LTT had a recent video about dashcams:

Do these have something better than TAIWAN NOVATEK NT96660/NT96655 Imaging SOC and SONY STARVIS IMX335/IMX334 sensors as that could put them well ahead of a lot of the currently popular models?
 

rootdet

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CCTVCam is spot on here with this.I would say for me, lacking rear-facing camera makes this a hard sell. Check out the 9-1-1 Season 2, EPS 5, it points to one reason why a rear camera is critical to avoid insurance fraud scammers.

I have a blackvue DR900X-2CH 4k camera similar to the M3, and i paid more just to get the rear camera. I also picked it because it had decent app support, and when connected to in-car wifi (i have a hotspot), it would allow remote camera viewing and changing settings too. They do have an LTE addon, but i don't know what i would do with such an unsightly antenna in the window.

I also think there is a decent push for 3 channels now. Front, Rear, and interior.
 

TomtheCat

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4. GPS - Users fall into 2 camps on this one - some like it because it can verify you were under the speed limit. Others hate it because it can prove you were speeding (even if accidentally) and could cause issues with liability. Advice here, is to make the GPS recording an option in the menu so users can choose whether to have it on or off. Must be truly on or off, not recording to the SD but not showing because the Police or insurance company may ask for the recording and be able to read the data even if it's not displayed in the video by default.
GPS is also useful because your clock is always synchronized. Hiding the GPS data might be handy if a cop wants to see your video at the scene of an accident. But it's trivial for an investigator to figure out your speed, these guys do it all day. All they need is frame rate and points of reference in the video and they can get within ±1mph.

 

IAmATeaf

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Forgot all about this, Dahua branching into dash cams is something of great interest to me, I’m due to review a Vantrue dash cam and compare it against a Viofo a119v3, might get a Dahua to see how it compares.
 
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