My preferred dash cams in 2024

After 15 years of trying different dashcams - these are the ones I’ve settled on in 2024

00:00 Intro
03:10 A129 Pro Footage
04:27 A129 Pro chat
07:08 A139 footage
09:20 A139 chat
14:11 A139 Pro footage
17:52 A139 Pro chat
21:04 Wrap up
25:58 Credits

My AFFILIATED AMAZON LINKS to the dash cameras (I earn commission off sales through these links) - Always look at any listing page carefully to see if there are any vouchers to be applied BEFORE adding something to your basket.

A129 Pro Duo - The OLDER cheaper model WITH A SCREEN
(Pro means it’s 4K, Duo means it’s a two camera set)

A139 Pro 2CH - A NEWER more expensive model - NO SCREEN (My current favourite)
(Pro means it’s 4K, 2CH means it’s a two camera set)

THE FULL VIOFO RANGE - on their Amazon Store (Yep - more AFFILIATED LINKS)

Note: This video is not sponsored or paid for by Viofo.
I bought my cameras via Amazon.

TECHMOAN MERCH DISCOUNT

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All links are Affiliated where possible.
When you click on links to various merchants posted here and make a purchase, this can result in me earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network & Amazon.
I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to AMAZON Sites (including, but not limited to Amazon US/UK/DE/ES/FR/NL/IT/CAN

[FeroVlkolinsky]

Oooh - dashcams. That's how I found this marvelous channel. Your dashcam reviews were the best on YouTube back then - so thorough. But then I found this channel to have much better content ;). So a nice reminder of my personal history here. Keep it up man, really the most interesting tech channel around.

[MarkSinclair]

Dashcams! Yes! That's how I found your channel. Came for the Dashcams, Stayed for the puppets and the interest in old tech.

[RadioJonophone]

Many years ago I watched one of your early dashcam reviews before buying one. That original one is now my rearward facing camera, with a more modern bells and whistles model in the front.

I had it fitted to my previous BMW convertible. One day a car bashed into me in ASDA's car park. I wasn't moving, the other driver came out of a space near me and walloped the side. She shouted and bawled how it was my fault, I just smiled sweetly whilst writing down the contact info as per Road Traffic Act.

Two other people approached the lady and spoke with her in her native tongue which was recorded on the dashcam. This was clear because I had the hood down in the sunshine.

Later, my insurance company was about to settle in her favour as she had two independent witnesses to say I was speeding like a maniac through the car park etc. etc. The insurance had a copy of the dashcam footage, but they said that on such a smallish claim it was not worth arguing. If it ever came to court, they said, the conflict of evidence would mean the case was not a slam-dunk.

I approached my local University language department with a view to translating the car park conversation, and thanks to some helpful people there it turned out that the people were conspiring to be those false witnesses. They were offering to concoct the reckless speeding narrative with the lady driver being only too pleased to accept the offers.

I sent all this to the insurers to have the whole thing reversed. the third party insurance was revoked and they found themselves on a barred list for fraud.

So, those moments taken to install a dashcam can repay you a thousand times.

[jakubm]

I'm also a VIOFO man myself, mainly because of maintenance - they need none. I've had a119 v2 in my car since 2017 and it never failed. It's wired in such a way that it comes on with the opening of the car and goes to sleep a few minutes after closing. It always records, never corrupts the sd card (and i've used many cheap SD as well as more expensive ones, never had any issues), and due to having a capacitor inside it's battery will never fail since there isn't one.

[stephenellis]

Tailgate wire hack. Take a 3/8 extension from your socket set. Wrap the lead around the bar to produce a spiral and heat the coil with a hot air gun. You need to get this pretty hot but obviously common sense not melting the lead. Then allow the coil tightly wrapped around the bar held with some tape until cold. The pvc will hold this coil shape and make a tidy tailgate harness.
You can have a practice go with the heat using an old usb cable you got free with something else. Can use anything as a centre bar but found 3/8 gives a good coil that’s holds it shape.

[burntalive]

I remember watching the old dashcam videos. It really is crazy how far they have come over the years!

[twocvbloke]

Another tip for knocked cameras, if you don't want to use tape or glue for wahtever reason; use a paint-pen to mark the position that is optimal, so if it gets out of alignment, just wist 'til the paint lines up again, just like setting the correct cam position in an engine... :)

[cokker]

I love watching those dashcam compilations sometimes, the amount of self reporting is hilarious.

[pmk]

Gosh I feel old, I still remember you reviewing that weird flashlight looking dashcam that would constantly skip footage...

[icecreamtruckog]

If you have trouble with radio reception just put aluminium tape around the cable and ground one end to the car body or other ground sources, it should reduce the radio signals coming from the cable. The tape works like shielding in a coax cable.

[jcpren]

Through this video, I have learned to set video quality manually in my YouTube app to "Advanced" and then 1080p. I heard you praising the high quality and clarity of that dash cam - but it didn't look like it to me. Then I discovered YouTube was automatically choosing 360p to show me your video! 😳 I have no idea why - I have a decent wi-fi connection, and it coped just fine when I turned it up manually.

[Tactical_Hotdog]

Kind of intrigued to see the jump in quality.

[victorhugotoledocofre]

Brilliant. One of my long-time questions about your channel has been solved. 😀 Now you could make a video telling us all about the puppets; where they came from, how they stayed for a while, and why they went away, never to return. 😪

[MrButtonpresser]

I bought a VIOFO A119S in 2017 after watching your very instructive videos. It's still going strong, despite being exposed in a hot car all day in 45C+ summers.

[Eric-pcyi]

As a Canadian, I love watching this footage just for all the old brown brick buildings you’ve got out there. I just like the look of it!

[gbamck]

I don't know if you'll ever see/read this Matt but you've just returned DAB radio back to our lives after nearly 4 years of having a front/rear cam setup. I just went out and unplugged the rear camera and all the stations returned after being gone all this time. Thank you so much!!

[reimono]

The wiper covarage area tip is priceless. That alone deserves a like on this video. Thank you

[morphshag]

I was just thinking the other day that I hadn’t seen a dash cam video from you in quite some time, and here we are!

[JustaMuteCat]

For a very short stint I worked at a Ford dealership that had this extra service going on of installing dash cams for our costumers. One of the costumers asked for a different set than what we had on store to be installed on his raptor that was quite odd. It had no visible branding and it looked quite beaten up, the rear view(now parking rear view I guess) camera had an extra cable running off to a cob-like led setup and the control panel and preview screens were connected to a small box that was set inside the glove box. In the glove box was a smallish bright red box with a small card reader-like attachment with several microsd slots in them and even what looked like notebook’s ssd. From what the other guy that worked with me said, the owner had a history of getting rear ended and losing the rear cam quite often (he was also there often to get the rear bumper and trailer hitch point areas fixed a few times by then). The whole setup looked normal commercial stuff other than the glove box rig and we couldn’t start it up to test if it was in working order until the costumer came back to pick his ride back up. I got really curious and stayed after my normal shift to wait for the guy to ask about it since it was so out of the norm back then (that was like, 6 or 7 years ago now) and apparently, it was a home brew rig made of mostly commercial stuff that ran software from a raspberry pi board that would automatically offload the footage once a week via wifi that he was working on so the whole thing was probably a test rig or a proof of concept rig for that.

[bedast]

The one thing that has bothered me with dashcams is they have all pushed for higher resolution for higher clarity. But they’re 15 or 20 fps and they compress the hell out of the video. Motion blur and compression artifacts still kill being able to see and read things. Resolution and “Sony Starvis Sensor” are the main marketing points. I’d love a 2k/1440p camera setup that pushes 60 fps. Most people can’t tell the difference between 2k and 4k with adequate encoder settings, and the higher fps will reduce motion blur. Unfortunately doing it “properly” probably costs more so they do the cheaper “bigger number better” marketing of resolution.