The Viofo is the pick. It finished at 1.3 across the testing, read a license
plate at 30 ft when the next-best cameras stopped at 25, took the best possible
rating of one for exposure into the sun, one for night vision, and one on the
illuminated sign, where it read a digital fuel price display from a couple of
hundred feet away. It does all that on a claimed 1440p sensor at 60 fps while
every camera it beat claims 4K, which is the single most useful finding here:
the resolution on the box says very little about what a camera will actually
resolve. The catch is that it is a front camera only, so covering the rear
window means buying a second camera.
For a two-camera system out of one box, the Red Tiger at $100 finished second
at 2.2, with the top exposure rating of one, a plate read at 25 ft and 1.5
ratings at both the sunset intersection and the night-time street sign. The
$90 Cool Crazy is the value pick and finished third at 2.7, tying the Wolfbox
i07 for the sharpest image while driving at 35 mph and beating both $100
cameras on the illuminated sign at 1.5. The Rove R2, also $100, produced the
sharpest picture of anything in the first eight cameras and held the 75 ft
marker clearly, but the low sun at the intersection wiped out its street signs.
The Wolfbox i07 at $114 adds a third channel and rated 1.5 at night, though it
exposes dark into the sun.
Below $65 the picture quality falls away quickly. The V300, ARIFAYZ and
Miden S7 all lost the license plate between 15 and 20 ft, the E-YEEGER S60 could
not resolve the reflective street sign at any of the six night-time stopping
points, and the $40 Miden S7 trailed the $22 V300 in several tests despite
claiming a 2.5K front camera. Spending more is no guarantee either: the $120
Pruveeo splits its budget across four 1080p cameras and could not read the
plate at 20 ft, the intersection signs, or the lighted box sign. If the goal is
evidence that will stand up after a collision, buy for measured sharpness at
distance and for behaviour against bright light, and treat the number on the
box as marketing.