Official VIOFO Compact A119S (Version 2) 1080p 60FPS DashCam + GPS Logger

I bought this camera because of the good reviews from black box my car videos. I was a little wary of the low rating on amazon before buying it, but I just assumed BBMC new better. Now, I know why it has such low reviews: it's not reliable! After 3 months of ownership, this product has been too much hassle to recommend. When the camera works, it's a pretty good dash cam with good quality video. But just after a few weeks of using it, it stopped working. I was considering sending it back, but then I found the viofo website has support forums and thankfully I got it to work again by updating the firmware. then another month later it keeps turning on and off again every 30 seconds. So again I have to go online to find support and search google to find out what's wrong with it. As it turns out, if you have the gps mount, the contacts between the mount and the gps will become dirty, so you have to clean the contacts every so often. You also have to add this foam sticker to the back to stabilize the connection. Thankfully it started working again. But now after another few weeks, it stopped working again. I hope that reinstalling the firmware will get it to work again, but for something to fail 3 times in the first few months is just ridiculous. If you're the type who wants to fiddle with things and is ok spending 100+ on something that will probably stop working soon after buying it, then by all means feel free to get this. If you're the type who wants things to work out of box without repeat tinkering, then stay away!

This is my first dash cam purchase and I am very satisfied. I had a 32 MB card on hand so I was able to use the camera right out of the box. Set up was easy, but I viewed a shortyou-tube video on set up as part of my pre-purchase research which I’m sure helped make it easier.The video is of high enough quality to make out license plate numbers of cars when at slower speeds, but difficult at highway speeds for oncoming traffic. The GPS seems to be accurate with MPH, location and direction of travel.The supplied power cord was more than long enough for the run from top of the windshield across to driver side door, down the trim and back to the power supply located in the center lower dash in a 2015 Sonata. The power cord was a little thicker than I expected but was still easy enough to tuck into the trim and weather striping unnoticed.I would have gone 5 stars but I am disappointed that the “GPS off“ setting does not turn the GPS off. GPS info, including speed, direction and location, is still written to the video file. It just doesn’t appear on the video playback. It is still visible and readable to dash cam player software like Dash Cam Viewer. If for some reason you don’t want GPS data recorded during a trip you will need to use the provided standard mount instead of the GPS mount.

I purchases two of these cameras about 10 months ago. I installed them in our two vehicles and all seemed fine for a few months. Within that past 2-3 months, each camera has failed to operate properly; each camera cycles on and off restarting each time. I thought perhaps high temperatures was the cause but I have found this cycling continues even when the sun is blocked by clouds and the air conditioner is on--Its not very hot where I live-6000' elevation. Very disappointing because I really like the design and low profile. I definitely would not recommend this camera due to poor quality and operational life. You get what you pay for.

The VIOFO A119S w/GPS mount started out ok. Video was decent and everything seemed to be working fine. Purchased the unit in July of 2017. Now in May 2018 this dash cam no longer works. At first I thought it may just be a display screen issue ass the right half was black and the left half was colored pixels. There is no picture of what the camera is seeing. Then I checked the memory card to find that the dash cam hasn't recorded any video for over a month. A second possibility was a bad GPS mount. I ordered a replacement, received it today but unfortunately it did not fix the problem. Replacement GPS mount is being sent back and my dead VIOFO A119S is going in the trash.

**update: I’ve raised my review after figuring out how to do the firmware update, with little to no assistance from their customer service. The camera works great, the video is nice. The piece of mind is worth the price of the camera. Just be prepared that if you ever need to contact customer service, it may not be very helpful. It’s obvious that English is not their primary language.I bought this camera almost a year and a half ago. It worked amazingly up until 3 days ago. Now it won’t do anything, except turn on. It used to nicely go into incognito mode a few seconds after it turned on, now it’s lit up as if it’s recording. My firmware is out of date, but the camera is not linking up to my computer once it’s plugged in via USB. So I cannot update the firmware. I tried buying a new USB in case that went bad, no luck. Tried reformatting the USB, no luck. I sent a lengthy email to customer service asking for suggestions on what to do and I got a reply to update the firmware despite me already telling them that I could not do that. It’s really too bad because I really liked this camera. I’ll be purchasing a replacement from a different brand because this one is useless now and so is the company’s customer service evidently!

While it worked it was ok.However,1. It was often not recording and i had to reset it.2. then it finally died and i found out that i would have to ship it to china and then get a new replacement unit - no 2-way RMA. So i would have been out of dashcam for at least 6 weeks.I cannot recommend this unit.

So far so good. It's been about 3+ weeks now. Loops just fine. Turns right on every time I start the car. Blends into my dash, no one can tell it's there if I don't mention it.12/26/2017 Update: still the same as before. Went through extreme summer heat of 104F+ and cold winter nights of 40F and below. Running well!