An accident can happen quickly, but the dispute over who is to blame can take a long time. With a dashcam, drivers can provide valuable information about the course of the accident in the event of an accident. However, the legal situation in Germany is controversial and has not yet been finally clarified. Dashcam recordings are generally admissible in court. However, it is important to observe data protection and personal rights. Otherwise it may happen that the recordings are not accepted as evidence. We explain more about the topic in the dashcam guide: Legal questions, technology and car cameras from 40 euros.
If you don’t let the legal gray area put you off, you can get inexpensive dash cams from the manufacturer Viofo 110 Euro (Select coupon worth 30 euros) with good image quality. The Viofo VS1 is a particularly compact model. This has the advantage that it only minimally disrupts the driver’s field of vision. Instead, it does not have its own display.
Assembly & setup
To attach it, you can only stick the VS1 firmly on – there is no suction cup mount. But Viofo offers a charming solution here. Using antistatic film, removing it from the windshield is quite easy. You first stick this on the window and then the car camera on top of it. The whole thing is rock-solid, but allows it to be removed without leaving any annoying residue.
Power is supplied via a cable that is plugged into the camera’s USB-C port. On the other side of the cable there is a USB-A plug that you plug into an included 12-volt adapter with two ports. The cable should ideally be routed along the paneling on the windshield and the A-pillar so that it does not hang in the interior in a disruptive manner. If you want to take the camera out of the car, simply slide it down from the holder to the right.
Design
The greatest strength of the Viofo VS1 is its compact housing. Due to the lack of a display, the dash cam is significantly smaller than other car cameras such as the Viofo A229 Pro (test report). The VS1 is about as long as a lighter and is just under two fingers wide and deep.
The shape of the VS1 corresponds to an elliptical cylinder; the housing is rounded in a circle at the top and bottom. There is a joint on the mount to orient the camera as desired so that it looks vertically in the direction of travel. The slot for the microSD card is on the left. The housing is made of plastic, but leaves a high-quality impression.
Furnishing
The Viofo VS1 offers relevant functions of a dashcam: GPS to determine the location, which is stored as a stamp in the video clips by default (but optionally). There are also the obligatory motion and G sensors to detect strong braking maneuvers or bumps during parking space monitoring. Wi-Fi for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz is available for connection to the smartphone via the app. The dash cam also has Bluetooth.
The VS1 supports microSD cards optimized for video recording up to a size of 512 GB. A loop function is available. This records clips with a length of either 1, 2, 3, 5 or 10 minutes. As soon as the microSD card is full, the loop function overwrites the oldest clip. If the camera with the G-sensor registers a strong delay, for example during an emergency stop, the video recording is automatically saved in a secured area so that it is not overwritten by the loop.
A better option would be to limit the loop to a few clips. If you use a large memory card, for example, you carry a lot of recordings with you that could violate the personal rights of other road users without their knowledge. We therefore recommend using a small card and formatting the memory regularly.
The VS1 also offers parking space monitoring. If the camera detects a bump on the vehicle, it automatically activates a recording. However, this requires a hardwire kit for 20 euros, in which the camera is permanently connected to the on-board electronics. Without this wiring, the dash cam will not receive power when the vehicle is turned off. The VS1 does not have a battery for emergency operation if the wiring on the 12-volt plug comes loose. However, a supercapacitor should ensure that the camera still has enough juice for a short time to save the last shot.
Viofo VS1 – photo gallery
Viofo VS1 – photo gallery
service
There are several buttons on the dash cam itself: On the left there is a button for turning sound recording on and off. In the middle of the back is the button to save a video recording to the secured memory – including a single photo. If you press this button for a longer period of time, you activate the pairing mode via Wi-Fi.
The camera also supports voice control, but only for English, Chinese, Russian and Japanese. Speech recognition in English works reliably. The following commands are possible: Take Photo (= take a photo), Video start (= start recording), Turn On Audio, Turn Off Audio (= turn off the sound), Lock the Video (= lock recording), Turn On Wi-Fi, Turn Off Wi-Fi.
Due to the lack of a display, you can’t see what recordings the dashcam has already taken. This is where the Viofo app comes into play. After you have connected the car camera to your smartphone via WiFi, you can view and download the live camera image as well as the latest recordings using the app. However, the app does not provide any information about the route of the vehicle.
There is a small catch: If the smartphone is connected to the camera via Wi-Fi, it may not be able to access the mobile network because the camera itself does not have an Internet connection. Here you would have to set the smartphone so that it still uses the mobile network as an alternative if there is an existing WiFi connection. In the test, the connection to the cell phone was lost after a journey of 15 minutes.
As an accessory there is a small Bluetooth remote control for 20 euros. You stick these on the dashboard in the car, and at the push of a button a video recording is automatically saved so that it is not overwritten by the loop – analogous to the function of the button on the back of the camera. The battery is replaceable and should last about a year. Pairing is done by holding down the remote control button.
Video quality
The VS1 uses a Sony Starvis 2 sensor (IMX 675) with 2K resolution at 30 FPS (frames per second). The viewing angle covers around 140 degrees, which is enough to cover the area in front of the vehicle. The camera also supports HDR. The image quality of the videos is good, even if the dynamic range could be a little higher. Individual areas are not always easy to see in strong light changes, despite HDR. The image sharpness is sufficient, but appears a bit grainy at times. License plates of other vehicles can usually be recognized from a distance of almost 10 meters. At night you can still see details well enough.
Technical data
Preis
The regular price for the Viofo VS1 is 140 euros. You can currently get the dashcam directly from the manufacturer 130 Euro. With a coupon worth 30 euros, the dash cam only costs 30 euros on Amazon 110 Euro.
Alternatives
Another very compact car camera is the Garmin Dash Cam Mini 2 (test report) for an affordable 102 euros. The Garmin model offers a loop function that only creates a 30-second video clip and continuously overwrites it – this is a much better option from a data protection perspective.
Conclusion
The Viofo VS1 impresses as a compact dash cam that hardly disturbs the field of vision. The lack of a display didn’t bother us in everyday life; thanks to the Wi-Fi connection, you can also view the camera recordings on your smartphone. However, you should not constantly pair the car camera with your cell phone, as this could cause problems with the internet connection of your mobile companion. The image quality is convincing, even if there is still some room for improvement with a resolution of 2K. However, you can usually still recognize license plates sufficiently.
There is a loop function, but it only overwrites old video clips when the memory is full. A loop in which only one or just a few recordings are generated and permanently overwritten would have been nice here. Anyone who uses a large memory card carries recordings that could potentially violate the personal rights of other road users.