Network Camera/Dashcam CMOS - IMX291 VS IMX323 VS AR0238 VS OV4689 VS AR0330

Many people are looking for good high performance dashcams for their cars, or network cameras for video monitoring. CMOS -  one of core component of your dashcam or network camera, its performance greatly determines the image quality and its WDR, as well as low light functionality. This article we collect info from Internet to shed light on differences among main stream CMOS image sensors from Sony, OmniVision, ON-Semi.

In order to conduct performance comparison test among different CMOS image sensors, we here use Novatek 96663 + Sony IMX291, Ambarella A12 + AR0238, Amarella A7 + OV4689 different dashcams. From real test, IMX291 dashcam can capture license plate number clearly under vehicle speed of 100Km/h, while OmniVision AR0238 and OV4689 can not.

At night, all CMOS image sensor can not capture license number clearly when speed is 20Km/h, IMX291 video can recognize license plate number and other two can’t when speed is 10Km/h. Then, we compare low light performance under starlight condition. IMX291 CMOS is the only one has starlight visual capability, it can see trees, cars clearly. Under no moon light and complete dark outside, the camera still can see tree, tree shadow, sky. On the contrary, other camera only can’t see anything, it’s completely dark. No matter selecting dashcam or security camera, Sony IMX291 outperforms most other CMOS image sensors.

The next, we compare low light performance of IMX323 and IMX291, both image sensors are from Sony. Both image sensors are released on 2015 the time when Sony unveiled Starvis technology. We can compare the dim light performance based on actual test report released by Sony. Apparently, under 0.08Lux (F1.4) lighting condition, Sony IMX290/IMX291 still can see objects clearly, while under 0.1Lux (F1.4 aperture), IMX323 can see objects with lots of image noise, the clarity is very low. Through comparison we know IMX291 has much better light sensitivity than the IMX323.