Back home now and took the dashcam into the house to see what it is and do the recommended periodic card format to get rid of the 'protected' files from when the sensor in the camera felt an impact... if you don't do this I would think the card will gradually fill up with protected files and run out of space. The amount of protected files being recorded can be reduced by turning the 'parking mode' off, but if someone hits your car in a car park you may not have a recording to ID them!
It's a Nextbase 412GW (same as donetello's). I've used this for around 2 years and it seems to have worked faultlessly. My only slight criticism is that the sticky pad that glues the mount to the windscreen melted slightly during that hot weather we had last year, and I occasionally (if it's been a very hot day) have to push the mount back against the windscreen. I must get another double sided sticky pad off them before next summer! Also, I find the micro SD card fiddly to insert and remove, particularly if I've just trimmed my fingernails!
After 2 years sitting in all weathers a couple of CM away from the windscreen, the camera still works as it did when new; so yes, I'd buy another one as I've been pleased with it. I quite like the software it comes with too, which gives the all-important ability to play the video footage back one frame at a time, so you have more chance of reading the number plates of other cars.
Talking of which, don't expect to read the plates of
oncoming cars at night in dimly-lit areas and unlit country lanes; the effect of vehicle speed and the headlights of your vehicle reflecting off an oncoming white number plate will make it very difficult if not virtually impossible for any reasonably-priced video camera to produce a recognisable image.
Talking of which, the HD and full HD video on this model of camera differ in their frame rates. I go for the 1080p setting as it gives me 60 frames per second; 1440 full HD gives 30 FPS. Looking at this logically, I will have 50% more frames to play back one frame at a time to read a car reg. 1440p might look slightly better as video, but when it comes to the crunch (literally!) all I'll care about is having a fair representation of what happened and evidence of the other person's vehicle reg and car description, and I reckon I'm more likely to get that with twice as many frames per second.
The card: a heavy duty card is recommend, as the camera will constantly write over old files. Depending which resolution you have the camera set on, and whether or not you want duplicate files (one large full resolution file to record the most detail, and a small file that shows what's happened - this might be important at the scene of a major accident where the Police need to view what's happened and transmit this via Bluetooth/WiFi to another device, or you want to email a small file to your insurance company), a 64 Gigabyte card will give about 2 hours recording before the camera re-writes over the oldest files. So if you regularly do long journeys and want them recording from start to finish then buy a bigger card... or press the 'write protect' button on the camera if some dozy or aggressive twonk has nearly wiped your car out and you want to keep the file and send it to the Police.
I bought a SanDisk Heavy Duty 64 GB card, I forget the exact name of the model but the one I bought is white with a red SanDisk logo and black spec details on it. After 2 years it still seems to be working OK, so I think money well spent. As I said above, from the research on dashcam forums I did prior to buying, standard SD cards (particularly lesser quality or fake ones) may not stand up very well to the constant re-writing of data and may play up and cause the dashcam to look as though it's malfunctioning or broken.
Bear in mind, the above kit was bought 2 years ago, so things have probably moved on a bit since then. So perhaps check some of the Dashcam Forums out and see what they're saying review and long-term test wise. Hope this is useful... and that there's enough transparency and disclosure for
@KIPAX .