Black Box G1W-CB Black Bezel Capacitor Model Dash Camera - Heat Resistant - Full HD 1080P H.264 2.7" LCD Car DVR Video Recorder - WDR 140° Wide Angle 4X Zoom Motion Detection Night Vision G-Sensor

I initially received a defective (knockoff?) item. The camera would only record for 7-30 seconds, then automatically stop. Subsequent restarts would yield the same amount of time for recording. On occasions, it would seemingly record normally, then I'd look over while stopped at a red light, and the camera would no longer be recording. I tried all sorts of different micro-sd cards, class 2/4/6/10, and varying sizes, and still had the same issues. Very frustrating!After talking to Amazon, they issued me a return RMA, and shipped out a new camera to me. The new one looked exactly the same as the one I sent back, but worked right out of the box. One thing I noticed about the defective unit - it didn't spring load the micro-sd card, meaning I needed to use a fingernail or sharp object in order to pry the memory card out, whereas the replacement unit was spring loaded - I just pressed in the micro-sd card and it clicked in. When I wanted to remove it, I pressed in on the micro-sd, and it would spit out, allowing me to grab it.Well, after owning this device for a few months, I can positively say that it was a worthwhile investment. Quality of video is great during daytime, and pretty good at night. The wide-angle of the camera sometimes makes it hard to see the license plates of vehicles in front of you, but if you are stopped behind someone at a red-light, then the distance there is fine. At night, the light from your headlights is enough for the camera to capture the area in front of you. I've noticed that on dark rainy nights, when you can hardly see the lane markers on the freeway, the camera will pick up that detail easily.In the event of an accident, it may or may not pick up the license plate of the offending vehicle, but it should be enough to prove whether or not you were at fault, which is all I need. Unless you want to spend hundred's of dollars, not many ccd cameras will have the ability to pick up fine detail when coupled with a wide-angle lens. Remember, at the highest setting of 1080p, the resolution of the video is the same as a 2.1 megapixel camera, far far below what modern smartphones are capable of producing when taking pictures.Back to the device. I paired this item with a 32GB Samsung micro-sd card, which has worked flawlessly. The only issue I had was after 2 months, it had tagged enough videos to save (vibration sensor meant to save video from accidents automatically from a g-sensor built in), but in my case, were mostly from pothole encounters or epic speed bumps. Mostly potholes, since I live in Boston. To clear this, I just reformatted the card straight from the device, and it has been chugging along ever since.I did have 2 close calls after installing this camera, and getting the videos to my computer was a breeze. You can either detach the camera from the mount, and plug it to your computer via a mini-usb cable, or you can pop out the micro-sd card, and attach it to your computer through an SD card adapter, or a micro-sd card reader. Videos are in .MOV format, and at the highest setting (1080p, 30fps), each 10 minute loop is about 1 gig of space (988.8MB for one of my close call videos).For installing in your car, the cigarette lighter cable is plenty long. I ran it from my center console, behind the passenger footwell, up the side between the door and the dash, up the pillar and around the headliner (behind the sun visor), and dropped it down next to my rearview mirror and mounted it there. The cable's not visible, and the camera just peeks out underneath my rear-view mirror from the driver's seat perspective. There's also extra cable leftover, which I left under the rug in the passenger footwell.All in all, I found that this was a great investment. When it's time for that 2nd car, I'll be buying one of these again.Hope this was helpful for you! Feel free to ask any questions.

Initially this was an all thumbs up item that I was very happy to have paid the modest list price on Amazon back in the spring of 2016. After about 1 year of use, the clear bordered cover bezel fell off. Much like a glass-mounted rear view car mirror, it just dropped off. The factory/manufacturer adhesive used to hold this protective bezel in place is really gummy and sticky much like honey. Not very durable. After a year I was hoping for better. I contacted Black Box directly via email and they insisted (after confessing to their email server crashed issues) that I contact the original seller. Really? After a year? Contact the seller? At this point I was reluctant to do so and have not. Regardless, the unit has continued to function near flawlessly. Video recording is crisp and clear for even high speed western states interstate open road speeds and super high heat of Florida Atlantic coast. My final hit on this particular unit was out of the box, the audio recording level on my unit was very bad. Near non-existent. Not a problem for me and hasn't been a problem now for over 2 years. The best feature has been that there is no battery to fail and require replacement. Unplugged from power, after about 2 to 3 days, the internal capacitive power pack will dump and the date and time clock will go with it. Not very difficult to reset to current day and time the next time power is re-applied. The up side here is that any flash retained info is retained (ie. plate number and special/settings info). The supplied windshield cup mount requires reattachment about every 9 or 10 months. The 32GB micro-SD sticks I have used have all been flawless. Taking a 2,000 round trip from Florida to New Mexico and back was a nice peace of mind. Overall a good product for long haul road trips and daily driving, open road and metro stop-and-go traffic. Other than the bezel dropping off and the audio recording failure, I have actually enjoyed this gem. -- UPDATE: 10 NOV 2018: Now with more time, this unit has continued to perform with ***no*** additional problems. I'm still not ready to replace this unit! --  Black Box G1W-CB "Black Bezel" Capacitor Model Dash Camera - Heat Resistant - Full HD 1080P H.264 2.7" LCD Car DVR Video Recorder - WDR 140° Wide Angle 4x Zoom Motion Detection Night Vision G-Sensor