Road Angel Halo Spark

Do it the same day. Every dashcam loop records, which means it writes over the oldest footage once the card is full — on a busy card that can be a day or two. An impact locks the relevant clip so the loop cannot touch it, but only if the camera detected the impact. A near miss, or somebody keying the car, may not trigger anything.

So the habit worth getting into is simple: if something happens, pull over when it is safe and save the clip, or take the card out when you get home. On the cameras with an app you can pull the file straight to your phone.

Insurers now ask for footage routinely and most accept a file straight from the card. Keep the original rather than a re-encoded copy from a phone or a messaging app — the timestamp and the file data are part of what makes it useful.

We hardwire every camera we fit. A camera on the 12V socket stops recording the moment the ignition goes off, which rules out the entire time the car is parked — and that is when most of the damage nobody owns up to happens.

Hardwiring is also what enables parking mode. Road Angel's kits use a variable voltage cut-off that stops recording before the battery drops below what the car needs to start, and we set that threshold with you rather than leaving it on a factory default.

Winter mode is worth knowing about if the car lives outside. Cold changes how a battery behaves, and it adjusts the cut-off to suit — the difference between a camera that watches all winter and one that quietly stopped in December.

This is the only specification that matters, and the marketing is unhelpful about it. A camera that films a collision but cannot resolve the other car's plate has given you a video, not evidence.

Full HD is fine in daylight at ordinary distances, which covers most claims. 2K is the step where plates stay readable in poorer light. 4K with a Starvis 2 sensor is what you want if you drive at night, park on an unlit street, or have already had a claim turn on unclear footage.

On the rear camera, Full HD is plenty, because anything behind you is closer. Spending the resolution at the front is the right way round.

Behind the mirror, high on the screen, out of your eyeline and out of the wiper's dead zone. Placement around rain sensors, heated screens and factory camera clusters is part of the job and we work round them — nothing is drilled. The Vision 3 is the exception: it sits on the mirror itself, so there is nothing on the glass at all.

Cables run behind the trim and down the A-pillar, so there is nothing crossing your view and nothing dangling to fail an MOT advisory. On a rear camera we route through the tailgate loom the way the factory would.

Allow two to three hours at your home or workplace. Before we leave, the card is formatted and tested and we show you footage from your own car so you know what you are actually getting.