Hi,
The
Muvi and the AEE MD80 are identical (The Muvi is a branded MD80) both are metal. the AEE is a little cheaper and you can pick them up unbranded OEMs at
Maplins(£50-£60). (saying that, there are cheap Muvis on Amazon).
The clone
MD80s (off
ebay) are plastic and cost about £20. (A lot of folks think that all MD80 are plastic clones but that's not true). Be careful if you buy what you think is a real MD80 on ebay as they often use the real photos of the MD80 (grey slider switches) but supply the clones (black push buttons).
Both use micro SD cards - and all of these cares use the Microsoft FAT file system (so they can be read on PCs). There is a limitation on this file system that no file can be bigger than 4GB - even if the card is bigger (8GB). In this case, you need to stop recording before the file gets this big and restart a new file.
The real ones seem to get about 2 hours from a charge. The fakes seem to do 60 - 90 minutes - though it seems to be dependent upon the USB cable you use and can be a bit variable.
Also - the clones have poor file compression - so it will fill up 4GB of daylight riding in under an hour. The real ones are about double this I think.
The clones' night-time performance is much worse than the real ones. Very blurred and jumpy.
So, shortish commutes and a PC at work to recharge and empty the card, you'll be fine with a clone. Anything more and get a real one if you can.