G'day M8
Welcome to the forum.
Well a memory card getting hit by a photo, are a far cry from a memory card getting hit by 30 photos every second that make up a video.
What brand / model is your memory card ?
Have you formatted the memory card in the camera ? that should be the first order of the day setting up any system.
The camera should start recording video as soon as you turn on the car and the camera power on, no need to push any buttons for that.
The uniden brand see extremely little action on this forum, it dont even have its own sub forum in the "other brands" sub forum where brands with little action hang out.