Mobius ActionCam
 

I wanted to start a thread here for specifically using the camera as a helmet cam whilst cycling.

The guys behind the firmware updates have released a new version of their tool. It enables some pretty good enhancements the camera specifically sharpness, exposure, colour options and white balance.

I have the Wide angle B lens at 1080p and 30fps, these were take before the firmware update I guess time for some footage.

Night Time:

Day Time/Rain:

How I mount mine:

http://i.imgur.com/2CWRiQWl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/9AjYkf2l.jpg

Just some Zip ties and I use the supplied cradle.

Quick thoughts:
It's HD at 1080p, it's pretty easy to read number plates. It's about the same size as a matchbox and it's pretty cheap compared to bigger cameras at around £45. It's not supposed to be waterproof but it seems to handle Welsh stormy rain without issue. If it breaks it isn't the end of the world and easily replaced.

Useful Information: The Mobius ActionCam Support Thread @ RC Forum

A Waterproof case has just been announced for preorder from the people at JuuVuu more information here:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2072785

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=359068

Is this really £45? Wow! Ok so its not as small as a GoPro, and the footage ain't as good, but I dont think GoPro footage is worth £200 more?

What battery life like? Is this basicly the cheap mans GoPro, any other cameras I should be looking at under £50, always wanted a action can but could never stomach the cost but this might change that!

Around £45 on eBay direct from China and £60 from UK resellers.

Battery is about 2 hours on a full charge although this seems to go down quicker on colder days.

The feeling of not wanting to because of the £200 price tag is exactly how I felt.

For a useful review with better quality footage check out this one:

http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2013/7/...p-micro-c.html

Deffintly looks good, have just seen his video reviwe, I'll see what else is out there but this looks pretty good, might have to get one.

There is also the SJ1000 that I have. The review is also on Techmoan.

I just want to add that another key point to me about this cam is the active development behind it.

The software keeps getting better and better and more functions keep getting added. Motion detection among other settings such as colour options.

I've been thinking about this one after watching Techmoan's review, but I have the SVC200 cam that he recently reviewed and I like it (I am uncomfortable riding with a camera that isn't 100% waterproof). Also I really like having a cam with a screen on it, which the SVC does. I have some older 808 #16 cams that I use for sport use (duct taping them to cheap model rockets, other such fun) and I'm sure this is a really nice cam. Had I gotten one of these first, I might not have gone through so many other cams (including the GoPro white, which I don't think puts out any better video than any of the other cams I've had, including the SVC200, and has other problems).

The screen would be handy for positioning but that's about it. Its really simple to just use an OTG cable or pop the SD card into your phone to view clips.

Mobius is smaller and much lighter than the GoPro, 59mm (61mm with the lens) (L) x 35mm (W) x18mm (H) weight 39g.

Just for comparison:


Mobius: 61mm (L) x 35mm (W) x18mm (H)
GoPro Hero 3 Black: 59mm (L) x 41mm (W) x 21mm (H)

It also sits flat as opposed to the gopro

So first usable footage which I can use as a base on the new 1.33 Firmware:

Night:

Day:

Lens: "B"
Artificial Light Frequency: 60 Hz
Wide Dynamic Range: On
Video Data Rate: High
Video Frame Rate: 30fps
Video Resolution: 1920x1080 (1080p)
Field of View: Wide
Sharpness: 0
Exposure: 0
Contrast: 0
Saturation: 0
Color Options: Normal
White Balance: Auto

Notes:
The main thing I noticed with this footage is that when I'm passing some bright headlights it doesn't seem to adjust properly and blacks out almost every thing else.

I think that could be the WDR setting at work. I'm not sure really. Tonight I'm going to record some footage and turn WDR off to compare.

From the RC forums: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...postcount=6057

Thanks for update on the waterproof case ... beats having to make one out of a tick-tac box :)

Andrew

But isn't the file output in .mov format? That will take up a huge chunk of my drive space in time, but its compact design make me want to get it.

What does the file extension have to do with anything? MOV, AVI, MP4, they're all just envelopes for your video and audio. What causes them to be large is the bitrate that the camera records at. An hour long MOV recorded at 15mbps is no longer than an hour long AVI recorded at 15mbps.

Besides, you don't save files unless you need them for something. You put it in car mode, throw in a 16 or 32GB card, just turn it on and off at the beginning and end of the ride and charge it as needed. You only pull files off if something occurred during the ride.

Ok point taken.. :)

Have been waiting for a waterproof case for this to be available in the US because I wanted to have another camera aside from my SVC-200, and it has been sitting in the wish list for months. Is it true that they're saying the wide-angle version is better for night rides than the standard one?

is youtube the best place to post a video? as opposed to say, photobucket?

Never seen videos on Photobucket so cannot comment but given the use of You Tube and Vimeo that should tell you something.

Andrew

Man, I love the way that looks... so nice and tiny. I just can't get over sticking a go pro on my noggin, no thanks.

As for the battery life, is there any accessory you can buy to extend it? Triple would be ideal. The techmoan guy reported about 80 min, I think. I imagine somebody has already thought up a solution.

These look fantastic for a car dash camera option too. I think I'll just get one for giggles.

You should be able to just connect a USB Power Bank to extend the battery life. The only problem would be that you'd have a cable dangling down, though that's probably not too big of a deal.

not to hijack the thread, but regarding features. I read someone wrote about their cam which had the feature to record 3 minutes clips and when the card was full it would start writing over the oldest file. my cam records 1 giant file. so if I want manageable files I have to start stop it repeatedly. the file extension relates to what kind of computer you can easily edit it. avi files for windows mov files for macs

what is "car mode"?

Car mode starts and stops recording when it detects motion. I don't know if it's always that way or if you have to somehow activate it? Maybe it's in the settings file.

The mobius seems to record either 5 or 15 min. clips (I think 5) and it repeats that last few frames of the previous clip at the beginning of the next one to ensure you don't lose anything. I imagine there's some light editing required if you want to put together a longer, uninterrupted file.

I'm basing this off a few reviews and watching some youtube stuff about it - I could be mistaken.

First heard of it on Techmoan, purchased it within an hour from Amazon. Great little camera, biggest downer is the lack of a screen so many of my vids are either too high or too low.

I'm using another bike-grip to mount, and it's hard to tighten, so the camera shifts every now and then.

There is a setup program that runs on Windows, which allows you to change the many settings of the camera. (There's also a way to do it with text file editing on an Apple or other operating system.) I don't have my Mobius yet (ordered it yesterday) but from the videos I've watched, the camera doesn't have a "car mode" as such. It has parameters to set it to start recording automatically when power is applied from an external power cable, which is what you'd want for a car camera -- turn the car on, power comes up on the 12 volt outlet, powers up the camera, and you're recording; shut off the car, camera shuts down. There is another parameter to set for recording when motion is detected. That's good for a security camera. There is a setting to choose how large a video file can get before a new file is started, with sequential numbering in the file names. One of those settings is for "max" which records until the micro SD card is full to capacity. You can also set it to do time lapse recording, with several different time intervals between frames. This would be good for recording a long trip without taking up a lot of space on the storage card but of course it will playback at faster than real time, which is good for getting a general idea of a trip without sitting through the whole thing in real time. There is a mode button on the camera which lets you switch between real time recording and time lapse or still-photo mode. You can also do slow motion recording by choosing the frame rate to be faster than the playback rate. That is, most playback is at 30 frames per second (such as on YouTube), but the camera can record at 60 fps, which would make everything look like it's moving half as fast as real time -- good for sports action shots. You can find some videos demonstrating these effects on YouTube or Vimeo.

Uh, Oh. My Mobius has developed a rattle in the sound when it is shaken.
 

:( My Mobius makes noise like the microphone or circuit board is loose, which can't be heard with the naked ears outside of the case, but it's loud on the video recordings. It only happens when the camera is shaken, even mildly, not when it is stationary. I'll be getting in touch with the seller for a replacement or repair. I've only had it for a few days. :(