Yeah, but totally different times. They silently sort of "released" an
808#32 ( which seems to have an immature firmware after 2 years first rumors came out, it might say something about company capabilities ).
For few bucks more and a slightly bigger ff, there is the F1, the newly released
Runcam 2 4k, AND we have reliable dedicated dashcams making the mobius do-it-all approach
Even Gopro can now have additional features with"official"
custom scripts....
I agree we will not see again a similar phenomenon also because there is not an empty market scenario to fill like there was when M1 came out.
The F1, the Runcam, the Gopro and perhaps a few others are all worthy cameras and there has been much evolution and development in technology since the Mobius was introduced seven years ago.
While I agree with you that many new and worthwhile cameras have entered the market since the advent of the Mobius I believe you are missing the point about what the Mobius represents and why it is still in a class by itself.
No other camera has ever offered the versatility and innovation that Mobius brought to the table. Aside from the form factor itself which literally created the product category of high performance matchbox style cameras, no other camera offers the exposure, sharpness and color control, color profile options, RGB adjustments, contrast, saturation adjustment, frame rate options, video and sound file types, in-camera field of view selection or all the other unique GUI features and extremely fine grain in-camera image tweaking capabilities of the Mobius. And the camera even works well for still photography and as a pocket audio recorder.
No other camera has offered the ability for hardware customization like the Mobius with different manufacturer supplied focal length lenses, swapable, replaceable lens modules, plus plug-in batteries and plug-in super-capacitors.
No other camera manufacturer has made affordable replacement components available including PCBs, lens modules, case housings, etc. One can literally build a whole new camera from individual parts purchased separately.
No other camera I'm aware of other than the M1 comes with a lens module that came with a grub screw specifically intended so the user can easily refocus the lens for specific purposes or install alternative aftermarket lenses at will.
The list goes on really and of course includes the remarkable image quality they painstakingly teased out of the hardware. And then of course, there is the build quality, the reliability, the small size, the ergonomics and just the way it feels in your hand. And
all of this at a remarkably affordable price!
All of these things put the Mobius 1 in a league of its own and for the dedicated, creative camera enthusiast who wants a "real" camera that can be configured to his needs and purposes,
nothing comes close!
All of us had hoped and indeed expected that by this time, seven years later, we would have essentially the same thing in an enhanced new product with the benefits of the latest sensor and processor technology. Sadly, each attempt to do that has fallen short and it feels as if Mobius as a company has lost its way and also lost its creative drive and inspiration.
After the unfortunate debacle of the M2, the Maxi was a really great effort and it seemed to have so much potential but it too never quite got there. Perhaps it might still happen? Who knows? I do hope so. But usually with a Mark II or Mark III product you expect the next iterations to reach newer and greater heights and achievement, yet the Mobius 1 is still the high water mark. When the latest third version of a camera has worse daylight image quality and acuity than the seven year old version after a previous second attempt at a Mark II level camera something is very, very wrong. Despite what has come along since with other cameras like the GitUp F1, the Mobius has been one of the most innovative camera companies in the business and it is sad to see their current state of affairs. Rumor has it that they are working on a wifi pet feeder camera, a product category of which there already exists dozens on the market.
Earlier, I mentioned my old comment that the original Mobius might have been a "lightning-in-a-bottle" product and how that apparently turned out to be a prescient remark, and it got me thinking about another odd thing I noted that may also have been all too precient. That has to do with my noticing the strange coffin iconography embedded in the Maxi and how I really hoped it didn't portend a bad fate for the camera. It was a joke that now doesn't seem quite so funny two years later.
I said,
"I've been sort of amused and perhaps a bit freaked out by the obvious coffin iconography embedded in the (Maxi) design. It's kind of a Goth action camera look I guess. Hope it's not a bad omen....."
We were all so hoping for so much better than what we got.