Mobius & Remote lense(s)

sofaspud

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After getting my issue with the strange interference sorted, I thought I'd try a couple of ideas out for mounting a mobius with a remote lense. This has been an idea bubbling away for several months now, but trawling this site I noticed some postings along the same line by Niko & others which finally spurred me on...

Like others (Niko again... :cool:) I wondered how difficult it would be to capture a wider view but maintain best image quality, so thought about using more than one camera. Initially I bought a Mobius with the wide angle lense B, but not sure I like the fish eye look on the images so thought I'd try the idea out.
The existing wide angle unit will eventually be moved to the rear screen, while I plan to use 2 narrow view units for the front when they arrive.

As this is very much a work in progress to see if the idea is any use in practice I simply knocked up some basic brackets in alloy sheet to hold everything, with Blu-tack used to temporarily stick them in place. If I decide it's worth making permanent I might get some proper housings made which would better hide the cable. Maybe get a plastic case 3D printed that would mimic the way the mobius case holds the lense .

The idea is that instead of having a single wide angle lense pointing ahead, use 2 each angled away from the front. As the narrow lense is reported (on Tom Franks info) to have 85 deg Horizontal field of view I made it so each will point away from the front by 40 deg. This gives a bit of overlap to ensure the images will meet in the middle & allows for any inaccuracies in my construction. I also made the centre section of the bracket just wide enough so I could fix a 3rd lense pointing straight ahead, & bend the sides so the other lense' point more to the sides. I doubt I'll go to this extreme though.
2ldgdb4.jpg


The brackets are drilled to pick up on the existing imaging unit screws (M2 * 6mm) so that each lense unit is fixed to the front of the brackets. This also means the bracket is used as a heat sink for the imagining unit. I've found that when this is disturbed, the lense needs re-focussing after.
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The cable simply runs up the back of the bracket to the Mobius hidden higher up the windscreen
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This is what it looks like from the outside
hsn85s.jpg

Or a more clearer picture in the garage:
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So, what does it give?
Heres a couple of screen shots. I will try to upload a sample when I have several hours to give for the process...
2exy0wx.png

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Is it worth the effort?
Not sure, I still need to tweak the focus and at present I only have the single wide angle lense in place so its a bit early to decide. But it does show the potential to capture the front corners better than a single wide angle lense pointing to the front.
The reflection from the A pillar trim is causing a problem & needs to be suppressed so need to try a polarising filter as well. Even with this sorted, the A pillar on most modern cars is so thick it blocks a sizeable chunk of the view. Only other location would be on the doors which gives other install issues.
I'll also need to check when the other units arrive whether running 2 extension cables close nearby will cause interference between them.
 
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I love the idea and the clever way you have mounted the lens. I think it's worth pursuing. Or you could bend the bracket the opposite way and record in 3D :D
But seriously, I think your concept is great.
 
OK, had a chance to fit the narrow angle lenses.
n6xac6.jpg


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and the 2 mobius body's
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& here is a cropped & merged screen grab to show what the coverage is like
abjync.jpg


These give a better idea of the side coverage
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10cq80l.jpg

focussing & alignment could still do with a tweak.
The bracket I made is not quite perfect, one lense is actually about 1 deg up tilted compared to the other which I've partially corrected on the still image.
Notice the bonnet edge is aligned, but the road markings & buildings are not.
You can see the fish eye distortion on the edge of each image where I've joined them.

So, was it worth the effort?
Not if you have to make the mountings as I have. If there was a small housing available which also hid the extension connectors then maybe.
The mobius lenses are not uniform across their angle of view. The edge distortion stops the idea being used to join 2 videos to create a single panorama, a better lense might cure this.
I personally hate seeing cables, & would have to make this more discrete to have this as a permanent install
You would need the unedited originals if you where using the videos as proof in an incident anyway which was my reason for trying this, not to create panorama's.
 
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nice work

maybe buy one of the cheap Chinese cameras that has this setup and gut it and fit your internals, would be worth it just to get the front piece with the correct lens alignment
 
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