Mobius-sized 4K camera

[Dashmellow]

I think the bit they might be missing at the moment is the right engineer, they lost a few people a while back, development seems to have stalled since then

Thanks for that insight. Perhaps that means the project will eventually have a badly needed reboot or "growth spurt"?

 

[jokiin]

Thanks for that insight. Perhaps that means the project will eventually have a badly needed reboot or "growth spurt"?

the right engineer could certainly get things moving in the right direction

 

[Dashmellow]

the right engineer could certainly get things moving in the right direction

That would be a great development. I do hope it happens. And for Mobius' sake it needs to happen fairly soon or its loyal fan base will move on, especially after the lengthy M2 debacle that preceded the Maxi.

I like the Maxi and it certainly has much potential but I find I don't use it much. It just doesn't ring my bell the way the M1 did and still does after all this time. I haven't even felt the inspiration to post my observations about the Maxi as I had promised. I have it all written down and suppose I will eventually but as there hasn't been any firmware progress for such a long time in terms of performance I've wondered what purpose my commentary might serve. I also have found myself discouraged and disillusioned by the company's refusal to communicate publicly in any manner with its loyal fan base of enthusiasts who made the company what it is entirely on the basis of word of mouth. I won't say his name in public but it's certainly not like the Mobius founder doesn't have perfect English language skills.

Mobius could learn a thing or two from you, who apart from the customer service aspect of the equation engages with your customers about your products (and upcoming developments) on an ongoing basis and this contributes to your success.

 

[jokiin]

That would be a great development. I do hope it happens. And for Mobius' sake it needs to happen fairly soon or its loyal fan base will move on, especially after the lengthy M2 debacle that preceded the Maxi.

I like the Maxi and it certainly has much potential but I find I don't use it much. It just doesn't ring my bell the way the M1 did and still does after all this time. I haven't even felt the inspiration to post my observations about the Maxi as I had promised. I have it all written down and suppose I will eventually but as there hasn't been any firmware progress for such a long time in terms of performance I've wondered what purpose my commentary might serve. I also have found myself discouraged and disillusioned by the company's refusal to communicate publicly in any manner with its loyal fan base of enthusiasts who made the company what it is entirely on the basis of word of mouth. I won't say his name in public but it's certainly not like the Mobius founder doesn't have perfect English language skills.

Mobius could learn a thing or two from you, who apart from the customer service aspect of the equation engages with your customers about your products (and upcoming developments) on an ongoing basis and this contributes to your success.

oddly enough I've given feedback directly to the same person you're referring to with much the same outcome, any lack of progress is certainly not due to lack of feedback, I'm sure they get it from plenty of sources also

 

[Dashmellow]

oddly enough I've given feedback directly to the same person you're referring to with much the same outcome, any lack of progress is certainly not due to lack of feedback, I'm sure they get it from plenty of sources also

That comes as no surprise. Makes me wonder why.

 

[SawMaster]

When things which should happen don't, the reason is "can't" or "won't"

Since we know development is possible since everyone else can do it that eliminates "can't" Maybe it's just me but I have a problem with "won't"- a BIG problem

Phil

 

[kamkar]

Well i am eager to try a 4K dashcam for sure as i do think a higher resolution are also a must in the future, but right now all the 4K dashcams i have seen have been flawed by compromise either by the components used or overreaching on the field of use.
The old Mobius was the odd ball out in this as it did work fine in both worlds, though on action it soon got overtaken by higher resolution and feature cameras, so in the end it just had its size and shape going for it.
Cuz if the shape wasent a factor the RC people soon moved on to other cameras, and this was amplified with the quadcopter fab of the age that would carry any shape cameras, at least when it came to the larger quadcopters.
And while my camera needs don't really need the action in action cameras ( why i have lately fallen in love with the dji osmo pocket ) then i will probably still be keeping taps on the action cameras from a tech standpoint.
But the match box shaped cameras like the Mobius or F1, well if i was to need a action camera, they have the optimal size and shape for my immediate needs where a regular action camera would limit a little what i would do with such a camera.

 

[jokiin]

I'm sure we'll see more and more of them but I still feel there are some hurdles to overcome before 4k is the better option, technology is always improving so it's just a matter of time

 

[TonyM]

I think the bit they might be missing at the moment is the right engineer, they lost a few people a while back, development seems to have stalled since then

the right engineer could certainly get things moving in the right direction

I haven't even felt the inspiration to post my observations about the Maxi as I had promised. I have it all written down and suppose I will eventually but as there hasn't been any firmware progress for such a long time in terms of performance I've wondered what purpose my commentary might serve.

From my viewpoint, Mobius have achieved more incremental development with the Maxi than they did with the M2. However much of this has been FW tweaks and bug fixes (LED on/off options, improved startup reliability, currently tending to power-off shutdown issues). Then of course they have added WiFi and companion smartphone apps for the first time, which has taken up a significant proportion of their time lately. They probably also had to bring in additional resource with experience in that department.

What has been missing for a long time is any real improvement in Image Quality, which started with the M2 and continued through the Mini and then Maxi. Colour casts and high noise levels create video that just doesn't look as good as the competition, or even as good as the faithful M1. Perhaps this is where they ought to bring in (or bring back) the right people.

Where Mobius have made progress is by maintaining fast exposure times which reduce motion blur. In this area the Maxi (and the M2 before it) perform better than any of my other cameras, and I do see real benefit in that approach. I did advise them that purely for dashcam use, a sharp-but-noisy video is better than a blurred-but-noiseless video. But perhaps they have taken that approach too far at the expense of not creating something with visual appeal that makes people like their product?

 

[TonyM]

I also have found myself discouraged and disillusioned by the company's refusal to communicate publicly in any manner with its loyal fan base of enthusiasts who made the company what it is entirely on the basis of word of mouth.

The subject of creating a Mobius web page has been mentioned. And whilst Tom Frank is not a Mobius employee, he does voluntarily maintain active discussion groups for all the Mobius cameras over at RCG.

I agree that's a long way short of what jokiin, viofo, estore009, rayman chan (and others) do in these forums to engage with customers about products, firmware and upcoming developments.

 

[Dashmellow]

From my viewpoint, Mobius have achieved more incremental development with the Maxi than they did with the M2. However much of this has been FW tweaks and bug fixes (LED on/off options, improved startup reliability, currently tending to power-off shutdown issues). Then of course they have added WiFi and companion smartphone apps for the first time, which has taken up a significant proportion of their time lately. They probably also had to bring in additional resource with experience in that department.

What has been missing for a long time is any real improvement in Image Quality, which started with the M2 and continued through the Mini and then Maxi. Colour casts and high noise levels create video that just doesn't look as good as the competition, or even as good as the faithful M1. Perhaps this is where they ought to bring in (or bring back) the right people.

Where Mobius have made progress is by maintaining fast exposure times which reduce motion blur. In this area the Maxi (and the M2 before it) perform better than any of my other cameras, and I do see real benefit in that approach. I did advise them that purely for dashcam use, a sharp-but-noisy video is better than a blurred-but-noiseless video. But perhaps they have taken that approach too far at the expense of not creating something with visual appeal that makes people like their product?

You make some good points here that I agree with. I feel I may not have expressed myself as well as I might have when I said in my post you quoted, - "there hasn't been any firmware progress for such a long time in terms of performance". By that I was referring specifically to imaging performance rather than features or functionality tweaks. With the Mobius 1 it was a marvel to witness the ongoing parade of firmware updates where almost each one offered enhanced image quality as well as functional improvements. And that was at a time when with few exceptions, practically no other camera developer offered any firmware updates. Maybe there would be one release after a product was introduced and that would be the end of it. All further development would then be focused on whatever new product was in the pipeline. And this approach, along with an amazing build quality gave us a product that is still viable and still for sale on the market 6 years later.

 

[Lola]

I've been wondering whether it is a lack of appreciation for how important that level of control can be or whether there is something in the hardware platform that makes such precision and depth of control difficult or perhaps impossible to achieve.
I still remember my dismay the first time I tried increasing the sharpness on the Maxi by one click only to discover it was an utterly useless slider control.

Anyone who's familiar with the sharpness of some of the screen shots of birds at my feeder shot with the 2.8-12mm varifocal or some of my traffic screen shots from the 6-22mm varifocal would understand why the sharpness controls are so important to me. Those lenses are impressive on the Mobius by themselves at the defaults but with the use of all the advanced controls it brings it to another level altogether.

It's amazing to me that the attributes of the Mobius 1 have been discussed more then any other dash camera ever developed since it was brought out. I simply can't understand why it's been impossible for some manufacture to develop a similar version (including software manipulation) instead of basically copying others that 90% of the time are not accepted by the Dash cam enthusiast/public.
I do believe the Mobius powers to be have the intelligence to do it, but seriously doubt they ever will because of their total lack of respecting what the public wants and ridiculously going with their plan of introducing failures and models that don't meet or exceed the engineering plan used in developing the Mobius 1.
If it happens it will be some other enterprising company, that recognizes what most here on DCT have known for the past 7 years!

 

[Dashmellow]

It's amazing to me that the attributes of the Mobius 1 have been discussed more then any other dash camera ever developed since it was brought out. I simply can't understand why it's been impossible for some manufacture to develop a similar version (including software manipulation) instead of basically copying others that 90% of the time are not accepted by the Dash cam enthusiast/public.
I do believe the Mobius powers to be have the intelligence to do it, but seriously doubt they ever will because of their total lack of respecting what the public wants and ridiculously going with their plan of introducing failures and models that don't meet or exceed the engineering plan used in developing the Mobius 1.
If it happens it will be some other enterprising company, that recognizes what most here on DCT have known for the past 7 years!

I feel that the Maxi has been a legitimate effort to create a worthy successor to original Mobius 1, especially after the failure of the M2. The Maxi has great potential and it's already more than half way there. Unfortunately, the ball has been dropped. Mobius just needs to pick it back up again and carry it over the finish line. Whether that will happen remains to be seen.

 

[TonyM]

What has been missing for a long time is any real improvement in Image Quality, which started with the M2 and continued through the Mini and then Maxi. Colour casts and high noise levels create video that just doesn't look as good as the competition, or even as good as the faithful M1. Perhaps this is where they ought to bring in (or bring back) the right people.

I do wonder what someone like @Falsificator could achieve with the Maxi, when he can do this with other platforms :

Ambarella A12S35+OV4689 - Before & After:

 

[Dashmellow]

I do wonder what someone like @Falsificator could achieve with the Maxi, when he can do this with other platforms :

Somebody send a Mobius Maxi to @Falsificator PRONTO!!!

 

[kamkar]

It do make this guy think " are the people at the SOC factory blind " assuming it is default settings, or are the firmware modified by some one blind at the camera maker factory.
Either way blind people are making money somehow.
Also make me think of my Lukas LK-7500

 

[Deleted member 37895]

4K in the Mobius formfactor and replaceable M12 lens would be great. But I NEED timelapse and/or low framerate video. Mobius has abandoned that feature. I keep one Mobius in my car always running as a parking camera at 2fps and it stores about a week on the 128GB sd card

 

[country_hick]

I am still waiting for a better than 8mp image from dash cameras.
4k (8mp) is nice when compared to 1080p (2mp) but we should be able to get even better quality images than that before to long.

 

[Deleted member 37895]

I am still waiting for a better than 8mp image from dash cameras.
4k (8mp) is nice when compared to 1080p (2mp) but we should be able to get even better quality images than that before to long.

I don't think that's possible with the tiny 1/3" sensors. It seems that glass can't be made high enough precision. Maybe if they go up to 1" we would see a benefit from higher resolutions

 

[Nigel]

I don't think that's possible with the tiny 1/3" sensors. It seems that glass can't be made high enough precision. Maybe if they go up to 1" we would see a benefit from higher resolutions

Most dashcams use 1/2.3" size sensors. The IMX147 is a 1/2.3" 20MP sensor that can give 5K (5184 pixels wide) at 24fps.