Mobius vs Panorama II S. Clear winner in my opinion.

you don't want it making the white balance adjustments based on what's happening in the sky when what you're interested is on the road directly in front of you, the firmware is tailored to this type of usage, the Mobius is a bit more general usage and is really targeted at the RC crowd so their white balance strategy is probably a bit more lenient for this scenario than a dedicated dashcam product needs to be
 
It makes sense that a dashcam manufacturer would tweak their product to suit its purpose, and if I were using a dashcam purely for recording accidents, I wouldn't probably give a damn about having the correct colour balance, and I'd be more interested in capturing the incident on the road.
However, so impressed am I by the picture quality of the Mobius and the Panorama, that my use has evolved slightly to also capture the scenery on the road trip that I originally bought the dashcam for.
This is why I don't want to have the dashboard in view. And to be honest, in my opinion, in any use for a dashcam, there is no point in capturing the dashboard of your car since the incident you want to capture isn't going to happen there.
Neither is it going to happen in the sky particularly often, but I have seen thousands of dashcam videos and reasonably often things happen off camera above. If, for example, someone threw something at your car from an overhead bridge, I would rather be recording that than my dashboard.
(I subscribe to a few Russian car crash dashcam Youtube channels and even with 32 years of driving experience, I still learn stuff from watching those accidents, and would say I am undoubtedly a safer driver because of them.)
Anyway, because I am capturing the scenery for inclusion in our big holiday video, correct colour balance is important to me. The dashcam manufacturers should be aiming to create a product which has a good AWB (so the action on the road is captured) and good colour balance. Yes, they are on a budget, but that should be their goal none the less.
 
budget doesn't come into it, the Panorama uses premium quality components but it is designed to do a specific task, given you want to make home movies rather than just have a dashcam primarily for its intended purpose you're probably better to do as you mentioned and just use the Mobius up front
 
Dash cam manufacturers can't change the design of cars or where you can mount your dc. What jokin is saying is true, if you show more of the sky then on many occasions the road/details you want to capture will get messy. So capturing more of the dashboard(which is pointless as you say) is the solution to getting consistent white balance.
 
budget doesn't come into it, the Panorama uses premium quality components but it is designed to do a specific task, given you want to make home movies rather than just have a dashcam primarily for its intended purpose you're probably better to do as you mentioned and just use the Mobius up front
With respect, budget *always* comes in to it. Manufacturers make products with a specific budget in mind. Unless you're building a product where price is no object like a Bugatti. But that is extremely rare. I'm not arguing that the Panorama does not use premium quality products. However, if I were designing the menu, I would maybe have an 'Advanced' page which allows manual set up (via a slider) of the G-Sensor sensitivity and some of the picture settings. Just to give that extra element of flexibility for those people like us who like to tweak.
 
Anyway, because I am capturing the scenery for inclusion in our big holiday video, correct colour balance is important to me.

Can't Adobe tweak the colour mis-representations, to suit?
 
Ok, I will try again with both cameras and we'll see.

See...


Skip to 13mins 50secs. Note the difference resulting from a change of angle.

Nobody likes a lot of bonnet / dash in the frame, however, if the angle of dangle that achieves optimum exposure includes a lot of bonnet / dash, then put up with it. I've got some in mine (Mobius B set to 'Narrow' FOV), & I'm not sure that it's angled downwards enough for best results...

Cloudy Setting Front Sunny.jpg
 
Can't Adobe tweak the colour mis-representations, to suit?
Almost certainly, but I'm an amateur at video editing.
Thanks for the replies.
I'm finding that the polarising filter is having a very limited effect in reducing windscreen reflection in the Panorama.
 
I love my Mobius and can attest to the angle mattering. The exposure changes if it's parallel to the ground/slightly up. I point mine slightly down which helps keep the camera setting the exposure on the road not the sky. I do get some dash in the video which is normal based on my cars windshield angle.

You can see the biggest difference in the early morning and evening when the sky is bright and there are a lot of shadows on the road.
 
I do get some dash in the video which is normal based on my cars windshield angle.
You can see the biggest difference in the early morning and evening when the sky is bright and there are a lot of shadows on the road.

The angle of the car in relation to the sun, also make a difference. It's very hilly here. So I notice excessive reflections, on odd occasions, which vanish after changing direction and/or angle
 
I hope this is considered a fairer test.
Note that I clap three times at 49 seconds so I could easily synchronise the two videos in Adobe Premier. The two videos are within 1 frame (1/30th of a second) of each other and you can hear the three claps in the left (Mobius) and right (Panorama) audio channels happen simultaneously (actually technically they are still not quite in sync, but I think 1/30th of a second is close enough for the purpose of the test).
 
Is your car red or orange? I am guessing it's NOT orange!

Overall the Mobius is the winner for me, the Panorama handles low light conditions better but its handling of high light conditions looks poor.
 
good bad or otherwise I wouldn't make a judgement based on something edited and then compressed on YouTube
Adobe Premier and YouTube won't alter the colour in any noticeable way. Comparing the YT video with the original, the colours are not noticeably different. The accuracy of the colour is, I dare say, unlikely to be relevant to most people. The important aspect is accurately capturing the incident.
For me, however, as I'm using the footage for a holiday video, the colour accuracy is a factor and though I could tweak it in post production, it's easier not to have to.
I'll be using both cameras on our trip.
How the cameras respond to changing light is, I would say, more important. The Panorama is brighter in this video than the Mobius, which means that in some shots, the road is a little too dark on the Mobius. And where the sun hits the road in some shots, the Panorama is blown out.
You pays your money and you takes your choice.
 
Other than red/orange what other colours appear affected? I've noticed the same effect on my Panorama IIs, but haven't noticed any other colour changes. Could this be the limit of colour changes?
 
Other than red/orange what other colours appear affected? I've noticed the same effect on my Panorama IIs, but haven't noticed any other colour changes. Could this be the limit of colour changes?
It's not that specific colours are changed. The whole picture will have a slightly different 'balance' to all the colours. They vary from one camera to the next as they vary from one display device to the next (yes the colours on your TV are unlikely to be accurate unless you have set it up properly).
Looks to me like the Panorama is slightly more saturated (so all colours look richer than they are in real life) with slightly more green (since pushing green makes reds look more orange).
None of this is going to make any difference in the accident report. Unless having richer colours makes the difference between reading a number plate or not. I would guess that the level of brightness and contrast will make more difference there.
 
I hope this is considered a fairer test.
Note that I clap three times at 49 seconds so I could easily synchronise the two videos in Adobe Premier. The two videos are within 1 frame (1/30th of a second) of each other and you can hear the three claps in the left (Mobius) and right (Panorama) audio channels happen simultaneously (actually technically they are still not quite in sync, but I think 1/30th of a second is close enough for the purpose of the test).
What software you used to merge the video?
Thanks

Edit: Nevermind, you mentioned Adobe premier.

Any free option?
 
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