I think the majority of the units most often discussed here are focused more on size and price point. Those two factors are incompatible with long term reliability and resistance to environmental factors.
A major jump in reliability comes in a major jump in price. Something you would see in a commercial vehicle, police vehicle, etc... Remote camera going to a stand alone digital recorder.
I'm not looking to bash or insult the manufacturers or vendors here, they seem to put out a good product for the market they are in. But as always, with everything, you get what you pay for. That will never change.
How long is long-term though?
I'm not so sure. The mobius is reasonably priced & does a great job. It's also a robust little cam, it has to be to survive the punishment meted out by the RC community - I'm thinking about those little 4x4s that get bounced all over rough terrain.
In the time (18 months?) I've had my cam, I've dropped it a couple of times & it's still going strong, over 3000 hours and counting. Convert 3000 hours to your average commuter & you've got to be looking at a lifetime of driving.
Of course, a cam is only ever going to be as good as the SD card and the power supply. In my case, both card and converter died long ago. Then again, the converter is running constantly for over 9 hrs (and is in the windscreen so gets even hotter than normal) and the card is overwritten every 1.5 days.
My theory on the longevity of the mobius has something to do with the simplicity of the machine - it only has to do 2 things - record Video & audio.
Take the same machine & expect it to also log gps and/or G-sensor info, that same processor now has to work so much harder, adding a screen also puts a little bit more onto the processor.
As for getting what you pay for, well, the G1W seems to perform really well and that's insanely cheap.
To be honest, my DR32 cost almost £100 and died at 8 months, my mobius cost half that & has lasted twice as long.
If it died tomorrow I wouldn't be upset, I've had my money's worth & I'd get another in a heartbeat - unless something better comes along.
