My Mobius thread: initial contact, some questions and why I didn't keep it (read this before buying)

[Module 79L]

They give a much better night vision when used with vlc enhancement and can literally see in the dark where my 0806 fails to identify anything when parked and running as a security cam.

The trade off is a slightly more vivid yellowish tint on daytime that looks slightly more 3D than bog standard settings.

VLC enhancement is of no use to me because I have to use the clips as they were recorded. Do those settings improve anything on their own?

 

[petepete]

yes..

They increase the brightness and I dare say with a bit of adjustment you can find exactly what you are looking for..

Its a 2 minute job to fiddle with settings so have fun and they are just as simple to restore to stock.

 

[Rajagra]

This is the best I can get from an 0806 with max legal window tint and its Cpl still fitted

You have the gamma set higher for the 0806 than for the Mobius - making it washed out and grainy.

Here are some test shots I took earlier (Mobius still not mounted and held further away from the rainy window.)
0806 on left, Mobius on right.
Top to bottom: image adjustments off; on with lower gamma; on with higher gamma.

I haven't tweaked the settings on either camera.

 

[petepete]

I know ! and I said this is the best I can get ..

this means exactly that, and if the gamma is turned down just a bit I lose even more detail...

Detail is all that should ever concern us washed out or not, its the evidence contains
ed that's priority not photographic merit !!!

 

[Rajagra]

Detail is all that should ever concern us washed out or not, its the evidence contains
ed that's priority not photographic merit !!!

I agree, but you didn't spell that out in the post. You just said "the best." I think that could mislead readers.

More on-topic, here's a test comparison of the Mobius using WDR On vs WDR Low Light:



Not sure there's a huge difference, at least without tweaking in VLC or whatever.

But I don't think I'm getting the graininess that Module 79L is.

 

[Module 79L]

So, I waited until it got dark and created 8 profiles on mSetup (the order is FOV, Data Rate and WDR On or Off):
1. Narrow, High, Off
2. Narrow, High, On
3. Narrow, Low, Off
4. Narrow, Low, On
5. Wide, High, Off
6. Wide, High, On
7. Wide, Low, Off
8. Wide, Low, On

The previous pictures were taken from a recording with the Standard Data Rate, so there was no point creating profiles also with it. I tested profiles 1, 3, 5 and 7 with Low Light but since the place is very well lit, I didn't notice any visible differences. I also tested @petepete's tweaking but it only makes the picture even more orange than it already is (the street lights are also orange) and accentuates the flying RGB pixels.
The tests were made outside, with the camera in my hand.

Results: the "best" settings (as in "the ones where the flying RGB pixels are less noticeable") are 5, 6, 7 and 8, only because the wider angle attenuates the problem by making the pixels smaller. The problem is always present, no matter the settings.

That said, and after seeing Rajagra's pictures, I'm more and more convinced there's something wrong with the sensor.

Here are the "winners":

 

[Module 79L]

Here's some more stills taken from today's footage. After reviewing yesterday's clips it seemed like turning the WDR off slightly reduced the colored graininess, so I tested it. Today's settings were Narrow, High, Off.


During daytime the video was overly bright and the whites were washed. The sky was much darker than the picture shows.



At night, this happened:

The left side is green, the right side is blue. There's definitely a problem with this unit.

 

[Rajagra]

What colour are those street lamps? Yellow or a decent white?
I think the Mobius tries a little too hard to see in the dark and it leads to exaggerated colour differences and graininess. (The right-hand wall is lit by your headlights but the left isn't.)
I wonder if toning down the Advanced Image Settings and doing all the adjustments in a video editor instead might give better appearance AND detail (as in stored information.)

It depends on what the camera's processing actually does. For example does increasing sharpness perform something like unsharp mask? Or does it merely decrease the amount of software blurring that always has to be done to make the image natural-looking?

If the former, it's hard work for the camera's processor and it probably has to cut corners to cope. I'd rather the sharpening was done in post processing.
But if the latter, more sharpening actually means less softening - so bumping up sharpness would mean less work for the camera processor to do. In which case it would be best to soften in post processing.

It would take a lot of testing to find the optimum settings, and might have to be done on a camera-by-camera basis.

 

[Module 79L]

What colour are those street lamps? Yellow or a decent white?
I think the Mobius tries a little too hard to see in the dark and it leads to exaggerated colour differences and graininess. (The right-hand wall is lit by your headlights but the left isn't.)
I wonder if toning down the Advanced Image Settings and doing all the adjustments in a video editor instead might give better appearance AND detail (as in stored information.)

It depends on what the camera's processing actually does. For example does increasing sharpness perform something like unsharp mask? Or does it merely decrease the amount of software blurring that always has to be done to make the image natural-looking?

If the former, it's hard work for the camera's processor and it probably has to cut corners to cope. I'd rather the sharpening was done in post processing.
But if the latter, more sharpening actually means less softening - so bumping up sharpness would mean less work for the camera processor to do. In which case it would be best to soften in post processing.

It would take a lot of testing to find the optimum settings, and might have to be done on a camera-by-camera basis.

The street lamps are all yellow/orange/whatever color they call it.

What's the point of me trying to make up with tweakings or softwares for things the camera should be doing right in the first place? If this "everyone's praised and preferred" camera can't do at night what a cheap G1W-H can right out of the box ( ), without having to lose a sh*tload of time trying to get things right, than I don't want it.

How many of you Mobius owners have lost 4 days trying to get the thing to record night video with the quality it's supposed to? I bet none! That's why everyone says it's so easy to set up, set it once and it's done. Because that's how it should be and that's how I expected it to be!
I firmly believe I got a dud. I want to believe there's no way this is the normal night quality of the Mobius with the default settings (except for WDR turned on) but the "silence" of some members who might have something to say about this is starting to create some doubts in my mind...

 

[jokiin]

to be fair even the day footage doesn't look great, there's something wrong there somewhere

 

[Dashmellow]

Whatever may be going on here with the camera, it looks like @Module 79L needs new shocks.

 

[Module 79L]

to be fair even the day footage doesn't look great, there's something wrong there somewhere

If you're referring to the picture on post #67 that's probably because WDR was turned off. I explained that in the post.

 

[Module 79L]

Whatever may be going on here with the camera, it looks like @Module 79L needs new shocks.

Why do you say that? The shocks were replaced in July.

 

[Dashmellow]

Why do you say that? The shocks were replaced in July.

It was just a joke Module79L, hence the grinning emoticon, but it was inspired by the fact that some of your screen shoots appear as if your vehicle experiences a lot of vibration.

 

[jokiin]

If you're referring to the picture on post #67 that's probably because WDR was turned off. I explained that in the post.

turning WDR off doesn't give poor focus

 

[Module 79L]

It was just a joke Module79L, hence the grinning emoticon, but it was inspired by the fact that some of your screen shoots appear as if your vehicle experiences a lot of vibration.

Oh, I see!

If we take into consideration that all the stills but one were captured from parts of the videos when the car was stopped, it's bad, isn't it?

 

[Module 79L]

turning WDR off doesn't give poor focus

So it's even worse than I thought?

 

[jokiin]

So it's even worse than I thought?

Have you tried refocusing it?

 

[Module 79L]

One very important thing: have you all been watching the stills with the size the forum resizes for the screen you're using? Because in small screens they don't seem too bad. It's only when you click the image to see the full-size version that the problem is more visible.

 

[Module 79L]

Have you tried refocusing it?

No, I didn't think it was needed. I'm not going to do anything involving opening the camera, just in case I have to return it, until Dan takes a better look at this thread and gives me his opinion.