Side by Side Mobius B-lens vs Innovv C1 ( old/new lens) vs Panorama II, Day / Night

Thanks Niko, great review! You are an artist and the roads are your canvas. For the next one, I would love to see the four Action cams: Mobius A, Mobius B, Innov C1 and Innov C2.

By filming in difficult situations, you really brought out the differences in the metering each camera uses. The action cams could use an improvement here. I have to point my Mobius down a bit to brighten the picture in the morning with bright sun. The Panorama really excelled facing the sun.
 
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niko, it appears something was "lost in translation" - what russ331 was saying is:
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I'd like to join in too in thanking you for your dedication, it's a big help for the rest of us - well done and what a great job!

Oops. Silly me: reading quickly non-zoomed text from phone I "red" ( tour de france ), ha-ha.
@me: "Shoud go to Specsavers" :)

Thx 4 bringing to attention. I will try to read more carefully future posts.
 
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Having the Panorama II included was kind of like "which one doesn't belong with the others?"

I welcome the inclusion of the $190 Panorama as, aside from showing its excellence, it also shows that these $69 cameras can punch far above their price tag.

It makes a nonsense of the posts I regularly see on this site to the effect that you have to spend, say, $150 to get decent video quality.
 
I welcome the inclusion of the $190 Panorama as, aside from showing its excellence, it also shows that these $69 cameras can punch far above their price tag.

It makes a nonsense of the posts I regularly see on this site to the effect that you have to spend, say, $150 to get decent video quality.
Yep I agree, And it shows what Niko said, there isn't one camera perfect in all aspects. So many ask "what camera do I buy?" We can point them to the good ones, just maybe not the perfect ones for them. Niko's tests are a perfect place to sit and compare video and decide which you prefer and works best for you. Or maybe add a new one to your collection :D
@DashCamMan maybe open a "side by side video comparison" section. These tests are great and deserve their own section to make it easier to compare, so they don't get shuffled down by date. They're a true asset to this site. Thanks again Niko!
 
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You are right and I agree, there is no secret that any dahs cam with lower bit-rate ( Panorama II have 12Mbps bit-rate) will have more chance to reproducing slightly more grainy / noisy image, it's not only Panorama2, but most others as well.
There are pros and cons regarding higher bit rate and it's only not because higher-bit rate "eats" a lot more data ( this is not priority concern for me personally ), there are much more to this, I will write thread about this in some stage.
As you mentioned: "I realize it may capture more detail as a result, but it sure looks artificial and unattractive as it does so..." ...
Here is my question: are we shooting a Hollywood movie, or we need as much details at night as possible ? If chose first, then yes - Panorama II ( and most other dash cams ) are no good. If we need to record road-action details, then dashcams with low-light sensitive CMOS are the right choice, despite they do in majority cases have this ( as you mentioned ) 'foggy' or grainy or noisy effect. This goes to almost whole range of high-end dashcams.

Try to imagine scenario where you drive car on the streets with poor light and some scum-bag throws a stone from the side of the road. With high-bit rate dashcam ( which has less noise / "foggy" video effect ), but have average CMOS, - you will not catch an action, but with CMOS like Sony Exmor, AR0331 and other similar ones, - you do catch an action.
If someone thinks higher bit-rate will "guarantee" him more chance to record a car numberplate, then it is not true. Even dashcams with best combination of CMOS / FPS / bit-rate, will be struggling to record numberplates at night due to many factors, some of them I described HERE.

So there are many priorities to consider when comparing dashcams. For some people having smooth video is more important than nigh recording sensitivity, for others is opposite.
As price per value I think all 3 models tested here are unbeatable at the moment in their own dashcam segment, but of course there are many other dashcams released time to time that might bring a competition to them in some stage. Let's wait and see ;)
You're absolutely right of course, niko! And as jokiin mentioned, I guess I fell into that bias trap of liking the more natural image as opposed to the more useful one, with more detail. Also, maybe my expectations of WDR's capabilities are not realistic - I guess I want it all, more detail and a Hollywood movie! haha! ;) But I'm learning, thanks to you and others here! :)
 
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Given the multi purpose role of cameras like the Innovv and Möbius I believe they should lean toward providing more natural looking results, if they didn't it would really break the core target market they are aimed at, the dashcam functionality from these devices is really a bonus function I feel
 
This video is from the VicoVation forum, where TF2+ owners are upset about the quality of night video following the firmware upgrade 6.6 (on the left in the video) - but as I look at it again in light of the discussion in this thread, it would seem that the 6.6 night video is better from the standpoint of capturing more detail as you mention, niko - but users don't like the 'hazy' look of the video compared to the older firmware (and are even going so far as to downgrade to the old firmware).

 
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Great comparison Niko...excellent videos.

@DashCamMan maybe open a "side by side video comparison" section. These tests are great and deserve their own section to make it easier to compare, so they don't get shuffled down by date. They're a true asset to this site. Thanks again Niko!

That is a great idea. I will set it up soon.
 
Just notised the ammount of RAW footage :eek:
I have no idea how long that would take to upload with my 1 mbit upload speed.
I am so looking forward to moving to a new appartment, then i will get 60/60 on fiber.
 
Thank you Niko for your hard job.

I believe people like me respect your great effort, passion and professional knowledge on the review.
 
Given the multi purpose role of cameras like the Innovv and Möbius I believe they should lean toward providing more natural looking results, if they didn't it would really break the core target market they are aimed at, the dashcam functionality from these devices is really a bonus function I feel
Yes, you are right.
But I consider for dashcam usage the natural colors are not important, but the details and low light recordings quality.
The first time I saw recordings made by the best dashcams I observed the sky isn't blue, but some grey. For the first time I was a little disappointed because of this, but after some watching I realised that we don't ever need a natural color of the sky. Details and reading the license plates are more important.
I hope someday people will understand this and the wrong idea of "wide lens" is better.

Wide lens = not needed
Natural colors = not needed.
Details = always, day and night.

Ontopic: Panorama have the bug called by me "the blue haze bug" and I think is because of CMOS going hot during low light conditions. I expect when camera is just started to be no "blue haze" and after about 10 minutes the blue area to increase. Just turn on the cold camera in complete dark and watch the blue increasing for about 15 minutes. With a speed up video we can see in 30 seconds what is happening.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
I hope someday people will understand this and the wrong idea of "wide lens" is better.

Wide lens = not needed

In your opinion, which is the best (currently available) dashcam that does not have a wide angle lens?
 
wide angle lens using to dash cam is more difficulty than narrow angle. Even this require the technology. Narrow angle is very simple & looks more vivid.
But when the other car which is driving near can't be catched on the narrow angle. So I think wide angle is needed. If you want to record really same as eye, I recommand to use camcorder. it has just 60 around degree only. Also no problem on the street light over-exposure. It's depend on the people's needed. Decide should be done by required.
 
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