UKC

A few weeks ago I bought a Mobius Full HD Sports Camera, from a website in China which cost me £42 including free postage. I ordered it on the 5th and it arrived today in a small brown jiffy bag. I could have got it from Amazon for over £70 but I took a punt.

OK, its not as sexy as a GoPro, in marketing and branding stakes, but their cheapest camera costs considerably more. But the proof is in the pudding. And I have to say that I am impressed with my purchase in the few hours that I have played with it.

Yes the GoPro has tonnes of feature but so does my dSLR and I only use a couple of them while the rest are completely ignored.

For anybody interested, the camera records 1080P at 30 frames per second and 720P at 60frames per second. It also takes still images plus a load of other stuff. It is the size of a matchbox, weighs 40 grams and has, on paper 80 minutes recording time. You just have to shove a micro SD card in it to what ever size you have. I have a 32Gb Class 4 card inside at the moment.

From the simple tests that I have taken, I am mightily impressed with the image quality from such a tiny unit as it makes me feel like James Bond with a spy gadget. It does not look like a camera in the conventional sense which could prove useful if you don't want to make it obvious that you are filming stuff.

The only negative that I have at the moment is that as the camera is so light the resulting images are jumpy. This isn't the camera's fault but rather the physics of me not being able to hold something so light and steady in my hand. The GoPro and just about any phone camera has the same drawback. However very soon I will be building a device to cradle my camera which will illuminate all forms of camera shake no matter what speed I am travelling from standing still to zooming around on my quadcopter.

If you are in the market for an action camera that is full HD and can't or don't want to spend GoPro prices I'd recommend a Mobius.

http://www.banggood.com/Mobius-Full-HD-Sports-Camera-1080P-30FPS-720P-60FPS...

In reply to The Lemming:

Can you post a small video file? quite interested if its only 40g (inc battery?)

In reply to balmybaldwin:

40 grams all-in.

I will bang a test file up on youtube to show the quality for you.

I'm just waiting for my Gimbal Controller board from China and then I shall do some proper experimenting.

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Scroll to the bottom of the link and there are two sample videos. The first SkyWalker one is pretty impressive. It looks good value for money and it must open up some great possibilities.

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Here's a test shot taken just before sunset in drizzle with no post processing. The lighting conditions are not exactly optimal and Youtube has added its own compression to the test shot.

I'll get some daylight test shots for you tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHechyBDF7A&feature=youtu.be

In reply to The Lemming:

Cheers. Looks good, perhaps a bit sensitive to brightness changes (looks like it is spot metering) but good quality.

do you have options for field of view or light metering?

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Field of View is Narrow or wide

Narrow 1920x1080
Wide 2304x1296

As for image settings you have:
Sharpness
Exposure
Contrast
Saturation
Colour Options
White Balance.

All these things are amended when the camera is connected to a PC, and I think possibly android tablet but I have not tested that yet.

As for Light Meter I'm still experimenting and have just discovered Wide Dynamic Range. Tomorrow is another day.

In reply to balmybaldwin:

I think if your looking for a cheap go pro alternative, then look at the aldi hd cam I saw the other day. Its £44 I think, looks nearly identical and is quite popular.

In reply to Bonni82:

I saw that too, but was in a rush in the shop. Have you tried one yourself?

In reply to The Lemming:
No I havent, but tempted to buy one. If reliable, they will be a great cheap piece of kit. Wouldnt surprise me if its a go pro, in an unbranded guise.

In reply to Bonni82:

You can get the one they have in Aldi for £20 on ebay

In reply to The Lemming:

Could you please upload a video of you doing a backflip on a mountain bike, or wrestling a lion so we can see a direct comparison?

In reply to Bonni82:

I took a pootle down to ALDI today, and bought one for £45 to see what it was like. I'll cut to the chase so that you don't have to read everything, the ALDI does not even compare in image quality when going head to head with the Mobius.

The Aldi camera is 9 grams heavier than the Mobius. It comes with a 2 inch touch-screen which allows playback and live viewing of what you are recording.

The main features are:

It also comes with a cool waterproof case, up to 10 meters.
4Gb micro SD card
Helmet mount
Record 1280x720 at 30 frames per second
640x480 at 60 frames per second
Records AVI files
Digital zoom x4, but why would anybody use that?

The Aldi camera is only £3 dearer than the Mobius, but you get a presentation box, instructions, SD card, helmet mount and other bits and bobs.

The Mobius came with a cable, some Velcro, a simple mount for a tripod and the Jiffy bag it was posted in. You have to download your own instructions and software to communicate with the camera and change its settings.


However the important part is the captured footage rather than all the free stuff to tempt you. Would you rather a grainy blurry image for £45 or, to my eyes, a pin-sharp image to show off to friends and family?


No doubt that a GoPro is the Daddy of miniature action cameras, but I'm betting that the Mobius is a close second.

Here are some very rough and ready test shots with the cameras.

Both cameras were professionally duct taped to a piece of rolled up cardboard so that they would have roughly the same perspective and viewpoint.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcPA_DmMBjQ&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEQ8qMIS8fA&feature=youtu.be

In reply to The Lemming:

Sorry to say the head to head the first camera is utterly shite. Theres a really nasty colour cast and the highlights are totally blown out. The second one is a bit better and fine if you just want a cheap basic camera but when comparing it to the quality of GoPro its not even in the same country let a lone ball park.

Ive got a Garmin Virb Elite so I can connect various sensors which I think is the equal of GoPro but not really in the same budget bracket as the cameras your testing even with the recent price drop.

In reply to Antigua:


No doubt, I agree with you. My photography and video editing skills leave a lot to be desired and the shots were very rough. I have more but they are just as exciting.

Here's somebody's head to head with a GoPro.
youtube.com/watch?v=oqQ77nXSfVw&

In reply to The Lemming:

Sorry didn't mean that personally against you just that the image quality captured was so bad.

In reply to The Lemming:

Sorry but saying that the Mobius is a GoPro alternative is like saying a Ford Fiesta is a Ferrari alternative. They are both cars but one is quite a lot better than the other.

BTW I have 2 Mobius's (a V1 narrow and a V2 wide) and also a GoPro Hero 3 Black. There is no way the image quality on the Mobius can touch that of the GoPro.

Generally people that say the image quality of Mobius's are the same as GoPro's are the people who don't own a GoPro. If you want a cheap action cam that can record 1080p and are not bothered about image quality nor being able to change batteries then fair enough.

In reply to Antigua:


No worries.

here's a youtube of some bloke and his Aldi camera
youtube.com/watch?v=zVwSvAMuZdg&

In reply to Tris:


As I said from the top, GoPro is the daddy.

In reply to The Lemming:

When I first read the thread subject about a GoPro alternative, I thought the sj4000 had come down in price. It's a cheap Chinese copy of a GoPro for about £65-£75:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SJ4000-Silver-Action-Waterproof-helmetcam/dp/B00HHR...

You should check out techmoan's site, he reviews all these cheap cameras including Mobius:

http://www.techmoan.com/blog/category/action-cameras

In reply to Antigua:


Also, the youtubes compress the videos and don't do my originals much justice.

In reply to The Lemming:

There is a comment on the one video about firmware upgrades making a big difference, have you get the latest firmware on your camera?

In reply to The Lemming:
Not quite the original topic, but in relation to some posts above, check out this side-by-side comparison of the GoPro Hero3+B vs. the Sony HDR-AS100, shot by EpicTV. Colour, stability and sharpness better on the Sony.

http://admin.epictv.com/content/stabilization-test-gopro-hero3-black-editio...