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Thursday, July 7, 2016

Mobius Action Camera

If you have seen my last post about the clone 808-18 camera testing, you will recall that venture didn't go well. It was awesome when it DID work, being tiny and minimal, running forever on the external battery; but I couldn't get mine to stop mangling files. Thing delayed my first ever combat video by 2 whole games worth of lost footage and I was fed up. I may eventually get the 808 working; I am watching the FPV community for firmware info or awareness of this clone version and I may also try a class-4 Kingston card since it may just be picky and need one of those as some cams do.

But in the meantime, I bought a Mobius.


I figured I would want a good full resolution configurable camera anyway and didn't want a big clunky GoPro style one, so instead of screwing around with 808s again I just pulled the trigger. This is a Mobius V3 equipped with the wide angle C2 lens



What's a Mobius? Well, oddly, these actually derive from the 808 lineage. The developer of the Mobius is the same one behind the 808 version 16 (which is incidentally the 808 you should buy, the best supported and least buggy one). The 808 was initially designed as a covert camera disguised as a car remote lock keyfob, hence the familiar 808 case design. What the actual market ended up as was the action camera market and didn't need that. Also, the capabilities of the 808 were limited (usually 1280x720 max, tiny lenses and sensors, noisy video) and reliability/quality subpar. The Mobius was meant to tackle these problems, offering better video quality, a bigger battery and much more general robustness.


It's big and heavy enough to notice a bit more on the hat rig than the featherweight 808 (especially with the remote battery on the latter versus the big lipo cell inside the Mobius case) but it works fine on the hat rig, too. I just tightened the strap on the hat a bit to be sure it won't move.

By the way, probably the most asked question on the Mobius, the silver metal sticking out of the case is a heatsink, not buttons.


$78.99 shipped from USA eBay seller novotm. And I am impressed with the service for sure, package arrived in a few days. Here's what was inside:


Camera packed very safely in a brick of cut PE foam sheets, 3 lens caps, 2 cleaning cloths, snap-on mount base with strap slots and 1/4-20 thread adapter, a set of adhesive back Velcro (*see note), a screwdriver for case disassembly (Hell yeah this is a hobby product!), a tiny allen wrench which is included as a reset button poker, mini-USB to A cable, and a USB microSD adapter. Holy crap!

* Note: As with the 808 cases, that weird "soft" feeling paint/coating on the case must be removed where you want velcro to get the adhesive to bond. A blade does this cleanly. The paint is actually clear. When you start getting black chips off you have hit the ABS.

These have an internal 820mAh lipo. I haven't tested the life of that, but it is not shabby, and supposedly gets a few hours or so. I am not sure whether I am going to set this up for the external or not.

I gave it a good test run on the hat rig and dashboard and it performed flawlessly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2sicsClf3U

This will be trialled by fire at the TBNC day game Jul 16.

1 comment:

  1. Looking forward to seeing some of your gameplay footage. I'd love to compare our play styles. I almost never play with full auto so I'd like to see how you do your thing.

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