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Mobius Action Camera review part 2
Thanks for coming back for a second bite at my review of the Mobius Action Camera or if you arrived here in error, but like what you read, you can find the first part of the review here http://nobmob.com/node/47963
Really sweet mounts
http://www.acecosportgroup.com/
I wanted to mention the K Edge mounts before overloading you with more info about the Mobius camera. I stumbled upon them after a great deal of Googling while looking for the most solid camera mounts in the known (and possibly unknown) universe in the hope that it would cure my vibration related ills. I haven't purchased any of these yet as I plan to try another solution (bottom of this review) in conjunction with my existing helmet and cheap handlebar mounts first. I might hand over some hard earned to the (probably) very nice people at AceCo SportGroup anyway just for making such beautiful things. If you happen to have any of their products please let me know what you think of them.
Video Reviews
If ever proof was needed that all review websites are not created equal, Techmoan's website is it. Well researched, well presented and delivered with a dry sense of humour these reviews are almost a pleasure to watch in and of themselves. Have a good poke around the Techmoan site as he covers a huge range of cameras as well as all manner of other gadgets and interesting gear. There are several Mobius reviews covering the camera itself (the link provided below), the JooVu waterproof case and a video about modding your Mobius for permanent connection to an external power source using super capacitors in place of the battery. There are also links to other sites containing good information at the bottom of the reviews.
http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2013/7/8/the-mobius...
I've included the link to Techmoan's review of the SJ4000 camera as it isn't that much more expensive than the Mobius but looks an awful lot like another very popular and much more expensive camera
http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2014/2/3/the-sj4000...
Support
RC Groups hosts the 'official' unofficial support forum for the Mobius camera. Plenty of information to be found and lots of links to other useful sites including approved sellers as at the time the linked thread was written.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=...
Most other good sources of info refer to Chuck Lohr's site and Chuck refers back to some of them so it's one big happy Mobius love-in. Not a very exciting site, but has some potentially useful techy info.
http://www.chucklohr.com/808/mobius/
There are some very useful links on this seller's site including direct links to the Android and Windows applications you will want to download.
http://mobius-actioncam.com/softwareuser-guide/
Mobius sellers
There are many 'authorised' Mobius sellers. Some on ebay and some are sites/stores on their own, but pricing is usually pretty close, although some include things that others don't and some have accessories that others don't. I bought from these guys as they had some accessories the others didn't such as the hat clip and silicone 'weatherproof skin' http://mobius-actioncam.com/ and they also had some 'packages' that made it easy to know you at least had the essentials to get you started.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__51954...
http://www.banggood.com/Mobius-Full-HD-Sports-Ca...
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mobius-ActionCam-Full...
Free video editing and stabilisation software
We could be here for a very long time discussing software, when to use it and how to use it so I'll just provide some links to get you started and then try to answer any questions if you have them. There are plenty of 'paid for' software options as well and they may (almost certainly will) provide a more user friendly experience, but Virtualdub and Deshaker are free and enormously powerful if you don't mind spending the time to learn and experiment. You will need a powerful computer. The links to Sheldon Brown's website provide some guidance to using Virtualdub and Deshaker that may be easier to digest than the instructions on the developer's own websites. If you are a programmer or a very quick learner you will find that you can script with Virtualdub to batch up and automate your video processing so you can kick it off and come back much later to a hard drive full of processed goodness. I'm not a programmer (I just sell software so pretend I know what I'm talking about) and not a quick learner so I haven't tried scripting yet.
http://sheldonbrown.com/virtualdub.html
http://www.guthspot.se/video/deshaker.htm
http://sheldonbrown.com/deshaker.html
The cure to my vibration woes - hopefullly
After much Googling I came across several sites and Yobtube videos that explained the black art of high frequency vibration damping and provided some ideas and suggested materials to use. The two links below are among the better ones. I am waiting for a pack of vibration damping balls and some soft latex foam to arrive from Hobbyking in Hong Kong and I will attempt to make my own mounting platform to eliminate, to the greatest extent possible, any vibration reaching the camera. This platform should be good for use with my helmet mount and my cheap bar mount. If I can get reasonable video off the cheap bar mount I'll probably buy one of the K Edge mounts just to satisfy my urge to have nice things.
http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/vibration-damping/
I imagine that some (or most) of you are wondering why I would put up with all the hassle when the seemingly logical thing to do is buy a GoPro. Well, I think that even a heavily discounted GoPro is more money than should be paid for such a toy and, more importantly, I like the challenge. It's the same reasoning I use when explaining to no-one in particular why I keep riding a 26" XC hardtail when there are other bikes that would make life on the trails so much easier. That is, doing it the hard way will make me better than I otherwise would have been and I'll appreciate the results more because I'll have earned them.
I know I said I'd also talk about my experiences during the four rides on which I've used the Mobius, but that's a whole lot more typing and it's getting late. maybe I'll do that in a third instalment if anyone is interested. So far a lot of reads of part 1 of the review and no comments so maybe you're all bored witless already. Let's see how we go.
Thanks for reading.
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Excellent. Keep it coming please.