360 rumors

Ben Claremont (Life in 360) compares seven 360 cameras for their low light performance!  Which cameras came out on top?  The answer will surprise you! Here's the video: Spoiler alert below ! . . . . . In my own testing, I found similar results as Ben did, although I would have a different ranking for these same cameras. For me, the Insta360 Air  ( reviewed here ) and Insta360 Nano are pretty good for low light because even though they have quite a lot of noise, there seems to be more detail in the shadows in low light.  Check out this sample . The Xiaomi Mijia MI SPHERE ( reviewed here ) did well because it uses Sony IMX206 sensors which are backside illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensors, which means the wiring for the sensors is behind the photodiodes, allowing more light to reach the photodiodes.   However, the contrast curve for the Xiaomi seems a bit aggressive, so it looks good with the highlights and midtones but the shadow areas in low light are almost totall...

I compared four #360consumer cameras with the best low light performance - 2017 Samsung Gear 360 (available here) - Xiaomi Mijia Mi Sphere 360 camera (available here) - Kodak SP360 4K Dual Pro (available here) - Nikon Keymission 360 (available here) . Which camera came out on top?  See the videos for yourself! I wanted to know which 360 camera performs best under indoor lighting (on a late afternoon).  I compared four 4K cameras: -  2017 Samsung Gear 360 (available here) . Currently one of the hottest new 360 cameras.  Ben Claremont found that it beat last year's Gear 360 in low light performance.  How would it fare against other competitors? -  Nikon Keymission 360 (available here) .  In my experience, the Nikon Keymission has pretty good low light quality and that's why I included it here. -  Xiaomi Mijia Mi Sphere 360 camera (available here) .  It's a 360 camera from Xiaomi, co-creators of the Xiaomi Yi action camera.  Not a lot of...

How does the 2017 Samsung Gear 360 compare against last year's video quality champ?  Check out these comparison videos. Last year, I found that the Kodak SP360 4k Dual Pro had the best video quality among consumer 360 cameras.  I thought it would be interesting to compare the 2017 Gear 360 against the SP360 4K Dual Pro.  Here's a playlist with a sample from the SP360 4K Dual Pro and another sample from 2017 Gear 360. Here are screenshots (the bluish one is the SP360 4K). For near objects, the SP360 4K Dual Pro was sharper and more detailed. SP360 4K Dual Pro 2017 Gear 360 For distant objects, the SP360 was also more detailed.  In the SP360 sample below, you can see the texture of the far wall. On the 2017 Gear 360, the texture on the wall is not visible. On the other hand, the stitching on the Gear 360 is far superior: SP360 4K Dual Pro stitching 2017 Gear 360 stitching In summary, the Kodak SP360 4k Dual Pro appears to be sharper and more detailed than the 2017 Gear...

If you're going on a vacation, a 360 camera is a must-have for your trip.  But there are now several 360 cameras on the market.  Which one of them would be the best? The best 360 camera depends on your specific needs: If you are just starting out and want the most affordable 360 camera, that would be the LG 360 Cam (originally $199, on sale for $99 ; reviewed here ).  The LG 360 Cam is compatible with both iOS and Android.  Photos are stitched in-camera, while videos are stitched on your smartphone via an app.  It has decent image quality for both photos and videos.  However, in low light, there is a lot of chroma noise.  You also need to keep it charged at night because the battery drains even during standby. If social media is important to you, and you'd like to be able to share photos and videos easily , and even do a livestream in 360 , the best camera at the moment is the  Insta360 Nano ( $199 ; reviewed here ).  The Nano connects to y...

The Aerial Pack with the Kodak SP360 4k for the 3DR Solo Drone is now available.  The Aerial Pack ( previously announced here ) allows you to capture fully spherical aerial 360-degree videos without the drone in the shot, eliminating the need to clone out the drone, which can be a tedious task for 360 videos. Here is a sample 360 video with the aerial pack. The Aerial Pack includes the  Kodak SP360 4k Dual Pro  pack, which has emerged as having  the best video quality for 360 cameras , short of a multicamera rig costing thousands of dollars (to say nothing about the need for expensive stitching software). The Aerial Pack includes not only the special dual-camera drone mount but also includes all the accessories that are included in the Dual Pro Pack, including a pair of SP360 4k cameras, the remote for syncing both SP360 4k cameras, and the special back-to-back mount. The Aerial Pack is made only for the 3DR Solo quadcopter drone, which was one of the first dro...

Apparently, the image quality of the Samsung Gear 360's output is partly dependent on which method you use to stitch it, as discovered by Markr041 .  Mark also uploaded a comparison between the Gear 360 and the Kodak SP360 4k.  Hit the jump to check it out! MAXIMIZING THE GEAR 360's VIDEO QUALITY The Samsung Gear 360 video is not stitched in-camera.  Instead, you need to stitch it with a compatible phone, or with the included Action Director software (or a 3rd party software if you prefer).  If you stitch on an S7, you'll get the full 4k video resolution.  But if you stitch it with a Samsung Galaxy S6 or Note 5, you'll be capped at 2k.  So, realistically, you need to stitch either on an S7 or the Action Director. What Mark found out is that the two options have different image quality (emphasis added): "1. The original file produced in the camera is H265, at 32 Mbps. HEVC or H265 gives approximately the same quality as H264 at double the bitrate, so eq...

Here's a very good comparison of the video performance between four 360 degree cameras: - a GoPro Ball rig with 7 GoPro cameras - Kodak SP360 4k dual pro pack - Samsung Gear 360 - Ricoh Theta S The comparison is by Foundry45 , a business-oriented VR production company that produces VR videos for sales, marketing and recruitment.  Here are some of their conclusions: - The GoPro has the best image quality but takes a lot of time and effort to process.  - The Samsung Gear 360 image quality indoors is not as good as the Kodak SP360 4k dual pro, but it is easy to process because the image is automatically stitched. - They recommend the SP360 4k as the best compromise between image quality and processing time. - The Theta S has the best stitching because of the very small distance between the lenses.  The photo quality is great, and the video quality might be "good enough" for YouTube Facebook but not for viewing on a headset. - The GoPro and SP360 4k cameras are not perfectly ...

Kodak Pixpro updated the stitching software for the Kodak SP360 4k Dual Pro.  Previously, the stitching software enabled stitching of videos from a pair of SP360 cameras as a fully spherical 360 video in the standard equirectangular format.  However, the included stitching software could not stitch photos.  Kodak Pixpro now updated the software and added the ability to stitch fully spherical photos from the a pair of SP360 4k photos! Kodak Pixpro has been steadily improving the SP360 4k's functionality.  For example, it issues regular firmware updates .  Recently, they also partnered with 3DRobotics to create a dual-camera bracket that allows you to capture aerial 360 videos without the drone in the shot ( see here ). Thanks to Markr041 from DPReview for this info!

There are two consumer 360-degree cameras slugging it out for title of having the best 360 video quality: the Samsung Gear 360 (reviewed here) and the Kodak SP360 4k dual pro pack. Both have 4k video quality but they take different approaches.  The Samsung Gear 360 is a fully spherical all-in-one camera.  The Kodak SP360 4k is a hemispherical camera with a modular design that allows you to combine two of them back-to-back to capture fully spherical video.  That may seem cumbersome (and more expensive), but it does allow the possibility of using it to capture aerial 360 videos without the drone in the shot ( see here ). What about the image quality?  I had posted a sample video comparison , but the conditions were not completely identical.  Now,  360Grad-film.de  has posted a direct comparison between these two cameras here . What do you think?  Danke schön to 360Grad-film.de for this awesome test!