360 rumors

I compared two of the best 360 cameras for consumers right now: Garmin Virb 360 and Xiaomi Mijia Mi Sphere for low light performance in typical indoor lighting conditions.  Here's the video: Both cameras did very well in this low light test.  As for which one is better, here are my thoughts: Without editing, the Garmin Virb 360 looks underexposed compared to the Xiaomi.  In Premiere, I added +1.0EV exposure, which made the Garmin exposure look more similar to that of the Xiaomi. Remarkably, the Virb video held up to the adjustment and did not show any noticeable increase noise. With the adjustment, the Virb and Xiaomi look very similar, but the Virb video is actually more detailed.  Here are closeup cropped portions of each video: Nonetheless, there is a huge $500+ difference between these two cameras, so you might say they are both winners in their own way.  In terms of absolute image quality, the Virb 360 edged out the Xiaomi, but the Xiaomi is so much mo...

Ben Claremont (Life in 360) gives a very detailed comparison of the 2017 Samsung Gear 360 and the original Gear 360.  I'll let you know my take on these two cameras as well. Here's the video: SECOND OPINION Here are my own thoughts on the two:      The original Gear 360 is actually a very good 360 camera.  Its biggest problem was poor compatibility.  It worked only with high-end Samsung smartphones (S6 and above).  In addition, the desktop software was for Windows only.      As for me, I liked it but I have to admit I didn't use it all that often after a while.  The photos were nice but not reliable because of blurgate.  I liked it well enough for videos but one thing I didn't like was the glare (something that Ben notes in his comparison as well).  As far as I can tell, the glare is a reflection of the concentric rings around the lens.  It's quite distracting, in my opinion, and very difficult to correct.  And ...

Some updates on the Xiaomi: - Over the weekend, Xiaomi updated the Mi Sphere app for iOS to give it the same features as its Android version, including stabilization! - There's a rumor that Xiaomi is working on a desktop app.  See the evidence. - Meanwhile, I used my Xiaomi Mi Sphere to take some 360 videos while swimming.  Check out the video! iOS APP UPDATE Xiaomi updated the Mi Sphere app to version 1.6.4 which added several features, including: - can export stabilized 360 video - shutter speed up to 32 seconds in photo mode - video editor Here is a short sample stabilized video: However, the 360 video seems to be missing 360 metadata (the Android version has 360 metadata on export). I expect they'll fix this in the next update.  More importantly, the maximum resolution is still 2304 x 1152.  This seems to be a hardware limitation therefore I don't expect the resolution to increase unless perhaps the next iPhone is powerful enough to stitch the Xiaomi's video at f...