360 rumors

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!