When I was younger, 360° films/video meant a huge rig with nine cameras pointing outward in a circle. 360 divided by 9 gives you 40, so each camera had a 40° angle of view, horizontally. The film would be made using these monstrous rigs, sometimes slung from helicopters to get travelling shots of packs of animals hunting in Africa. Of course, you would only have the chance to see this if you were at an exhibition or theme park of some kind. 360-degree movies represented this incredible undertaking that was out of the reach of anyone not making a ride film or other presentation.
But now, all is different. 360° cameras of all kinds and affordability abound. For an introduction to 360-degree shooting, you may want to check out this video from B&H that proves 360° video is alive and well, and note how hiding the camera support in the stitch line can make it appear that your camera is free floating. When choosing a 360° camera, three points to consider are:
1. Quality
Here, resolution isn’t the full story. 360° video is going to be manipulated quite a bit to be viewable, so you do want to consider resolution, but how is the quality of the image, what is the dynamic range, how is the image going to look?
2. Field of View
Is this a single-lens system, or does it use multiple lenses and sensors to create your 360° video? The more lenses/sensors, the less distortion you are likely to encounter as you stitch the images together, although the more lenses and sensors you have, the more stitch lines there will be.
3. Ease of use
Essentially, does the camera stitch your footage together for you? Is stitching done in post, and is it automatic, or can you adjust it, or use the stitching software of your choice? Once stitched together, how easy is it to share the footage? Most cameras will have an app so you can view and control it from a mobile device, but there are a few that allow for live streaming. For the professional who is shooting the highest-quality images, to the consumer shooting home movies, there is a 360° camera to suit everyone. To find out which cameras suit your needs, read on.
Home Movies
Well, after years of avoiding the 360 craze, I’ve gone and bought a spherical 360° camera. I’m partial to fisheye images for stills, and I think that home movies are where I’ll be doing most of my 360° shooting. We have a range of consumer 360° Video cameras here at B&H. Here is one that I recently bought, the Kodak PIXPRO SP360 Action Camera with Explorer Pack. It shoots HD, and looks to be a camera built for rough and tumble—you can bet I’m going to hand it off to my daughter as she does somersaults and cartwheels; should be fun. It’s also available with an Extreme Pack that allows you to go down nearly 200' underwater. For 4K, try the Kodak PIXPRO ORBIT360, which allows you to record and upload your 4K video o Facebook and YouTube.
For iPhone users, might I recommend checking out the PanoClip line of snap-on accessory lenses for a variety of iPhones? There’s no need to buy a dedicated camera—just snap this onto your iPhone. If you have an Android device, the GIROPTIC iO Spherical Video Camera attaches to your Android device to turn it into a 360° camera. The Ricoh Theta SC series of cameras captures 360° video at HD resolution, comes in four colors, but its strength lies in its ease of use, and how it handles the stitch lines. For 4K capture, Ricoh has released the Theta V, and you can check out more on that camera in this “In the Field” article. The GoPro Fusion supports 5.2 and 3K spherical video, and features a rugged body, waterproof to 16' below the waves. With the GoPro app you can play back and share your content immediately after capture. Not only does the GoPro Fusion support spherical video, it also records spherical 4-channel audio, for a truly immersive experience.
On the Horizon is the GoPro Max, which, like the GoPro Fusion, features dual lenses—one on each side of the camera—and adds intuitive touchscreen control. The Insta360 ONE X, which records internally. With the addition of the Insta360 Bullet Time accessory, the camera supports a feature called Bullet Time, which is a slow-motion effect similar to the spinning time-freeze effect in the film, The Matrix. Garmin’s VIRB 360 Action Camera features two cameras and can create unstitched 5.7K video, or stitched 4K video. The free VIRB mobile app and desktop software let you edit, stabilize, add data overlays and share videos. A neat feature is that you can use voice control to start and stop recording, for a hands-free experience. The 360Penguin Panoramic Camera allows you to capture, share, and live stream high-resolution 360° videos, photos, and time-lapse sessions easily. It captures 5.7K resolution 360° video at 12 fps, 4K 360° video at real-time 30 fps, and 24MP 360° photos. The image is automatically stitched in-camera and output in 2:1 equirectangular format, so you won't have to stretch the image into a 2:1 format in editing to share it.
Professional
The professional world of 360-degree video, is a little bit more demanding than the consumer world. Here you will find no single lens/sensor cameras. Single cameras with multiple lenses are the order of the day. If you must use multiple cameras, check out these pre-made rigs, or assemble your own using these camera holders, some of which are great for creating the “Bullet Time” effect. Of course, you’ll need to make sure that you can sync the cameras together for best results. In general, single cameras with multiple lenses are much simpler to work with than syncing up multiple cameras in post. Z Cam offers five choices of 360° cameras, and is so invested in 360° video that the company has released these cameras before releasing the Z Cam E2 camera (which is the follow up to its 4K video camera). The Z Cam K1 Pro is primarily a stereoscopic 3D camera, although it supports the VR 180 format. Moving on to 360-degree cameras, Z Cam offers the S1 and the S1 Pro, both of which can shoot 6K at 30 fps and feature manual and automatic post stitching. The V1 Pro Cinematic VR Camera supports 8K mono and 7K stereo and has four directional microphones and supports auto-stitching using the Z Cam WonderStitch software, while the Z-Cam V1 Spherical VR 360 Camera features ten 190° fisheye lenses.
The Insta360Pro Camera is Google-approved for street view capture and features six 200-degree fisheye lenses. It can live-stream, or you can wear an optional VR headset to watch your video as you capture it. Real-time image stabilization with optical flow stitching minimizes seam lines. It is available in a Kit with a GPS module that enables the camera to capture images for Google Maps Street View in a Google-approved workflow.
In general, professional 360° cameras are either cylindrical or round. Cylindrical-shaped 360° video cameras tend to be slimmer than their round counterparts, so you can get them closer to your subject. This form factor includes cameras made by Panasonic, Samsung, Kandan, and 360Precision LTD. Additional offerings have a round form factor, and each one provides different advanced features
Conclusion
The number of 360-degree video cameras available today is staggering, even if a few aren’t strictly 360-degree video. The uses for these cameras seem almost limitless—from home movies to films, to VR and AR productions. Do you have a favorite 360-degree video camera or application? Please feel free to share below, and thanks for reading.
