360° cameras

[northern]

Month ago I get myself a 360° camera.

I really like this idea.  Start thinking about it after a last vacation, when I was taking all pictures by phone, and could not represent atmosphere of the place by just one picture.
So I get deeper in to this topic, and find what for the moment best of the best is GoPro Fusion. But it cost ~750€!!! Yes, it's good - filming 2*4K videos, but 750€!!! 


long story short - I went for Xiaomi Mijia MI SPHERE 360 which cost me with extras little bit over 300€
btw - its on sale now https://www.gearbest.com/action-cameras/pp_651543.html?lkid=10383763  (EU buyers may have to pay extra taxes. I had)

Must-have extra is a SELFIE STICK. Never thought I would have one, but it's true. This camera have OEM stick, with trigger button, what allow you to take photos and start/stop videos.
Camera have 2 190° lenses, and stick have to be thin - other ways it will get on camera. Using stick, pictures and videos are like shot "from the air".

There is some disadvantages - you cant see immediately what you shot - have to connect you mobile device (WiFi connection) to camera, and using special app download media from camera, which will be converted to 360° in the app. Camera itself take 2 round images side by side (attached picture). Phone app is stitching it together. Same thing with video, but there is OEM desktop app for Windows, what will stitch video faster, then phone will.
Also, camera is getting warm, during recording and media transfer via Wi-Fi. But not critically.

There is also issue with representing media from this camera. More and more platforms are supporting it, but still not all. But youtube and google-photos do.

Anyway - I think this is a future of action cameras and I really like this. And on bike, it opens really new perspectives (literally)   

[northern]

There is some videos (use mouse or finger to navigate):

YcKPwGy5BqE?t=106

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLCFOy5aXUA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxx2C83LZqI

[VladTepes]

Well that is VERY cool.
The ability to look around and see whats happening in other parts of the video scene - incredible. I love it.

I note the quality isn't all that flash though... I suspect some of that is due to the file conversion when the footage is uploaded to YouTube but also such wide angle lenses are never going to have the quality of the narrower angled lenses on a good brand traditional action cam.

Still it's very cool and I agree its the way of the future

Cheers

Looking forward to future vids too ! 

[Suzuki boi]

That's awesome tech.
Xiaomi are top notch

[northern]

I note the quality isn't all that flash though...

This camera shoot video ~4K 3840*1920 What is actually not to much in case of 360°. Also seems like lenses are not the best. I think, in few years, this market will evolve a lot.
Still image resolution is much higher 6912 * 3456, so images are better. And I get this camera more as vacation photo-camera, so I'm totally happy with it for now.

[VladTepes]

Yeah it's super cool, for sure.

Just need to get one of those and mount it on a drone.....

Full battlefield intel....


(The battlefield being the traffic clogged roads, obviously).

[northern]

Not happy with the quality - spend entire evening with premiere, learning new tricks and trying to get best from what I have...
Seems, most of the quality is lost during stitching 2 round (what camera shoots) videos to one continuous 360° picture. Also, YouTube reduce quality while uploading...

Anyway, love the idea!

From yesterday's ride (in video description, there is also map of the road, where it was taken)

gYjttJ78alc

[VladTepes]

Another cool video. Yep YouTube certainly doesn't help on the quality front. Where is the camera mounted - got any pics of that ?

[northern]

@VladTepes
1'' ram mount. Have ball permanently mounted to my bar risers, and use it form time to time for phone or camera mount.

previous videos were shot while camera was along bike to reduce wind resistance. Today, I mount it normal way (on picture), to see if picture quality will be better - center of the picture will be in the center of the lens now... Will see, and share result with you