whether you're ready for it or not 360
video has definitely arrived and Samsung
is one of the first companies to bring
out a standalone product that provides
360 video with a number of different
features this is judge of a guard from
Android Authority what's going on
everybody and this is your full review
of the Samsung gear 360 in Hawaii the
first thing we'll talk about with the
gear 360 is its shape this vehicle shape
is actually really smooth and very high
quality to the touch so it definitely
has this somewhat futuristic look to it
on either end or large fisheye lenses
that will be used to stitch together
ultimately the 360 video that you create
but there are some controls on the left
side if you're looking at it straight
dead-on and then on the top there is a
recording button along with a small
screen to show you exactly where you are
and how long you've been recording and
on the right side is a cover that allows
the gear 360 to be dust and splash
resistant but if you open that up you'll
be able to get to a port for microUSB
charging a micro SD card slot for up to
200 gigabytes worth of storage and then
a removable battery at 1350 milliamp
hours the battery is pretty decent on
here I haven't had any problems with the
gear 360 dying on me before the end of a
shooting day but I will say that you
should have a battery pack available or
even a replaceable battery if you're
going to be doing very long form
recordings especially when using both of
the lenses speaking of those lenses they
are dual 15 megapixel sensors that come
in at F 2.0 aperture and are both
fisheye meaning you get full 180 degrees
inside of your photo or video if you're
using both of them at the same time then
of course that will put together a full
360 content but from there there are
little lights on those lenses or just
outside of them rather that show you
which ones are being used whether it's
both or just one of them probably the
first thing I really like about this 360
camera the gear 360 is that it's
actually really solidly built one of the
favorite parts about it is well comes
with this tiny little stand it works
really nicely to
you can also use it as a bit of a handle
if you want to take some pictures that
way or some videos that way but overall
it's just a very well-built device it
has a really good premium feel to it and
all of the buttons are just nice and
meaty that very satisfying click to them
and the audio prompts the small acoustic
audio prompts are really helpful in
knowing that you are getting around in
the different menu settings with that
tiny little screen on top that cute
little tripod that the gear 360 comes
with can be screwed off of the gear 360
revealing a tripod mount if you need to
mount the gear 360 on pretty much any
other standard tripod the main hindrance
to the gear 360 software experience is
that it requires a Samsung Galaxy device
whether it's a recent notes or galaxy s
device that is what you're going to have
to use because the software even though
it's available in the Play Store is not
compatible with most other Android
devices pretty much any ones that I
tried were not able to work with the
gear 360 that said however the camera
app itself is pretty much what you would
expect if you are familiar with Samsung
camera applications provides you a lot
of control including the ability to turn
HDR on or off change the exposure in a
manual mode or change the different
modes there are other modes on the gear
360 aside from video and photo which
include time-lapse and a looping video
mode which will take a certain amount of
the user-defined video and then when it
is done taking let's say that 30 seconds
of video it will actually discard that
video unless you stop it from doing so
it's a way of keeping space on the SD
card so you make sure that you only get
the part that you want and not have to
record let's say ten full minutes of
something when you only really need like
a minute of it but the best part about
the gear 360 is that it can be used
standalone for the most part while you
won't be able to change HDR or the
exposure if you only use the camera on
its own the controls on the left and the
record button on the top can be used in
conjunction just like a GoPro in order
to go through the different modes and to
change a few different settings the main
sighting that ends up being used here at
least my experience was changing whether
or not you're using both lenses for a
360 video or photo or just using one of
them the gear 360 can do a bunch of diff
resolutions including 4k and 2k and one
of the best parts about it is you have
to 180 degree video cameras on both
sides of this little sphere and you
could use either one of them for a full
180 degree video kind of like a GoPro so
that means you can have a pretty viable
tool for things like blogging like I'm
doing right now or even just getting a
regular video at 180 degrees to get a
lot of your subject or at the landscape
and that's the thing about the gear 360
you're actually getting two very
high-quality fisheye lens
sensors on either end of the sphere both
of which output really nice-looking
photos and very good-looking video
especially in the better lit situations
that you would usually use an action cam
in I actually ended up using one of the
lenses more often than using both now
that's not necessarily to say that 360
video is not something I'm into I'm very
much into it it's just that when you use
the gear 360 as a standalone vlogging
rig for example it actually does a
wonderful job and as a standalone high
quality product you are able to get some
great videos without much fuss at all
but let's say you do use the gear 360
primarily for 360 photos and videos if
you have a Samsung Galaxy device
transferring the videos and photos from
the gear 360 to the device is pretty
easy you just have to select it and it
will copy to the phone and stitch it
together using the software in the phone
but if you bring it to a PC the gear 360
actually comes with a license key for
the gear 360 action director powered by
CyberLink and essentially what will
happen is you take these photos and
videos and you put them into the action
director project and it will begin the
stitching process for you now right off
the bat you might be noticing that
there's already a stitching problem here
especially when you have two slightly
different exposures on both of these
lenses it will show very plainly in
these videos and the other thing too is
the gear 360 does I'll put some very
good videos but it may not seem like
that when you look at the full 360 video
that I've put out alongside this review
here at Android Authority calm now the
reason why is that a 4k video even
though it's 4k is being put into a
viewer that then zooms far into that
frame so that you get the illusion of a
360 /vr experience now assuming far into
even a 4k 4
name will make the quality seem much
lower than it usually is and that's
something that a lot of people kind of
need to realize about 360 video by now
for now these particular devices like
the gear 360 and the LG cam 360 are the
ones that will provide this kind of look
other ones that use let's say 8 to 10
different GoPros to stitch together a
super high quality video is a whole
different story
overall the Samsung gear 360 might be
one of the best ways of getting into 360
video right now at $349 it is more
expensive than the LG 360 cam but it is
also less than pretty much any other rig
out there that might require more than
one actual camera as a standalone
product it does a wonderful job of
providing that entry point into 360
video but the thing that I love the most
about it is that you can use it as an
action camera by only using one side of
those two cameras and if you do that you
have a wonderful vlogging rig that while
not necessarily pocketable is small
enough to throw into a bag or a backpack
and you have it with you wherever you
end up going personally I wish that you
would be able to get two different video
files if you used both of the lenses at
the same time which would make this one
of the most powerful vlogging rigs that
are out there but until then what we
have here is a wonderful dual GoPro like
set up that puts together 360 videos if
you want to have some fun with what
might be the future of our video content
stay tuned to Android 34 even more about
the Samsung gear 360 and a future review
of the LG 360 cam now 360 video and it's
cameras are incredibly new so it's a
little bit hard to give these things
scores for now we're going to give you
just our thoughts on these cameras and
as more devices come out we'll be able
to give you more of a benchmark as to
what the scoring on these should be 360
video is still incredibly young but
we're looking forward to using it and
reviewing it and future content and you
can stay tuned to Android or D for more
of that and also our sibling site VR
source which will also be diving into
360 and virtual reality video in the
days to come so keep it tuned to Android
Authority for even more because we are
your source for all things Android
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