Gadgetory

we now have the tools to record a 360 view of the world but with so many options out there it's hard to know what you need we're going to break it down for you to help you decide which 360 cam is right for you let's take a look at three different levels in the beginner category we have the Ricoh theta s it's two lenses built into one-piece shoots in full HD is very portable and pretty much ready to use out of the box all for about three hundred and fifty dollars others in this category Samsung's gear 360 and the LG 360 cam at the prosumer level we have the kodak pixpro SP 360 dual pack to wide-angle cameras mounted back-to-back that shoot in 4k higher resolution but at a higher price $900 for the whole setup now if you really want to spend some money this DIY rig could be what you're looking for this freedom 360 cage holds six gopro hero4 s it's shooting up to 4k the whole package will run you about $3,000 or just wait for GoPros Omni which syncs all the cameras automatically and will set you back about five thousand dollars the beauty of the theta no assembly required all the components are built in including the battery and storage choose between photo and video and just point and shoot with the capture button it stitches the 360 image on the fly so it's the only one that actually lets you preview your shot using the phone as your viewfinder with the pics Pro you have two cameras two batteries and two SD cards to worry about you can pair the cameras to start recording at once or press each capture button individually make sure the object is facing one of the lenses head-on because you can't really see what you're shooting now will supply that by 3 for the GoPros 6 cameras 6 batteries and 6 SD cards our rig requires that you remember to press the power and record button on each one also with 6 cameras you're really going to have to pay attention to that stitch line which is that point at which they all meet unless you want to end up with your body sliced in two and you won't know this until after the fact because in the field there's no way of monitoring this the theta does all the work for you so just sync the videos on to your phone or upload your videos to a computer via USB and you own a 360 player you can share directly to Facebook right from the app and eventually even livestream you'll need your computer for the pics Pro download the free stitching software from Kodak for Mac or PC and import your videos from each SD card the program will sync the videos automatically using the audio as a base but the stitch is far from perfect and you don't have as much control over the Edit the GoPro also needs a computer but it uses advanced stitching software from a company called color the downside you have to sync each of the six clips manually the advantage you'll have way more control and the quality of the stitch will really depend on your color skills let's take a look at our 360 videos the theta is good enough to share on social media and looks great on a phone screen with a near-perfect stitch but once you view it in headset mode or in a larger screen the lower resolution really takes its toll and you can start to make out the pixels the pix pro is a huge leap forward in terms of picture quality it's the sharpest and most vibrant of the bunch when you're looking at it head on but the image begins to deteriorate around the edges as you move through the space and you'll notice things magically disappear right around the stitch line the GoPro footage looks muted in comparison with less contrast and color saturation but the quality is consistent overall the image is generally in focus no matter what angle you're facing and the stitch can be refined manually if it's distorting the subject no matter which one you're looking at be ready to sacrifice quality when uploading the services like Facebook and YouTube 360 which compress the files so make sure you're viewing at max quality during playback at the end of the day it comes down to what you're willing to put up with in terms of quality convenience and most importantly price