Overview of 360 camera range

There are many different kinds of 360 cameras, each with particular strengths and weaknesses. This
guide is designed to help you figure out which one best suits your needs.

Consumer vs. Prosumer

There's two categories of 360 cameras you might encounter: consumer and prosumer. Consumer
cameras are typically cheaper and easier to use, while prosumer cameras allow a greater degree of
functionality, but you'll likely need to have shot a few 360 videos before you'll have a real grasp of
how to take advantage of them.

Mono vs. Stereo

One factor you will need to consider is whether you want a monoscopic or stereoscopic camera. As
we've discussed, stereo video has the "depth" look, but comes at the cost of larger file sizes or
decreased resolution.

Live Preview
Many consumer cameras have built-in live preview options so the director can stay hidden while
still viewing their scenes—or the director can remain in the scene as a character to review the scene.
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If you are working with actors or capturing areas open to the public, live preview options will be
more important than you might initially expect. Live preview will allow you to evaluate actor
performances as close to the viewing experience as possible, helping you to know if you need to go
for another take. It never feels good to review the footage later and wish you had done just one
more take—especially since you typically can't just use the best pieces of each separate take.
The Samsung Gear 360 is a good camera for live-preview on a budget. The preview can be viewed
on your mobile phone within good range of the camera. For professionals and crews that require
more than one viewer at a time, we recommend the Teradek Sphere.
• It gives you an option for Quick Post: you can record the footage on iPads and use them for
quick shot selection later. It's also great for very quick editing, then replacing the footage
with the higher resolution files after scenes are selected and cuts are done.

• It streams stitched content—it can combine all the lenses, though the stitch lines are hard to
remove, so it’s not a true live preview
• The Sphere can be great for others who want to be a part of the production and have their
own iPads to view the scenes with real-time. You can even broadcast out the signal to
multiple iPads and iPhones.
• The Sphere is an easy way to check camera settings and find consensus on the appropriate
settings for the shot.
• The Sphere can work wirelessly but wireless signals can be lost when there are many
devices on Wifi in the area. 


Auto-Stitch Cameras
As the name implies, autostitch cameras are cameras that handle stitching automatically, rather than
forcing you to stitch them together yourself in postproduction.
Autostitching solutions can save you hours of time, though be warned that autostitching isn't always
perfect, so it's still important to be thoughtful in how you set up your shots. There might also come
a time where you need to use postproduction software to fix a stitch—we'll get into those in Module
4.
A top autostitching solution is Google JUMP, cloud-based system that works with different
cameras, including GoPro Odysseyand YI Halo.
Below we have included a few other common 360 cameras:

Samsung Gear360 (Consumer)

Samsung Gear 360 is a great everyday camera with live-preview via mobile phone, but it is not
waterproof. It has two 190 fisheye lenses and shoots 3840x1920 at 30fps. It supports live-streaming
and comes with quick stitch software you manage on a computer. ~$150

YI 360 (Consumer)
The YI 360 can shoot up to 5.7K, and includes 4K/30fps auto-stitching. This is also a good option
for live streams, offering 4K live-streaming. This camera offers some of the best production values
for the money. ~$400

Nikon KeyMission 360 (Consumer)

The KeyMission is a great action-camera for outdoors as it is shock resistant and a completely
submersible waterproof 360 camera. It stitches inside the camera however does not provide raw
files for users stitch. You can preview the images with a mobile phone, but it doesn’t support live-
streaming. It captures 3840px1920p resolution at 24fps, 8K photos. ~$500

GoPro Fusion (Consumer-Prosumer)

Another rugged camera with powerful gimbal-like stabilization that just launched in late 2017.
Includes the GoPro app, which has autostitching and the ability to pull 2D videos straight from your
spherical footage. ~$700

Garmin VIRB 360 (Consumer-Prosumer)

The VIRB is a great camera for movement and high-resolution shots; it captures 5.7K 30 fps and
4K 30 fps with in-camera stitching and built-in video stabilization. ~$800

Insta360 PRO 8K (Prosumer)

The Insta360 PRO has six 200° lenses capable of producing stereoscopic video. It can capture up to
8K resolution, and is also capable of livestreaming. ~$3500