6 360 Gear Guide
Joshua Cameron; Gary Gould; and Adrian Ma
360 all starts with the camera. 360 camera technology has made some major strides in quality and innovation over the past few years. Thankfully, with those strides have come a lowering of prices. Lower prices – better tech, who could ask for more? Well, once you get your first 360 camera YOU will be asking for more because it is a technology that still has a lot of room for improvement. And, like with most technology, the longer you wait, typically the better it gets. Even in the last year we have seen some major improvements and this has been especially helpful with 360 cameras. Wait as long as you can before you buy a camera, but when the day comes to make a decision, this guide will give you some idea what to consider.
So where do we start?
Really, you might want a Ferrari but if you can’t afford it, you’ve gotta stick with the Toyota. You can spend as little as $150 (for the Vivitar 360 Action Camera) and that is not a bad place to start, but as you will see when you read through the following list, if you spend more, you will get more. Since 360 is still an evolving technology, new features (like better stabilization for example), can make a huge difference to the viewing experience.
For the purpose of this guide, all the cameras recommended are under $1,000 as of the time this guide was written (expect the prices to trickle up as time goes on unless you’re able to find a great sale). Shop around before you buy and in some cases you might find it cheaper to buy it in the U.S. or Asia. Be sure to do some online sleuthing to make you get the best price. Also, you will find that often when a new model of a 360 camera comes out, the older model price drops dramatically. An excellent example of that is the GoPro Fusion, which costed nearly $1,000 when it was released, and now sells for half as much. This is because the newer GoPro Max 360 camera is both improved and cheaper, with a sticker price of around $700 at the time of its release.
As we mentioned before, the focus of this guide will be the smaller, dual lens 360 cameras that we consider the most practical for the journalists and people on the go (and for people on a budget!). Larger, professional cameras like the KanDao Obsidian R (which currently retails for nearly $6,000), the Insta360 Pro (currently retailing for just under $5,000), or even the smaller KanDao Obsidian Go (which currently sells for about $3,000), are excellent cameras but are expensive and require a lot of computing power to edit the footage. The Vuze+ VR is cheaper at nearly $1,000, but it has eight lenses and is not a camera that fits easily in your pocket.
There are certainly advantages to the cameras with more lenses but, again, this guide is going to focus on smaller portable units. There is an old photographer’s saying that “the best camera is the one you have with you.” With small, pocket sized 360 cameras, you are much more likely to have it with you and