During our visit at SXSW, we’ve tested Samsungs 360° camera: Samsung Gear 360. Samsung will launch this ball-shaped virtual reality camera at the consumer market in the second quarter of 2016. The front and rear lenses each capture 180 degrees horizontally and vertically, creating a 360-degree field of view. Unfortunately, there’s no pricing available yet. See our test results below.
Samsung Gear 360 | Pros:
- The 360° camera also has a single lens mode. In this mode, you can just use one of the two lenses to capture a 180° view either in video or stills.
- Samsung say their 360° camera is dust and splash resistant. At our test, it was dry and tidy, so we didn’t really get to find out ourselves.
- The resolution seems to by higher than that of our favorite camera the Ricoh Theta. At least in theory.
- When pairing up your Galaxy smartphone (if you have the S7) via Bluetooth, then use Wi-Fi Direct to transform its screen into a remote viewfinder, you can transfer files from the Gear 360 to your Galaxy smartphone.
- The 360 video is stitched in the app, directly after shooting the video.
Samsung Gear 360 | Cons:
- We experienced some calibration issues between the lenses. So at the edges of the camera, some double-sighted thingies were going on.
- We experienced some glare on the footage.
- The Gear 360 only works with a Samsung S7 (for now, we were told).
Samsung Gear 360 | VR Video?
We only saw the 360 video on a S7 and compared with the footage on youtube we were surprised. The quality on youtube is much better than what we saw, fresh from the camera. It at least seems they did some enhancement before publishing it. We hope to test the Gear 360 ourselves soon.
What do you think?
See the results of our test below and review the quality of this 360° camera yourself! Do you have something to add to our review? Please share them with us all in the comments. For more details, see Samsungs Gear 360 page.