Can you believe it's been a full year
since we first laid eyes on the Samsung
Gear 360? A lot happens in a year,
there's been so many new cameras come
out over the 2016-2017 period and a
question on many people's minds is: Does
the Gear 360 still hold its own in 2017?
So coming from someone that owns almost
every single 360 camera out there other
than the Nikon Keymission which has
received appalling reviews which is why
i haven't bought it- I have a pretty good
understanding of what various cameras
are offering and how they compare to our
old friend the Samsung and I only picked
up the Samsung myself about a month ago
because I'm on iphone and I never really
could justify getting it however once
I got it I was amazed at how long it had
taken me to discover this amazing camera
this is probably the best 360 camera I
own at the moment and I own all of them
like I said all the consumer 360 cameras
and here's why firstly I'll start with
the design I really like the design of
it I like that you can remove the legs
that's a really handy feature that no
other camera offers it's really handy
having that tripod there to begin with
because with almost all 360 cameras the
lenses are protruding and they're very
likely to get damaged if you drop it so
I've destroyed four Ricoh Thetas and
that is not cheap camera to replace so
yes you can put your camera on a
tripod or a mini tripod but often
they take up too much space in your 360
photos so that's why I like the
simplicity of this small one here and
because it's a standard quarter inch
tripod thread male and female you can
attach other accessories to it so often
i will attach my selfie stick to the
gear 360 and just goes on like that and
that is a really awesome feature and
then i can put the legs on the bottom
and there you go it's a camera on a
stick and the presence is almost
invisible underneath you can't see that
so that's a really cool feature i wish
more 360 cameras had
detachable legs. Sometimes I found they
have ended up in my final shot when
they've been spread out that far so it's
not always ideal but it's still an
improvement upon all the other 360
cameras I really like the simplicity of
it there are only three buttons one two
three and this is actually one of the
only 360 cameras to have a display so you
can navigate through the menu often you
see the buttons but there's no display
to accompany them so it's kind of guess
work until you connect to the app and
that can be a very fiddly process
whereas here you get direct feedback and
you can see all of your settings and all
the various different modes I like using
the Gear 360 in self timer mode so all
I need to do is just press the button
there and then it starts counting down from
five, then you have five seconds to set up the
shot that's a really cool thing and it's
actually easier to use than the other cameras
in terms of self timer just because you
have a direct feedback in the countdown
one really cool feature of the gear 360
is automatic leveling often it can be
hard to get your camera perfectly
vertical often when you're moving around
you don't have a lot of time to set up
your camera you'll end up taking a photo
on an angle and then when you look
around it on facebook later on or on
your phone, the horizon is out of
whack and it's quite disorienting with
the gear 360 and the automatic leveling I
can take a photo completely vertical
like this and later on it will level it
for me. That is a really cool feature so
no matter which angle you hold your
camera and take the photo it's going to
level it next we have resolution the
gear 360 shoots 30 megapixel photos and
4k video so of all of the consumer 360
dual lens cameras this is the highest
photo resolution and the equal highest
video resolution so this is still one of
the top cameras in terms of resolution
for both photo and video honestly when I
first bought it and I viewed the crispy
beautiful 4k video on my smartphone I
was like holy shit how has it taken me
so long to get this camera because it's
so much better than all of the other 360
cameras that do
less than 4k and 4k is essential when you're
wrapping a 4k image around the sphere 4k
is kind of the minimum amount of pixels
to really get the detail that represents
your scene accurately otherwise it's
just going to look blurry and look like
480p as opposed to the gear 360 which
looks like 720p when you look in any
individual direction and here's the part
where I was going to show off the
amazing Samsung gear VR headset and how
you can view your 360 videos inside of
it but it didn't work well maybe I'm
just an idiot but after 10 minutes of
fooling around and no action I gave up
now you can't talk about any individual
360 camera without addressing the
dreaded seam line *my hand my hand is
getting cut off noooo i need this hand i need it
to eat and breathe love* So because 360
cameras have two lenses you're almost
always going to have a gap in between
the two where things get cut off and
this is something that you should try
and avoid while you're shooting just try
and avoid the stitch line just use
common sense if something is really
interesting in front of you point the
front-facing lens at it don't point the
side if you get too close this is no
matter which 360 camera you use if you
get within about a meter range of the
stitch line you're going to get cut off
it's as simple as that so while 360
cameras are still new in the grand
scheme of things you just need to be
really careful of the seam line and
because of the build of the gear 360 the
lenses are quite far apart almost the
furthest apart out of any of the 360
camera so the gap between the lenses and
the stitching is going to be greater so
if you get really close to it it's going
to be really noticeable so in terms of
the video workflow I'm a huge proponent
of sticking to your smartphone if you
can i have a galaxy s7 edge and i can do
almost everything i need using my phone
and importing my gear 360 footage to the
collect video up where i can edit 360
video there i can also turn my footage
and photos into tiny planets using theta
plus and theta plus video for android so
i try my best to stick to mobile however
if you do
to do something more advanced you might
want to import your footage to gear 360
action director if you're on Mac like I
am you'll need to use a program like
smart switch which will allow you to
plug your Galaxy s7 into your into the
computer and back it up the same way you
would back up footage from a memory card
and then you just simply bring it into
premiere or whichever editor you're
going to use the app is really simple to
use firstly you've just got a gallery
where you can import your photos and
videos and then you can go over to live
view mode here you have control over the
basic settings can change your views and
basic exposure but nothing too fancy
like you can't do long exposures or
anything change white balance can change
a few stops three stops each way
self-timer resolution HDR on and off
something that doesn't really get talked
about with this camera is the fact that
you can use it as a single lens camera
so this is almost the equivalent of a
GoPro so I've got my camera right here
and as you can see this isn't actually a
360 now because I just changed it so
it's using the front-facing lens which
is going to act like a GoPro going to
get that single view so videographers
filmmakers if you need a second normal
camera that's not 360 the Samsung can do
the job it's not just a 360 camera
another awesome thing about this camera
is that you can import all of your
photos let's go save and then you can
turn your phone screen off go plug it
into the power and it'll do it in the
background with my Theta S you need to
keep the screen on or the transfer
cancels so this is really handy that
will save me so much time and
frustration of having to always keep my
phone screen on as you can see it's
telling me that it's doing it in the
background there this brings me to the
weaknesses of the camera and the number
one complaint I get and I've gotten to
the past year is that it is not
compatible with iPhone this is a huge
one because I think roughly 60 or 70
percent of camera users are on iphone so
it's really a big hassle because it
means that most of us can't actually use
it without getting a samsung phone this
is something that's going to be
addressed with the new Samsung gear 360
which is coming out soon however for the
current edition you need to ask yourself
is this camera worth buying a samsung
phone for? so you can operate it you
know what I did it and my answer is yes
it is it's that good of a camera that I
would happily pay eight hundred dollars
total it's about 200 to 250 for one of
these cameras and then maybe five or six
hundred dollars for a smartphone I think
it's worth it to be honest the video
quality is just that good that beautiful
4k 360 video is so alluring I would pay
eight hundred dollars for this camera so if
you're thinking about it I know it's not
ideal and maybe you do want to wait for
the next samsung gear 360 but for those
of you who have been tempted by the idea
of getting a samsung phone as well as an
iphone I'd say definitely consider it
I've got two phones it's just handy to
have so it's an option it's not ideal
but it's an option again wait for the
next gear 360 if you don't want to do
that the next weakness is no manual
exposure at the moment only one 360
camera gives you full manual control of
your camera and that's the Theta S and
the gear 360 doesn't let you do it
unfortunately this means the camera is
not good in low-light you can't do a
long exposure photo and I wouldn't even
bother taking out at night time to be
honest because it's going to be so dark
and grainy that the footage is going to
be unusable so if you're into shooting
at nighttime this probably is not the
camera for you I go for the Theta at
this point no 360 camera is ideal at
night time for 360 video the sensors
just aren't good enough you can't get
your ISO high enough so that's not
really an option try to stick to daytime
shooting if you can so even though a
full year has passed has the gear 360
become irrelevant? I say hell no this is
one of the best if not the best 360
camera money can buy at the moment so if
you can get your hands on one I'd
absolutely recommend it if you are on
Android this camera is
no-brainer you must buy this camera just
stop paying rent stop eating stop buying
presents for your girlfriend or
boyfriend and buy this damn camera
because this is going to change your
life it delivers way more value than the
tiny 200 and something dollar price tag
so absolutely get one if you're on
android and again iphone users consider
it a 750 or eight hundred dollar
investment with that said yes the new
gear 360 will be coming out very soon
and it looks amazing I can't wait to get
my hands on it however some of the specs
aren't as good as this gear 360 so you
will want to still consider this one it has
better photo resolution higher
resolution video then the new one that's
coming out essentially the new one will
be like the theta SC is to the current
Theta S it's like a cheaper version
that is an attempt to get more people on
board with Samsung's brand. Alright guys I'll
put a link in the description to where
you can find the gear 360 on Amazon get
it for 200 something dollars there is a
bargain I spend that much on coffee
every week so until next time keep
living your life in 360 and once you
own a 360 camera like this one you'll want
to check out my ebook it's called life
in 360 a beginner's guide to tiny planet
photography and it'll teach you
everything you need to know about this
really cool photography style called
tiny planet photography I think it'll
help you out. Alright guys peace!