Today, Qoocam 8K just released its in-camera RAW plus DNG 8 merge feature and SuperHDR.
It totally changed the game in professional Virtual Tour creation - in terms of image
quality and workflow optimization.
Richo Theta Z1 is not falling behind tho.
It has coupled new updates including software updates with Adobe Lightroom and the famous
Dual Fisheye plugins that allow 9 bracketed HDR capture in a click of a button.
And don't forget Inst360 ONE R, Nightshot and HDR both got improved in the latest firmware
update and software update.
All these are very exciting news for Virtual Tour creators.
BUT the question remains, which one is the best for Virtual Tour professionals in mid
to late 2020?
Well, Let's find out together.
Hey, what's everybody?
It is your boy Hugh here from CreatorUp.
The one stop shop for anything 360VR and professional Virtual Tour.
Let's focus on Qoocam 8K first.
Before today, you will need extra software called Kandao RAW+ to merge your DNG8 to achieve
the amazing image quality you see from this comparison video.
Now, you can merge DNG8 directly in-camera after capture.
Let me show you.
After you capture your DNG8, go to your gallery by sliding the left edge.
Choose the DNG8 photo.
Right here.
You will see in the lower-left corner a new icon appears called RAW+.
Tap that, we will start the in-camera stitching.
When it is done, the stitched and merged photo will appear in your gallery with a label of
RAW+ The merging does take about a minute.
The result is without any ghosting.
They also introduce ExpressDNG8.
ExpressDNG8 does not generate 8 DNG but only 1 with almost the same quality as DNG8.
The only catch is, Express DNG 8 will have ghosting if anything is moving in your scene.
Here is regular DNG8 merged from camera.
And here is Express DNG8.
As you see they are pretty identical except me - and the slider - which is in motion.
But the truly exciting update is SuperHDR.
In a nutshell, SuperHDR is merging 24 DNG with three different exposure brackets.
Look at the result here at the exact same settings.
SuperHDR has dramatically increased the dynamic range, color, details, and reduced noise.
So how is that quality compared to Insta360 ONE R night shot - a 9 DNG merging and the
One R HDR.
What about the king of Virtual Tour camera Theta Z1?
Let's quickly talk about Richo Theta Z1.
The correct way, and professional way to use Z1 on Virtual Tour is to use the Dual Fisheye
Plugins.
I will have another tutorial to explain my workflow on Dual Fisheye plugins.
So don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell.
If you are new here, I am a true professional aiming for the best image quality for your
commercial clients - my works is featured on official Facebook 360 page multiple times,
has 360 photos with thousands of views, won ton of awards, front spot on YouTube VR, and
recognized by the biggest Instagram account.
The best of all, I am not afraid and hide my skills behind a paywall - I share what
I learned and want the best for you.
So you can be more successful than me.
We are going to test HDR ghosting and image quality at the same time.
Let me explain the testing environment.
So here is the shooting environment.
As you see right there my camera is on a slider going left and right continue so you can see
the ghosting during HDR effects as I also gonna wave my hand like crazy so you can see
even more challenging merging HDR to not creating ghosting on different mode.
If you see outside is blow out typical California sun and if you look at the other side it is
in the shadow there is a color chart right there for you to look at like noise, in low
light, dynamic range color situation how different HDR different DNG gonna handle that.
you can also see the mixed lighting I put the chart rigth there and mixed lighting right
there so we have a really complicated scenario with mix lighting to see how is each camera
gonna perform.
Here is, again, RAW+, Express DNG8, and SuperHDR from Kandao Qoocam 8K.
Here is Insta360 ONE R Nightshot.
And here is Insta360 ONE R HDR with 9 steps of EV bracketing.
And here we have Richo Theta Z1 with DualFish eye plugins.
First image resolution - Qoocam 8K is 8K output.
You can actually reach 8534 X 4267 with PTGui - more on that later.
One R is 6K (6080 x 3040) and Z1 is 7K (7388 x 3694).
According to this One R review video, we know already DNG8 is still better than Nightshot
in terms of dynamic range and image quality.
In HDR, One R is okay, a lot better than One X.
But it is really wasted out and the dynamic range is nowhere compared to Theta Z1 or Qoocam
8K SuperHDR.
As you see in the shadow, it is also very soft looking and not sharp.
I think Insta360 can do the same thing as Kandao - do a bracketed merged of the Nightshot.
But right now, this feature is not there.
One R HDR does has one advantage - less ghosting in the final result.
Okay, let's compare Z1 Dualfish eye to Qoocam SuperHDR.
They are both very good.
I honestly think it really comes down to personal taste at this point.
Z1 has less chromatic aberration and a slightly better and natural-looking color.
But Qoocam 8K is sharpener and less digital noise.
One more really important thing is the time it takes to capture the HDR photo.
As you know, longer it takes, more ghosting for a moving subject.
So ideally, we want the fastest camera we can get in HDR.
Well, let's test that, should we?
So here we have the real time superHDR capture with the Kandao Qoocam and we start the count
down.
And you can hear the camera making noise the reason why I gonna play in real time is because
I really want you to see the whole process in the mobile phone and the camera reaction
and what is that related to the camera when it is during capture.
I think it is important to know.
So I show you the whole thing as you see I am getting really impatient over there.
Moving around.
So it take a while for SuperHDR so just be mindful about it.
So it just download the footage into your phone while continue processing and capturing
the photo.
So yeah it also transfer photo to the phone.
Okay now we finish 53 seconds.
Now lets take a look at RICOH THETA Z1 and see how long it takes.
So good time about dual fisheye plugin is it makes a little sound when each photo is
taken and it is about 9 photos so it makes 9 beat sound and after that it will tell you
it is processing and when it is done it makes a different sound showing you that is it done
and finished.
Errr again it is gonna take a while.
So now we are done processing right now.
And right there we are done.
So it is about 51 seconds.
Now let's take a look at Insta360 One R.
So now you see WHY Insta360 ONE R has less amount of ghosting.
20-second per photo difference is a big deal.
If you are doing a large Virtual Tour in volume - you might consider using the Insta360 One
R instead just because it will save you lots of times.
And time is money.
Okay, now, let's get technical.
Let me show you the best post-production workflow for SuperHDR that will help you to produce
the best image quality.
If you can master this, your image will be better than 99% of the virtual tour out there.
Let's get started.
After you imported all the photos into your computer, open it with Lightroom classic.
Again, I recommand any professional to do your photo editing with a computer, not Lightroom
Mobile on your Ipad - even you have a powerful iPad.
Go ahead and select the 3 bracketed Express DNG.
They are EV -3, EV0 and EV +2.
Select them all and right click to choose Photo Merge, HDR.
I usually choose auto align and auto settings.
For the deghost amount, use it if you have moving subject in your scene.
Go ahead and merge it.
Now go to the develop tap and do some basic color grading.
All my samples have minimum color grading to keep it fair for comparison.
But I always check remove Chromatic Abberiation.
Qoocam Super HDR also introduce super Chromatic Abberiation - so you will need to remove them
manually by putting the remove amount pass the mid point to increase the range like so.
Pay attention to the lens edges to remove the blue and purple fringe as much as you
can.
We will have to remove it further using masking in Photoshop.
Now go ahead and export the 16-bit TIFF file with no compression.
Now we are ready to stitch.
The standard workflow will be open the Tiff file in Qoocam Studio 2.0 - But, Qoocam Studio
does not handle 16-bit color space correctly.
Well, in fact, the latest version does not work for me in TIFF format.
If I render out a 16-bit PNG, you see the output is all purple-ish, and the color is
all off.
And Qoocam Studio can not output 16-bit TIFF file - which is necessary for post-processing
in Photoshop.
If you look at the Qoocam Studio stitching result - it is actually off for this indoor
shot.
It is a complicated stitch, and usually, an indoor virtual tour requires a manual stitch.
I consider you as a professional Virtual Tour creator - and you should know how to stitch
fisheye files with GoPro Autopano Giga or PTGui.
Honestly, if anyone trying to teach you Virtual Tour production without teaching PTGui and
the manual stitching workflow, he or she is probably not a true professional
Ask any Virtual Tour professionals has at least 5 years of experience, and they will
tell the same.
Open up PTGui.
I am on the PTGui 12 beta version.
Click camera here, and PTGui know it is a Kandao Qoocam 8K.
Load in my template right here.
My template usually works really well for Qoocam 8K - and I will provide it for you
free to download.
Check the link in the description and drop me a thank you comment.
If you see problems, use control point to fix it.
Beta 12 is really good compared to version 11, there is not much I need to do.
Go ahead and create the pano.
The benefit of a professional stitcher like PTGui is to export 16-bit none compress TIFF
file for further editing in Photoshop or other photo editing software.
One more thing to fix for Qoocam 8K beside your tripod leg and chromatic abberation.
If you see the Qoocam Studio output, the image is flip.
Look at the text here.
We are simply going to flip the image horizontally like so.
Now, you can follow this tutorial right here to do further photo edting for your Virtual
Tour software or Facebook 360.
If you want a more detailed HDR workflow using Photomatix - which is the recommended way
to merge HDR instead of using Lightroom - check out this tutorial right here.
Thank you for watching.
I will highly recommand to download all the sample photos in this video and see it for
yourself.
The next tutorial, we will be foucs on the best Dual Fisheye plugin workflow for Ricoh
Theta Z1, with the latest Z1 Lightroom plugins and PTGui Pro.
And, we will also see what is going on with Labpano Pilot One.
They have some pretty exciting updates that no other camera can do in the virtual tour
world.
As always, your like, share and comment will help me continue to make more professional
Virtual Tour content for you for free with love.
Virtual Tour is like a gold rush right now.
Don't be that guy or gal just want to profit instead of creating the best experience for
your clients.
Keep learning, up your skill, and tag me your works on Instagram or Facebook.