What's up guys? This is Ben from Life in 360 and
one of the most common questions i've been
getting the last few weeks is: Which is
better; the LG 360 Cam or the Ricoh Theta
well I have them side-by-side here and
i'll start by saying that they're both
amazing cameras and both are a very worthy
investment.
Usually when people come to me and ask
me which should i buy, i come down to
price. Price is really the biggest factor
for a lot of people because they are both cameras that are
capable of capturing a really impressive
video and photo
obviously you've got the LG which is
much cheaper and they just reduced the
price point ninety-nine dollars that's
pretty hard to beat that, the Theta is
about 399 depending on where you look so
first up, the LG wins for price.
This next part of that come as a bit of a
shock so you might want to sit down
so I've taken the exact same photo with
each camera and which one of these do
you think has the higher resolution?
Surely it's the Ricoh, right? Wrong it's
the LG. The LG has 2 dual 13 megapixel sensors
whereas the Ricoh only has dual 12
megapixel sensors so the LG is actually
a higher resolution camera believe it or
not that came as a big shock to me also
with lenses the LG has twin f 1.8 lenses
whereas the Ricoh is only f2 so the LG
is sounding much, much better right?
well that's where i'm not so sure when
you look at these two photos to me the
theta image looks a lot better for a
number of reasons firstly the dynamic
range is better it's able to capture
shadows and highlights much better in
the same image whereas the LG looks quite
hazy and just a bit dull to be honest
also when shooting, the Ricoh has much
better manual control it allows for
manual tuning of your ISO white balance
shutter speed noise exposure
compensation all that stuff whereas the
LG is much more limited
it's harder to get specifically what you
want also another huge factor in this
equation is focus so you might notice
with the LG only about maybe sixty
percent of this image is in focus you'll
notice around the seam line and
around the top and bottom it's
largely out of focus
whereas the theta is crystal clear all
the way through this is quite a big
issue for photos and as a result it's
hard for me to be able to rely on the LG
as a photo camera when only sixty
percent it's in focus
you need your shots to be in focus
therefore the theta by far is my photo
camera of choice so video is actually
quite surprising because believe it or
not as you might be able to see here the
resolution is higher on the LG the
cheaper camera than the theta. The theta isn't
exactly known for its sharp high
high-quality video
it's a camera that's about a
year-and-a-half old now so
unfortunately it's just not there for the video but it is for photo so if
if you prefer 360 stills
photography tiny planet photography the
theta is the camera for you and it's
worth investing that extra three hundred
dollars because you're going to get so
much higher resolution photos and a
better end result
another issue for 360 photography is the
stitch line so if I walk around to the
theta's stitch line here - there i am
the stitching is perfect no issues at all you
go all the way around and we're not
seeing any
issues i'm not getting stitched out you
can see the full 360 uninterrupted
which is pretty incredible
that's a really on cool feature and it
has from what I've seen the best
stitching out of any 360 camera the LG
however started with really poor
stitching i think since they updated
their firmware or software it's actually
gotten better but their seam line
isn't perfect so as you can see i'm right in the seam line you'll
notice kind of discoloration it's much
brighter around the stitch line it doesn't
look as good
unfortunately
so just something to be aware of that
that's going to be there you can
actually shoot in a way that avoids this
so if you just make sure you or
your subject is in front of the front
lens or in front the back lens you should
be able to avoid any seam line issues
alright here's a bit of movement for you
just so you can see how they each react
to walking fast movement and also shake
i have noticed that the LG actually
shakes quite a bit more than the theta
it's noticeably shakier, however i've
also noticed that when uploading videos to
facebook they're now stabilizing 360 videos
so I shot something the other day that
was shaky as hell on the LG facebook
completely stabilized it so it was almost
like on a Steadicam so that's a good
thing to keep in mind if you're shooting 360 videos
as opposed to tiny planets, facebook will
stabilize them for you youtube may as
well but I think facebook has the better
stabilization technology one thing I
also want to add is like a lot of people
my complain that awww the lg's photo
quality isn't good the stitch line isn't good and
that the Thetas video quality isn't good
but something you need to keep in mind
is you get what you pay for the more money
you pay the better a camera you will
get it's as simple as that you can't
expect your camera to be a red dragon
when you're paying ninety nine dollars for it
it doesn't work like that unfortunately
you need to invest the money if you want
all the bells and whistles so for
ninety-nine dollars for the LG it's
incredible; it way way over delivers
and to be honest the the theta s which
has been around for a year-and-a-half
still over delivers I'm on to my third or
fourth theta I've broken like three them
for being stupid but I keep buying it
over and over because it way over delivers
for the price I pay for it. Two more
things worth noting in terms of the
cases each camera comes in the lg's is a
hard plastic case that really does a
good job at protecting the lenses and
the whole camera it's almost
impenetrable
the Ricoh theta s comes in a neoprene
case which is really handy
however if you did drop from like a meter
or two it very well could still smash
the lens just something to keep in mind
because like like I said I've been
through four Ricoh theta cameras now
it's only because of safety like it's been
hard to transport and I've knocked them over
in the wind and taking them swimming
stuff like that but the case is better
on the LG something to keep in mind you
can get other Ricoh theta cases if you
wish
another thing is the apps so the Ricoh
theta because it's a bigger brand that have
really invested more in their technology
they have been much better smartphone app
for both Apple and Android you can do
almost anything shoot fully manually
browse through your gallery very easily, edit, add in
anything you want post production wise
The LG's app is still very basic it's
like the dial-up internet compared to
broadband, you feel like you're using one of the very first iPhones
when you open it up it's just very very
simplistic look at works and does the
job, but it is quite limiting because it's
basic so in terms of app, the theta
wins
honestly the Theta has been the best
investment I've ever made in my life so
I'm so happy that i bought it
ultimately you've just got to go with your
price bracket
yeah i use both- i like having two cameras
because the 360 camera's battery life runs
out as well so it is handy having two
instead of one
no matter what you get, you're
probably going to get a really good
result that over delivers for the amount
you pay so absolutely invest in one if
you haven't already
alright guys until next time, this is Ben
Claremont reporting to you live from the
sydney opera house AKA my backyard
I'm going to go play some pokemon go so
i will get going until next time keep
living your life in 360! Don't forget to
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ciao