- Today we're talking about the Garmin VIRB 360
and why I think this is an awesome 360 camera.
(exciting music)
So I'm a big fan of Garmin products in general.
I wear the Garmin watch, like, everyday.
This is my go-to watch.
I prefer this over the Apple Watch.
And this thing tracks you like none other
for doing anything outside.
It's actually saved me a few times.
I was out in Hawaii hiking once,
and I use this as my GPS when I'm hiking.
And there was a time where me and Rachel went off-path,
and if I didn't have this on, we would've got lost.
Because what happens is with the Garmin watch
you can do a track-back,
which basically will take you back to your beginning point,
and it will beep and, like, give you a notice
if you're going off the track.
And that's what happened.
So big shout-out to Garmin for making an awesome product
with the watch, because it is awesome for anything outdoors.
Now we're talking about the Garmin VIRB 360,
which is Garmin's version of a 360 camera.
You might be thinking, Garmin does cameras?
Well, they do have a few cameras,
and they're built for people that do things outside.
So the VIRB 360 is a 360 camera.
And if you're familiar with this channel,
then you know that I've been playing
with 360 cameras in the past,
because I think they're awesome tools for storytelling.
They give you the ability to just hold the camera up
or mount the camera to anything,
and you can reframe your shot later.
So there's a lot of situations when you're out there
climbing a mountain or kayaking
or doing something like mountain biking
where you don't necessarily want to be flustered
by trying to figure out your shot
by using a traditional form of camera.
This is where 360 cameras really shine,
because you just mount it and you go.
And you hit record and then later in post
you can sit there and reframe.
And 360 cameras in general
allow you to stabilize your footage
so you get really awesome footage that is stabilized.
And you can reframe and get different shots,
which is much better for storytelling at the end of the day.
So one of my biggest frustrations with other 360 cameras
is that they give you this ability,
but there's a few things they're missing.
And this Garmin definitely fills in those gaps.
So I've been playing with this camera
in a few different scenarios.
I took it out mountain biking with my buddy Jesse.
And I just want to show you some of the footage
that you can get with this camera
before we go into the details about the camera itself.
(beeping)
(serene music)
All right, so I'm ready to go
for a mountain bike adventure this morning.
I've got my cold brew.
I've got my Garmin, got my other Garmin.
I've got a pole, my attachment that allows me
to hook it to basically any piece of gear
that's out there for (mumbles) cameras.
That's a bike attachment.
I've got my chest harness.
We're actually gonna go up the road
somewhere out in the distance,
see if we can get to the Nike missile silo site.
It's a nice ride all the way down,
but this is an awesome trail out here.
Time to get movin'.
(energetic music)
All right, so we just made it to the Nike missile silo.
So this during the Cold War
was a place that was defending LA.
So now you can hang out on a relic of the Cold War.
What am I doing, Jesse?
- Like, just be, like, "come on, man, like, follow me."
Ready?
- Come on.
(energetic music)
♪ We got summer and fall ♪
- Okay (mumbles) three, two.
So there's a few things that really stand out on this camera
when you compare it to other 360 cameras.
And like I said before, it's built for adventure.
So you're not putting housings
on the outside of your camera.
You're not having to deal with a bunch of buttons
and a bunch of software.
It basically works super easy,
so when you're on an adventure,
you can literally click a button,
and then it turns on and starts recording.
So the design of the Garmin is very simple.
When you look at it, you have your lens on either side.
You have your record switch.
And yes, it is a switch, not a button.
So you can physically feel it when it clicks on to record.
That's huge, especially when you have gloves on
or anything else.
It's a great view from my chest down there.
Having the switch on the side allows you
to just kinda, like, flip it, hit record,
keep doing whatever activity that you're doing.
It's probably one of my favorite bits about it.
I haven't had a camera
where you just flip a switch like that.
And it's, like, a physical switch.
It's not a button that you hold for a flippin' few seconds.
It's not, it's literally you can
just feel for it and flip it.
It makes a huge difference for anything
where you're outdoors and doing something like this.
On your other side you have your door
that opens up to your charging and your memory card slot.
And then on the top you have three different buttons
that are basically to access your menus
and take photos and all that good stuff.
Now one thing in particular
that I really like about this camera
is that the lenses come off.
So if you scratch your lens,
you can replace it in the field.
That is huge, and that above everything else
makes me take this camera
over any other 360 camera on the market.
I have had so many issues when I'm out filming
using 360 cameras when a 360 camera tips over.
Because the lenses are bubbled on either side,
you're instantly gonna scratch the lens.
And it doesn't take a huge fall.
Literally, if you just drop it off a tripod like this
and it tips over, you scratch the lens, and that sucks.
Trust me, I've had multiple 360 cameras
that I've taken out on a trip.
Halfway through my trip it tips over.
It gets scratched, and guess what?
You're done, because now your entire lens
is scratched on one side.
Your 360 camera is only good on the other side.
So because you can replace the lenses,
this camera instantly is a lot better
than a lot of the other 360 cameras on the market.
Also replaceable batteries,
there are some out there that don't allow you
to replace the battery as well.
And that's just one of those things
that if you're gonna go adventure,
if you're gonna take a camera with you,
you need to be able to replace things.
You need to make sure that you can always get good footage.
And one last thing, this body is waterproof,
so you can just go in the water with this.
You don't have to put a housing on the outside of it.
Other cameras, you have to put housings on the outside,
which mess with the footage.
And it's just a pain to carry a housing around
when you can have a camera
that already is waterproof from the get-go.
All right, let's talk about attachments.
So you can attach this to any of your accessories
that work on other action cameras.
You have the same attachment
where you can screw it onto all your products
that you already own if you own action cameras.
And then you also get a tripod mount with the Garmin.
So the cool thing about the Garmin 360
is that instead of being an attachment point
on the camera itself,
it's got a clip-in mechanism.
And what that allows you to do
is to have different styles of clips.
You have one that works with attachments
that work with other action camera accessories.
And then you have one that works with tripods.
So it's your typical tripod mount.
And what that allows you to do
is to be able to attach it to anything
that you want to attach it to.
Now one other thing about this
is that you can buy more attachments.
So if you want to have your Garmin clip on multiple devices
and not have to be screwing your clip on and off,
you can really just buy a few of them
and have it on all your accessories.
You just want to pop it in,
flip that record switch, and guess what?
You're recording footage.
Now I'm sure you're wondering
about the settings in this camera.
It's basically an auto camera.
However, when you go into the app,
you can actually dial in your settings.
So you can do things like set your ISO.
You can make the image flat
if you want to do some color-grading in post.
You can change a few of the camera settings
to be able to have more control over your image.
And one of the things that you can do
is have exposure lock,
which I think is really useful.
Now one thing about using the app
is that when I'm out doing something,
I'm not gonna pull out my phone.
And that's one thing just with cameras in general.
If I have to connect a phone to it
to make it work, I'm not gonna use it.
So with the VIRB you can
essentially use the camera without the phone.
However, you don't have access
to these professional controls
that you can set in the VIRB app.
So that's one thing that I hope they fix in the future.
It's a simple software update.
But give you the ability to control
the settings of the camera within the camera itself.
So one feature that stands out over other cameras
is that you can record in 5.7k RAW.
It's not like a true RAW recording.
All it is is that you're getting the full use of the sensor,
so you're getting the 5.7k.
And Garmin's app will actually stitch it
in the software for you,
so you don't actually have to stitch it later.
Now when you're looking at these side-by-side,
there definitely is a little bit better quality
with the 5.7k, but it's not massively different.
It's not gonna give you a ton of extra ability to edit,
but it does give you a little bit more
than just your regular 4k footage.
Let's talk about editing.
So with a lot of these 360 cameras,
you have to use an app on your phone to do all your editing.
And they make it super simple with these apps
to be able to edit your footage.
However, you have to use your phone to edit your footage.
With the Garmin, they have a standalone app
that is on your computer.
And that alone makes a huge difference for me,
because when I'm editing my videos,
I'm editing them on a computer.
I'm not using a phone.
So when I'm using other cameras,
and I'm basically having to bring the footage into my phone,
edit it, re-export it out of my phone into my computer,
it causes issues and it makes me
not want to use a 360 camera.
With this, because they have their own standalone program,
I can bring it into the computer
and have a lot of controls at my fingertips.
And I can go between my editing softwares.
Now Final Cut does do 360 editing now.
However, I still prefer to use the Garmin editing software,
because you have access to everything
that Garmin has to offer,
and one of those things is the GMetrix data,
which is pretty cool for people that like to have
that kind of data associated with your footage.
And basically, this camera has a GPS in it,
so it records a ton of data as you're out there
doing whatever it is that you're doing.
You can also sync up your watch or your GPS
or any other Garmin device and use that data.
And then what you can do is put on overlays
over your footage and add things like speed,
and you can add the path that you were traveling.
Like, there's some pretty cool features
that just add a little bit, especially if you're creating,
like, an adventure-style video,
and you just want to add some of these elements in there.
And with the editing software, it's really easy to use.
You basically have a timeline.
You can go through.
You can cut your clips.
You can reposition the way in which you're viewing a clip.
And you can move around the frame
to frame up the shot however you want
and key-frame it to do different moves
so you can have that action going throughout your shot.
The beauty of this software
is that it's all on the computer,
so you can either go clip by clip
and then bring it into your other editing software,
or just go through and edit all your 360 footage at once
and then bring it all into the editing software
that you're using for your main project.
And the workflow is much easier
than working with other cameras.
So overall, this camera is definitely one
that I'm gonna use with me when I'm out there adventuring.
I like having a 360 camera
because of its ability to reframe in post.
The footage quality on a 360 camera
is definitely not as good as, say, an action camera
or your traditional camera,
whatever it is that you're using.
However, you sacrifice a little bit of quality
to have a lot of ability in post
to be able to tell your story or reframe your shot
or do whatever it is that you want to do.
So, guys, I would love to hear your thoughts
on the Garmin VIRB 360.
Are you guys currently using 360 cameras yourself?
I'm definitely gonna be taking this camera with me
when I'm going out adventuring,
especially this winter when I'm climbing
the tallest volcano in Ecuador.
This thing will be in my pocket the entire time,
because I know that I can get some awesome angles and shots
without fumbling with gear.
Because when I'm standing on the edge of a cliff of ice,
the last thing I want to do is fumble with gear and slip.
So, guys, if you have any questions
about this camera in particular,
feel free to reach out.
And if you're new here to this channel,
make sure you hit that subscribe button.
There's a lot of awesome filmmaking tutorials,
camera reviews.
I also have a creator film school
that's nuts to bolts everything that you need to know
to have a career as a creator or a flimmaker.
All right, guys, I'll see you on the next one.