ladies and gentlemen brace yourselves for the 360 camera battle of the century
in corner number one we have the underdog the camera whose name nobody
can pronounce it is the Xiaomi me GM me sphere in corner number two you have
everything epic in one weighing in at $300 the insta360. In corner number three it's
the new kid on the block weighing in it's just over $400 everybody knows and
loves Rico but is there a camera good enough to compete with these two it is
the Theta V
all right now that's out of the way here are the prices and here are the
resolutions two of them are 4k one is 3.5 K I've up
scaled these Xiaomi footage to 4k and to be honest I can barely notice any
difference they all look the same in terms of resolution and sharpness these
are the three most talked about 360 cameras right now the cameras people are
most buying and wanting to buy and a lot of people have been asking me Ben which
is the best of the three which one should I buy so in this video I'll put
the footage from each side by side in many different situations looking at
this very first one here on this basketball court
I'm actually not noticing a massive difference this is supposed to be the
epic showdown of the century yet they're all on a level playing field from
situation number one BAM location change and here we have a controlled lighting
situation a little bit of indoor/outdoor action and again they are looking
identical I can barely spot a difference between all three of these I'm actually
in shock at how similar these look these are three very different cameras from
three very different companies yet they're delivering the exact same result
in this situation yeah you could probably argue maybe little spots of the
image are different but overall there isn't a big enough difference to say one
is better than the other another location change another similar result
all three of these look the same yet again completely different location yet
you can barely tell which camera is which okay let's test out the stitching
surely there will be a difference here firstly let's try a shot where I'm about
two feet from the camera and I do want to point out that I wasn't actually
having fun here I'm far too mature for that I was just pretending I was having
fun and they're all stitching quite well something that draws my attention is the
insta 360 one-on-one lens it seems to have fogged up I'm not sure whether this
is a smudge or to do with the stitching regardless I am seeing a visible seam
line there even from two feet away now I'm going to get uncomfortably close to
the theta V to see how good the stitching really is it is quite a thin
camera so you can get quite close my nose is now touching the camera and a
little bit my face is getting cut off but not a huge amount a lot of you guys
pointed out how good the stitching was in my theta V test footage video
and I agree this is gonna be one of the best features of the theta moving over
to the xiaomi and it's a similar story because the lenses are so close together
the stitching error is going to be very minimal my nose is touching the camera
there and again minimal cut off this has always been a great camera for stitching
for me and you can trust it to do a good job last we have the insta 360 camera
and I'm still one foot away from the camera now and I'm getting cut off
already when I get closer I look more and more like a mutant I have found the
stitching has been the least impressive of all three cameras with the insta 361
in there up they have a feature called stitching optimization I've turned it on
and off here to try and find the best result but still it's producing a less
than desirable stitch if you can stay away from the seam line this won't be an
issue however you will need to be mindful of it unless you dig the mutant
look oh and remember when I said all three cameras look exactly the same well
I lied they almost couldn't look any more different here I have the footage
straight out of the camera and you can see they look completely different the
one has a distinct purple tone the Xiaomi has really strong contrast and
really dark blacks and the theta V is pretty well balanced all around but mr.
Ben why would you lie to me like that I thought we were friends
I hear you ask well there's a reason for that the footage you're looking at right
now is footage straight out of the camera untouched when I do a color grade
to all three in the vast majority of situations I'm able to transform these
three very different looks into the same look this is a testament to how
excellent the dynamic range is on all three cameras in front of you you have
three very different color palettes yet they can all act like chameleons and
take on a completely different look without it looking too unnatural this
location has an extremely high amount of contrast yet I was able to color great
all three videos in a way that they look quite similar with a decent amount of
dynamic range the shadows are visible the highlights are even yes there are
slightly different tones in the mid-tones but otherwise all three of
these are very acceptable and I wouldn't mind putting my name to any of them so
mr. Ben you're saying that they're all exactly
same then why the hell am i watching this stupid video I hear you ask let's
take a look at some more differences shall we going for a stroll with all
three cameras and instantly I'm admiring the amazing six axis stabilization of
the xiaomi and the insta 361 the buttery smoothness they both produce means you
can shake your camera around you can have it handheld you can attach it to
things and you don't need to worry too much about camera shake yes there are
very minimal shakes present but overall it's a really smooth ride the theta V
has improved stabilization and it's not too bad here but I'm not shaking the
camera a massive amount when you do start shaking it tilting it moving it in
every direction you're going to notice that the theta V just won't handle it as
well as the other two cameras so ultimately you need to ask yourself how
much handheld 360 video will I be shooting if you do a lot go for the one
or the Xiaomi if you prefer to keep your camera on a tripod you might want to
consider the theta V for many other reasons one area the theta V shines is
low-light this footage was shot just after sundown and I'm seeing the most
amount of clarity from the theta V the best overall dynamic range when they
look at the insta361 the colors aren't looking is nice the dynamic range
is good but it's not as good as the other two also there's the most amount
of grain in the in statistics t footage so let's just say that nighttime isn't
its strong point it does have many strong points but at nighttime expect
less than perfect results for me the red W in this example is what sets them
apart the theta V has it really sharp and vivid whereas the other two and this
is after a color grade are still looking washed out and a little bit blown out as
well so I think I can safely save the theta V will be the best camera to shoot
with at nighttime because of that amazing dynamic range I also want to
point out that all three of these cameras are capable of long exposures at
night time which means you can get a really good exposure and minimal grain
you can do cool stuff like light paintings and they're all going to be
good for photo and night time it's just video that you're going to see the
biggest difference in exposure finally I'll end up with some photo samples and
these are three cameras I really love shooting photo with I haven't had an
issue with any of them yeah there are some minor things and you should check
out my reviews if you want more info about the photos I already have my
Xiaomi review out I'll have a review of the theta V and the insta 361 within the
next week or so also I'm gonna put links in the description to where you can get
these cameras the cheapest two of them are on Amazon the theta V and the insta
361 with these Xiaomi you'll have to go to gearbest.com where it's on sale all
the time but really I've got to say I can endorse all three of these cameras
they've all done a good job for both photo and video so far I will be using
all three of them a lot with my content creation for Instagram Facebook YouTube
they all do an exceptional job for such a low price point and I would even say
they over deliver so figuring out which one is best for you I would strongly
suggest going over my youtube channel youtube.com/lifein360photo and
having a look at the sample footage and the other videos I've made with each of
these cameras because I think those will really help you make a decision also
head over to Instagram I'm @BenClaremont I've made tiny plans with all
three of these cameras and again they're all great at tiny planets finally over
at facebook.com/lifein360photo you'll be able to see even more samples
including the photo you're looking at right now I have all three of them side
by side so you can look with more resolution and more clarity you'll
definitely want to check out our Facebook page because we've got heaps of
awesome stuff coming out there every single day
all right guys that's it from me be keen to hear your thoughts about which of
these cameras you like the best as well as any questions you have feel free to
leave them in the box below and I'll do my best to answer them alright peace out
now I'll talk to you very very soon