what's up guys this is Ben from Life in 360 and welcome to episode 3 of vlog
in 360 and this episode I'm going to put together all of the 360 cameras I
own and see how they perform in low-light I'm at Sydney's vivid light
festival right now so I thought this to be the perfect
opportunity to try them out and see how they handle nighttime so I'm going to do
my best to make sure the lighting is as even as possible when I put the seven
major 360 cameras to the test so I'm filming this on the Samsung gear 360
2016 also have the 2017 camera, I had the theta s, the Insta360 Nano, Insta360 air
LG 360 cam and finally last but not least the Xiaomi Mijia Mi sphere yeah so come on
along and let's see which one does best in low light okay starting with the gear
360 2016 and something I've learned from using this camera is that if the area
you're shooting in is reasonably well lit you're going to get a damn good
and sharp video quality this is one of the better daytime 360 cameras so if you
can keep your lighting pretty good at nighttime you're going to get an equally
good results perhaps the biggest issue I've experienced during the day is the
bad lens flares it gets and nighttime is no different unfortunately whenever you
go near a strong light source like any of these lamps you're going to
experience a strong lens flare and wave across the lenses this is because the
lens is protruding and it's much more likely to get a flare if you come close
to a light source it's very annoying so avoid strong light sources if you can
look this footage is possible if you look on the left hand side it actually
looks very decent the right looks horrible so really you just need to
prepare for value if you're shooting at nighttime with this camera
do check the live preview before hand to avoid complete and utter disaster next
is a camera that we've all forgotten about and that's the LG 360 cam and
looking at this footage I was very surprised this looks quite decent the
colors are looking nice and the resolution is
pretty darn sharp around about where my lady friend and I are standing the
reason I don't use this camera anymore is because of the horrible seam line and
bad stitching that they never fixed and that's on show right here you can still
see part of the camera near where my hand is and all along that seam line is
just really obvious that these are two spheres being stitched together that's
unavoidable you see it during the day you see it in nighttime as well still
though it's got to be said that a 120 dollar camera with an F 1.8 aperture
that is seeing me really clearly in this low-light this is performing very very
decently so I wouldn't completely rule it out for that price point this is
actually incredible and way over delivers the bad news is though I just
went to LG's website and looks like the camera is discontinued there's still
like 20 of them on Amazon put a link in the description but you're not going to
be seeing much of this camera in the future unfortunately welcome to the
Harbor bridge here we have the newest of all the cameras and that's the Xiaomi
Mijia Mi sphere and I think I'm getting somewhat closer to pronouncing that
correctly and not sound like I'm ordering a spicy cabbage dish this
camera boasts an F2 aperture and 3.5 K video resolution both very decent
looking at the shows and highlights this camera is performing really well that
black is looking really black and the highlights aren't too overblown here
you'll notice that you don't get the extreme grain that you've got with the
last two cameras that's a big thumbs up from me in this walking shot you'll see
that it handles strong light sources really well it's not destroying the
whole image like it did with the gear 360 yes the lights do draw attention to
themselves but it doesn't detract from the areas around the lights here I'm
standing in basically pitch black in the middle of some weird-ass slideshow and
the highlights are looking excellent is so sharp everywhere it's not
out-of-focus and it's not blowing out anywhere I've got to say the Xiaomi is
shaping up to be the perfect package for a 360 camera so definitely stay tuned
for my full review coming out in the next week or two. Something
I'll point out is yes you are seeing in tiny plant form right now however a tiny
planet is essentially a manipulation of a 360 video so you're seeing the full
field of view yes I could play it as a normal 360 video but that doesn't look
as good does it so you are seeing more or less everything you don't seeing a
360 video in what you're seeing right now so don't be deterred by that I get
to see the shadows and the highlight and that's the most important thing next we
have the camera on everybody's mind and that's the gear 360 2017 if you saw my
comparison at the two Gear 360s you'll see that this camera is weak in
low-light and you'll also see that right in front of you right here right now
when I color grade this footage yes it is brighter and more visible however the
colors aren't very nice it's kind of washed out and green and look at all
that grain is looking pretty horrible isn't it especially around the lights
but also the same line there's that red discoloration like what the hell is up
with that between my footage is the tiny planet equivalent of the shining red run
red in all seriousness you guys know this is an awesome camera during the day
but nighttime it's shithouse so keep it in your pocket unless absolutely necessary
from my experience so far no camera has really stood out head and shoulders
above the others just because 360 cameras aren't good low-light because the
sensors aren't good enough you can't get your ISO high enough the apertures
aren't low enough so you can't go any lower than about F1.8 and these are
things that are crucial to getting good nighttime shot so why you should go out
shooting in low-light you should be careful not to go into places that are too
dark I'd say where I am now is more or less going to be the darkest that you
want to shoot in for now look in a year or so that might change probably will
for now just what you want street lights you want a decent amount of lighting
next we have the Insta360 cameras, we've got the air on the left and the
nano on the right at first they look identical don't they it's as if one's
for iPhone and one's for Android and that's it well there are too many many
differences and they're as follows firstly both cameras have six
axis stabilization turned on this is an amazing feature however you'll notice
the Nano is much smoother than the air in this example still this probably
isn't a deciding factor the next thing that draws my attention is the seam line
and a lens flare because the Insta360 air is round it has a much rounder
lens than the Nano this means that the lens flares are going to be bigger and
that seam line is going to be more obvious when you have one side of the
camera that is brighter than the other in terms of ambient light this is very
obvious here that seam lines very strong on the air and much less noticeable on
the Nano unless I'm clowning around like I am here you'll also notice that
there's a big difference in the way they handle the big light behind us the Nano
handles it really nicely the air it just blows out the entire top of the frame
really this tells me that the Nano is just usable in low light and the air
isn't really well I guess it's break glass in case of emergency use it only
if you must reach= something else I want to point out is
that even though the highlights are retained nicely as you can see on the
Opera House there the colors are not very impressive at all compared to how
nice they look there in real life almost all of the 360 cameras perform better
the insta 360 cameras unfortunately just have a flat look about them I mean yes I
am being picky and I do love Insta360 however I think the best is still yet to
come in terms of low-light with this guys finally we have my old favorite and
that's the Theta S and looking at this video here I'm really impressed by what
it can do in low-light look this is probably the lowest resolution camera of
all of them of all seven yet this image is looking exceptionally good I always
say it resolution isn't the deciding factor it's the look and the dynamic
range and this is performing excellently probably brought to you by Rico
imagine more, now I'm just kidding guys but seriously look at it yourself
tell me that doesn't look amazing the theta s is going to be replaced
soon by the upcoming Theta 4k who knows when that's coming in the next few
months I think but I know this is going to be something that I will really be
looking forward to in the new camera in my personal opinion the theta s has the
best dynamic range of any consumer 360 camera and this applies to nighttime as
well it retains highlights really well and it doesn't crush blacks there is a
kind hint of grain but it's nothing too extreme the dynamic range remains really
good
so after this point I've used only video examples and no photos why is that this
is because only two of these seven cameras are capable of doing a long
exposure a long exposure is necessary to capture low-light photos you need to go
below 115 to the second to really end up with a photo you can see when there are
really dark areas if not see in the dark and those two cameras are the Ricoh
theta s and the Xiaomi Mijia Mi sphere these are the only two cameras that can
do exceptionally good in low light with the others the photos are more or less
going to be the same as the video examples you just saw when shooting in
low light here's my Instagram post from the night of this shoot and it looks
really good I was super happy with it and I shot it on the theta s it was a
one second exposure again only because the theta s can do that and we stood
really still while it took the photo and the result was incredible so the theta s
is an amazing low-light 360 camera the first photo in the video I haven't found
the time yet to play around the Xiaomi doing super long exposures however
here's a photo taken by Michael from 360rumors.com where he did a 32 second
exposure with only the streetlight next to his property as a light as well as a
torch he used to do the light painting it would have been pretty much pitch
black here so that is really impressive. It can do a 32 second exposure the theta s
can run the shutter for 30 seconds so these are more or less the same and they
do stand out head and shoulders above the others because they do have manual
exposure and they allow you to see in the dark with your photos alright so I
finished editing the video up to this point and I think I have a clear winner
well two clear winners and I think you guys probably know what I'm going to say
the Theta s and the Xiaomi Mijia Mi sphere firstly because they both look
better in video mode but also photo you can do those long exposures and that
makes the world of difference unintended so these are going to be your
best low-light camera coming second is going to be the LG 360 cam the gear
360 2016 which I'm filming this on now and the insta 360 Nano these cameras are
just passable you can shoot decent low-light video with these cameras and
coming in last place are the insta 360 air and a gear 360 2017 only use these
if you're crazy desperate so hope this was helpful to all you night time shoots
out there look I think there are heaps of other cameras coming out that are
going to be equally as good as these two in low-light in the near future
including the Theta 4k so stay tuned for that I can't wait for it if you want
to learn how to create awesome tiny planets like you've just see in this
video with any of these cameras regardless of the camera you own I wrote
an e-book that will teach you everything all of the cool shit you see in this video
I'll teach you how to do it in my ebook you can read it in half a day and it's going
to make your tiny planet master I do just want to give you guys my apologies I
have been winged to release the updated version of the e-book I've expanded
updated added heaps of cool shit but unfortunately there's been formatting
issues with Lulu and the iBook store and we're just working through them we want
to put videos in it and like all this other cool stuff unfortunately it's
getting rejected but it should be up fingers crossed within the next
fortnight so I will definitely keep you guys posted as soon as that's ready also
don't forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more episodes of vlog in
360 don't forget to follow us on Instagram Facebook and Twitter as well
another piece of exciting news is I've just started a new Instagram account
@lifein360photo what I'm going to aim to share the very best tiny planets
on Instagram so hashtag your work life in 360 and I'll look through all the
hashtags and share the very best ones there so definitely check that out
alright guys until next time keep capturing your world in 360 this is your
boy Ben Claremont coming at you from Sydney Australia planet Earth the solar
system the universe of the universe infinity think Ben Claremont coming at you from
infinity until next time see you later bye