360 hasn't been around for very long. In it's few short years of existence
there have been two cameras that have risen to the top, head and shoulders
above the others and those are the Ricoh theta s and the Samsung gear 360 and one
of the most common questions I get is "Ben which of these camera is the best?"
Which one should I buy? so in this video I'm going to go to the strengths and
weaknesses of each camera and help you hopefully reach the decision about which
camera is best for you. So I started my career using the Ricoh theta s and
that's the camera I became well known for on Instagram, posting my theta s
photos turning them into tiny planets and I was kind of known as the theta s
guy. I'm not really anymore and that sounds incredibly pretentious so please
don't call me that. But I'll always have a special affinity
to this camera because it was my first camera however that doesn't mean that
it's the best. Once upon a time it was but now there are so many competitors
and the Gear 360 is its closest competitor. Firstly I want to talk about
the design of each of the cameras they're two amazingly designed cameras
however they do have their strengths and weaknesses. With the Theta S we have one
of the thinnest 360 cameras ever invented. I really love the size of this
and how thin it is, it makes it very easy to hold in your hand as well as the fact
that this means the lenses are very close together and you can get a better
360 image without things getting cut off in the same line. The Gear 360 lenses are
far apart and this produces some problems with stitching because if
they're about 5 centimeters apart and that produces a significant gap in
between the two spherical images when it gets stitched together. So if I were to
take a video right now I would get stitched completely out. If I put it there
half my face will be missing but with the Theta it's only good you're only
going to miss a very small amount of space.
Something I love about the Gear 360 is its inbuilt tripod. This is
really cool and this means you get more stability on your camera, if you're
putting it on the ground it's much less likely to blow over. Whereas with the
Theta honestly I've totaled four of these
because they blew over in wind or I did something else stupid with them but
because it's tall it's very likely to lose its balance easily. You've got to
really monitor it and I found I have to I've had to put it on a little Manfrotto
mini pixie tabletop tripod. Every time I set this camera up I'm shit scared that
it's going to break and I'm going to be broke again for for having to get a new
one whereas with the Gear 360 I just don't worry about that. I have never
worried about it ever I don't think because of the legs and another cool
thing is you can actually remove the legs. That's a very handy feature and
this means you put a selfie stick in between or you can just put this on a
tripod or on the ground without it.I guess hypothetically you could touch the
legs to the side up but that means you have to have both cameras to begin with
Overall in terms of the design I think they're about even they have the same
amount of strengths same amount of weaknesses so you should not make your
decision based purely on the design of the camera. Memory. The Theta S has an
inbuilt 8 gigabyte microSD card, that's not a lot of storage is it. Whereas with
the Gear 360 you can put any amount of memory you want into it up to 128
gigabytes. That's a lot and you could shoot forever with that amount of
storage. honestly it's having been a huge issue for me
I just don't shoot that much when I go out when I go out I will shoot no more
than one to two gigabytes even if I'm shooting photo and video or upload them
to my smartphone or my computer and then I'll just format two memory cards so
honestly even though 8 gigabytes is annoying
it hasn't been an issue for me it just hasn't I haven't filled it up and when I
have I just emptied it it's been no big deal I'm backing my footage up and my
photos up anyway if they're important photos and videos you should back them
up to your computer yes I love having a 128 gigabyte card in this and if you
were shooting a lot of 4K 360 video I could see how you could get
like up to 32 or 64 gigabytes. Honestly in my personal opinion 360 video is not
a medium that should go longer than about 10 minutes or so. It gets too
tiring having to scroll around your 360 for that long or move your head in a VI
headset, it becomes too nauseating uncomfortable and you get bored of it so
honestly I wouldn't go out shooting for a really long time regardless of which
camera you have. Next we have battery the Theta S has an inbuilt battery, the
Gear 360 you can change them. Again this hasn't really been an issue for me
because I can just charge my Theta S with a portable power bank. Yes you can
replace the gear 360 and that's definitely handy but it's essentially
the same process you're just recharging the battery so battery is just not a
huge deciding factor for me maybe it is for people who want to shoot for longer
but for me this is a non-issue. Resolution. Here is the photo resolution
and here's the video resolution. As you can see the Gear 360 kicks the Theta's
ass for both of them. Don't get me wrong they're both great 360 photo cameras but
for video there's just no comparison the Gear 360 produces much nicer clearer
video than the Theta S. The Theta S's video is still usable and too many
people say oh no it's it's unusable don't even think about shooting video
but as you'll see in one of my previous comparisons it produces one of the best
dynamic ranges of all the cameras - theta s even though it's 1920x960
video the dynamic range looks good your colors look really nice and the
exposure looks really nice whereas some other cameras your highlights are
overblown, your shadows are too dark and there's just not enough color so the
theta s is absolutely usable for video. however once you see the Gear 360 s 4k
360 video you just won't ever be able to go back to a camera like this because
the resolution is just so nice to look at, it's so sharp looks fantastic and
anything less just won't be enough. I hate to say it but this looks fantastic
and I don't want anything less than fantastic for my videos so for
resolution Gear 360 is the winner One big area that these cameras differ
is exposure. With the Theta S you have full manual control of your exposure
whereas with the Gear 360 you don't you have basic control but in low-light
you will see a huge difference between these two. The Gear 360 you can barely
see anything whereas with the theta s photos you can practically see in the
dark can do up to a 30 second exposure and look this only applies to photo and
not for video both of these cameras are not good in low-light for video and no
360 camera is. Technology hasn't gotten there yet to the point that we can make
a 360 camera like a sony a7s that can see in the dark
definitely one day and that's going to be one day soon because the technology
is evolving so fast but not yet so if you're shooting at nighttime and you
want video honestly like no camera is going to do
it so I'd forget both of these cameras and just shoot your video with a
conventional camera you can get if you can get it ok so here I've taken the
exact same photo in the same setup with both cameras in auto exposure mode and
they both do a pretty darn good job. The first thing to point out is that they
both have a pretty good dynamic range, you can see the sky pretty clearly, you
can see the shadows pretty clearly. Yes they do have big differences as well but
these are the two of the best cameras for dynamic range. The biggest difference
between the two for me is how they handle the Sun. Something I've always
admired about the theta is that it handles the Sun so well it's not really
affecting the image at all. It's just a small spot there not really creating
much of a beam or a light. It's just there and it doesn't command the
attention of the viewer whereas with the Gear 360 this sounds much brighter it's
a big sunspot and it's also creating rays across the whole image that really
affect the color tones of the sky all throughout from left to right whereas
with the theta s the sky is more or less that same shade of blue when you edit
these as tiny planets. You could say it's an advantage having different
shades of blue in the sky because it's more interesting to look at however you
don't always want that in your shot and whenever you're out in sunlight this
will be an issue with the Gear 360 whereas it won't be with the theta.
The Theta is the camera that handles the Sun the best out of any 360 camera. Next I'll
point out the lens flares. You can see the Gear 360
is creating those lines around the Sun that's a pretty big flare as well as the
red spheres around the direct center of the Sun. With the theta s there's no lens
flare or is there. A common problem that people encounter with the theta is it
puts a random red dot in their images and videos and nobody understands why
Here's the reason why it's a lens flare this is how the Thetas lenses react to
the Sun it can be very annoying when it ends up in front of your face and you
just can't edit it out however when you look at the size of it compared to the
Gear 360 it's much less intrusive next I'll say the colors are much more
saturated on the Theta image, the =Gear 360's colors are a bit more flat and
washed out. When I edit this 360 into a tiny planet here's what it looks like.
You'll notice that the shadows of each camera are different shapes, the Theta's
is longer and narrower, the Gear 360's is round and here I've removed the shadow
and done a color grade to each image which leaves them more or less looking
the same. In my opinion the theta image looks better but they both turned out
really well and I'd be happy to use either one on Instagram so everything
from the photo side of things also transfers to the video side. All the
strengths and weaknesses from before apply to video. It's only when you watch
the footage full screen that you can see there's a massive difference in
resolution. It can be viewed many different ways as an equi rectangular
video like you're seeing it now as an interactive 360 and as a tiny planet but
in every single one you'll notice that the Gear 360 is much sharper and much
higher res than the Theta. For tiny planets this isn't an issue for me but
for every other kind of 360 video it absolutely is. Something else worth
adding is that this footage was shot with extreme sunlight
whenever the lighting is less intense like on a cloudy day or even just an
average day or if you're shooting inside the exposure for video will more or less
look identical between these two cameras it's only in sun that you see that big
difference. Here they are when shooting handheld video. Now I would definitely
advise against walking around with your video camera in your hand but if you
feel the need to then stabilization is going to be a factor for
you. You can see the Theta s has much better stabilization than the Gear 360
however I've learned the hard way that it's just best to keep your camera on a
tripod or a monopod when shooting video. In terms of compatibility the Theta S is
compatible with both iPhone and Android whereas the Gear 360 is only Android and
not just Android but Samsung Galaxy like a few models of Samsung Galaxy. So that is
a severe limitation. The next Gear 360 is going to be compatible across Android
and iPhone so you'll have to wait for that otherwise this one is only for
Galaxy users. But look like I see my previous gear 360 review I actually went
out and bought a Samsung Galaxy just so I could use this camera. Now consider it
a good investment because this camera is just so worth it that I would
pay $800 for it . Finally we have price and something with 360 cameras is their
price fluctuates so much because there's so many new cameras coming out and so
many competitors. All the major 360 camera brands are lowering their price
so they can get to the top of the market. So at the moment the Gear 360 I saw it
on Amazon for like a $190-200 that is incredible.
The moment the theta s is about 300 on Amazon. Both of those prices could
change that's what they are at the moment and they're good prices to me
it's just a no-brainer that the Gear 360 at $200 is going to be the best
investment because it has the best specs and it's the cheapest so in conclusion
what I usually tell people is this: If you're a photographer and having manual
control over your photos is the most important thing to you then the Theta S
is the camera for you, it's the better photo camera just simply because of this.
Yes the resolution's less but you can get better overall results from your photos
in a wider range of situations. If 360 video is the most important thing to you
then it's just a no-brainer that the Gear 360 is going to be the best 360
camera for you. That 4K 360 video is incredible you can't say no to it. Yes
it's going to be difficult if you have an iPhone, you might have to get a Galaxy
s7 or just wait for the next Gear 360 to come out. It shouldn't be too long and
you know what because the price is so low don't discount the idea of having
two cameras. If you want complete versatility you want to be able to shoot
at night, shoot manually and have really good stitching as well as being
able to shoot amazing 360 4K video then consider both. It's probably $500 total
which isn't that much I think the Nikon keymission is going for $500
so what would you prefer a Nikon keymission which has nothing but
one-star reviews on Amazon or two of the two very best cameras money can buy at
the moment. It's your choice. If you have any questions feel free to leave them in
the box below and I'll try to answer them as best as I can. To be honest
having any 360 camera is better than having no 360 camera so if all you can
afford is a $99 360 camera or a $199 360 camera, get one because it's an amazing
technology and being there from the beginning is going to put you so much
further ahead later on. When it really does become mainstream and we're
shooting like 20k video on our phones in 360 and if you were there from the
beginning you really understand the fundamentals of 360. You're going to be
so much better placed than everyone else, creating 360 content that hadn't embraced
it before. So once you pick up one of these cameras you might want to check
out my ebook it's called Life in 360: A Beginner's Guide to Tiny Planet
photography and will really help you unleash the power of these two bad boys
using a style called tiny planet photography. Everyone's going nuts over
it on Instagram, it's one of the coolest things I've ever seen
so I thought I'd write a book about it. I'll put links in the description to
where you can find these two cameras to the cheapest amount possible on Amazon
they're crazy crazy cheap so if you can't afford it
find a way to just sell your dog or your kid or just like work a street corner if
you have to that's what I did and I'm all the better for it
Also don't forget to follow us on Instagram,
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and until next time. Keep living your Life in 360 Theta s gear 360 which is a better camera well I just can't play favorites bye