What's up Life in 360 fam? This is Ben here and today I thought I'd compare
two of my favorite and two of the most popular 360 cameras of 2018 to figure
out which one is right for you look there's no question these are two
amazing cameras and if you haven't seen my individual reviews of both of these
cameras do check them out I also made a 7 camera comparison that features
both of these cameras and spoiler alert they came first and second respectively
Fusion came first Mi Sphere came second however they are very different price
brackets so I want to use this video as an opportunity to compare the two and
figure out whether it really is worth paying a lot more for the Fusion or
whether you should save yourself $500 and stick with the Mi Sphere throughout
this video I'm going to show you guys a whole bunch of side-by-side comparisons
of both cameras however this video is not about the look I'll let you come to
your own conclusions and I've already given a million-and-one thoughts about
that so I want to discuss some finer points that may be the make-or-break decisions
of your next 360 camera purchase I'll start with video resolution and the
First question you need to ask yourself is do I need 5.2 K or is 4k okay most
360 videos are viewed at 4k or less so you need to think about where you'll be
posting your videos because if it's only social media this isn't going to be a
massive difference looking at this window here the Fusion was shot at 5.2 K
Mi Sphere will show at 4K and they're looking really similar so if you're
shooting just for social media this difference is not big enough to pay so
much more for photos again they're looking identical these are 2 of the
best 360 cameras for photo and while the Fusion has the better look straight out
of the camera after color correction they become really similar in high
contrast shooting situations however the Fusion does win has better dynamic range
so you need to ask yourself where do I shoot the most is it outside is it
inside or is it in mixed lighting if you're someone that's a little from
column A, little from column B, little from column C, then the Fusion will
probably have your back a little more than the Mi Sphere but not that much
more the Mi Sphere has bracketing HDR now so if you're someone that's
comfortable with that computer workflow of dealing with HDR photos then the Mi Sphere
actually has that advantage over the Fusion the Fusion
shoots RAW but like I mentioned in my review you can't stitch it in free
software just yet you need paid software like Mistika VR if you want to take
advantage of those RAW files the Mi Sphere however also has raw and you can
do it for free there's now stitching software you can use to stitch the two
circular fish eyes together and end up with a nice-looking DNG file that you
can then color correct for the color correction stage of the workflow no
question the Mi Sphere is going to be easier purely because you can download
the equirectangular files to your phone whereas you just can't do that within
the GoPro App while the result may be better from the Fusion there's a lot
more steps in the workflow to get your files color corrected and if you're
someone that values a speedy workflow of shooting downloading color correcting
and then uploading to social media then the Fusion is going to be too many steps
for you yes you'll get better dynamic range especially in the highlights
however you'll need to go to your computer to color correct your work this
brings me to workflow and I think you can well imagine what I'm going to say
here the Mi Sphere wins by a country mile purely because the video resolution
is smaller therefore it processes a lot quicker and it's something that's
actually workable on both mobile and computer in say under an hour whereas
with Fusion it takes hours minimum to process your footage and you can only do
that on computer you will need a super fast computer to deal with Fusion files
I had to upgrade my iMac to 64 gigabytes of RAM an 8 gig graphics card and now to
be honest it actually processes my Fusion footage a lightning-fast way
faster than that and faster than most other people are experiencing I urge you
not to buy the Fusion if you have a slow computer with less than 16 gigabytes of
RAM because you'll probably put a fist through your monitor at some point and
you'll most definitely send the Fusion back saying it doesn't work whereas
really the problem was the computer was too slow so this is something you need
to consider it doesn't matter which camera you use but the higher res you go
the faster a computer you'll need this isn't a problem with the Fusion this is
a problem with high resolution in general you need to be realistic you're
not going to be able to process 5.2K with only 4 gigabytes of RAM
and a 1GB graphics card that's not going to happen in any universe the
Mi Sphere however can be used with most smartphones and most computers
8 gigabytes of RAM is fine even 4 just do it so if you admit that your
computer isn't really that fast then the Mi Sphere will be a much more workable
solution I know it sounds like I'm bagging on the Fusion but it's actually
an awesome camera you just need patience for a longer workflow and if you can get
through that you'll end up with an excellent photo result and a vastly
superior video result before I said resolution doesn't matter because most
people watch it HD or 4K anyway however where it does matter is with reframing
with the GoPro Fusion the reframed footage looks legitimately like high
definition HD 1080p when you reframe in any given direction with the Mi Sphere
however it looks more like 720p so if you're someone that reframes a lot the
Fusion will give you much better resolution and it'll look a lot more
like the quality people are used to there's no question the Fusion has the
best look when reframed of all the 360 cameras purely because of that
resolution in that amazing dynamic range the Mi Sphere reframes just fine however
you do need to keep the field of view pretty wide to avoid it looking soft and
blurry for tiny planet photos and videos it does an excellent job however key
framing between close-up viewpoints you'll need to be careful so in
conclusion I'd say the Mi Sphere will have your back in the vast majority of
situations especially if your target is social media where you want to consider
the Fusion is if you're doing professional work where you're earning
money or you're displaying your work reframed or on bigger screens where
resolution does matter so say if you were a wedding videographer and you
offered your clients a 360 video that was shot with the Fusion and you
reframed it or you kept it as a 360 video I think you could totally justify
a decent price point for it so if you're someone that offers video production
services and you want to branch out into 360 I think no question the Fusion is
the way to go if budgets an issue for you however the Mi Sphere will still do
a really good job you might want to consider buying the Mi Sphere now and
waiting six months use the me sphere and see what else comes out maybe there'll
be a Fusion 2 you'll be some other amazing camera that
comes out there might be affordable to you at a later date but if you just want
something to start with now there's going to be really good at both photo
and video and is affordable then the Mi Sphere is a great way to go no question
is the best bang for your buck of all the 360 cameras in my GoPro Fusion
review I said that the Fusion is twice as good of a camera as the Mi Sphere at
3.5 times the price and after considering all these other things I'd
say that's about accurate if you're someone that values having twice as good
of a 360 video camera then it's totally worth it if you're shooting projects
that go beyond your own personal social media I'll put links in the description
to where you can find both of these cameras for the best price possible no
matter which one you choose you'll have made a good decision because these are
two of the best cameras of 2018 you can't go wrong it's just a matter of how
professional you want your content to look so yeah don't forget to hit that
subscribe button down below for more awesome 360 video side by side
comparison to reviews and all that good stuff don't forget to follow me on
Instagram and Facebook as well check out the life in 360 Facebook page also leave
a comment down below what are your thoughts on the Mi Sphere vs Fusion
debate I'd be curious to know which of these two will you be going with and why
until next time be sure to capture your one 360 this has been Ben and I'll see you
In the next video