I know this sounds crazy but the GoPro Fusion is almost as good as the
insta 360 Pro an 8k [professional] 360 camera and my comparison tool proves it. GoPros are
amazing because they bring us so close to the action that you can almost feel
it. This video is about the ultimate GoPro -- the GoPro Fusion. It's a 360 camera
but if there's one thing you should remember from this video, it's that the
Fusion is not just for 360 photos or videos. Hi my name is Mic and I have forty-one
360 cameras so far, and I've written over 1,800 articles about 360 cameras on
360Rumors.com. I've been using the Fusion since November of 2017 and
here's my long-term review after the big update in January of 2018 which solved
many issues. In part one of this video, I'll show you 10 examples of how Fusion
transforms your GoPro videos. In part 2 we'll talk about how to use the Fusion
plus 7 shooting techniques. In part 3 I'll talk about its advantages and
disadvantages compared to other 360 cameras. Now here are ten examples of how
Fusion will transform your GoPro videos. 1. Stabilization. Hero 6 made a
huge improvement to stabilization but Fusion takes stabilization to a whole
new level.
2. Selfies. GoPros are great for selfies. Fusion lets you take selfies without the
selfie stick in the shot. 3. Vlogs. With the Fusion, you can shoot your vlogs just
like a GoPro, while also capturing the b-roll at the same time.
4. Wheel shots. Whether it's a skateboard, bike, or a car, wheel shots look
very cool. With the fusion you can add panning and show the view in any
direction, all in one take. And when you use stabilization on the Hero6, you can't
pan smoothly. On the Fusion, you can pan as smoothly as you want, or even when stabilization is on.
5. Gear shots. On the GoPro, you can get a video of your fishing rod, rifle, bow,
or DSLR. Now you can get a 360 view that shows the view both in front and behind
your gear, and it can stay level no matter which direction you point.
6. POV shots. GoPro is the best tool for POV shots. Now with the Fusion, you can
get a POV and selfie in the same shot, hands-free. Show your viewers your
reaction!
You can also get a 360 POV with both front and back views, by using a
shoulder mount or helmet mount. 7. Angelview: With a selfie stick you can get an
invisible flying camera view that looks like it was shot by an invisible drone
that can follow you around. 8. Timeshift: Fusion lets you do impossible
shots such as time shift. You can freeze a moment in time, pan the camera, and
resume the action. 9. Multi-axis slider shots: I'm sure you've seen those cool
ads for Edelkrone sliders -- the ones that cost thousands of dollars. Now you
too can achieve this effect. Just put the Fusion on a dolly and frame the
subject with over capture no matter which way they move. This technique also
works great for sliders, drones and cable cams. 10. Multiple subjects. Track
multiple subjects at the same time. With a single video, you can make multiple
versions focus on different subjects. These are just a few examples of why
Fusion is the Ultimate GoPro, and I haven't even talked about 360 photos
or 360 videos yet. There are other practical benefits for the Fusion.
Unlike a regular GoPro, you'll never have to worry if your camera is level. You can
level the photo or video without cropping. Also you'll never have to aim with the Fusion.
Fusion captures everything so you can just hold the selfie stick,
forget the video, and enjoy the moment. These are just a few advantages of the Fusion.
To see other advantages, check out my Insta360 Nano S review. Most of
the advantages I talked about in that video also apply to the Fusion. Now let's
learn how to shoot with the Fusion. You control the Fusion just like a Hero5
or Hero6. There are only two buttons: a power or mode button and the
shutter. You can use the same voice commands (e.g. "GoPro take a photo") and you can
use quick capture. You can also control the Fusion with a Smart Remote or the
Remo voice-activated remote. There is no touchscreen because as you'll see later
you don't really need one but you can connect to your phone to get a live
preview or change settings. When you're done shooting it's time to share your
photos or videos. For simple sharing, you can do it on your phone. You can share
360 photos to Facebook or trim and share 360 videos to Facebook or YouTube. You
can also do simple non-360 Overcapture style videos to control the perspective.
For more detailed effects like the ones I showed in part 1, you'll need to edit
on a desktop. Just download the files from both microSD cards into the same
directory on your PC or Mac. Fusion Studio automatically matches the front
and back view and shows you previews. Straighten them if you need to and
choose between full stabilization or anti shake. You can adjust the
colors and/or change the title as well. Then hit render, which will export the
video. Here's a tip: if you're not going to edit it in Premiere, just export it in
4k. It's almost the same quality and will be compatible with consumer video
editors. After rendering, you can show it as a 360 photo or video. Or you can use
third-party software to convert the 360 into an Overcapture video. For Adobe
Premiere, use the GoPro VR Reframe effect. For over capture, you can also use
Insta360 studio or popular video editors such as PowerDirector 16 Ultra or MAGIX Movie
Edit Pro Plus 2018 to create overcapture videos. Now here are seven basic
shooting techniques. 1. Don't put anything in the stitch line. Imagine the
Fusion is a giant fan. If the fan is going to hit you or someone else, they're in
the stitch line. 2. You don't have to point it like a camera.
Instead, use it like a microphone. Hold it at any angle. 3. To make the selfie stick
invisible, keep the fusion in line with the selfie stick. 4. Move the fusion
slowly and predictably or use a tripod because some viewers will want to view your
video on a VR headset. 5. The best height is usually around chin level
and for people, the best distance is around speaking distance.
6. If possible, aim the stitch line at the Sun or other main light source. 7. Use
Fusion Studio to level the horizon. When vertical objects on all sides are
vertical, then you'll know that the horizon is level.
So yeah Fusion is really amazing and I think it deserves all the hype it's been
getting. But it does have some disadvantages. For me the biggest issue
is that it's not rugged so it doesn't have replaceable lenses and it doesn't
have an external housing. And another issue is for people who haven't used a
360 camera before, you do have to spend the time to stitch photos and videos and
if you have a an older PC or a Mac, this can take a while. And then there's the
cost. At $699, it's one of the more expensive consumer 360 cameras. Now if
you ask me I think it's a great value for that price but not everyone has that
budget for a camera whether it's 360 or otherwise. We'll talk
about the other options later but for now let's talk about the Fusion's
advantages and disadvantages for photo or video and for usability. For photo,
it's excellent. It's great. It has great dynamic range and the sharpness is very
consistent throughout most of the frame. It's also very detailed -- much more
detailed than I expected for a camera of this resolution. Some issues for photo:
first of all for shadow areas they can look a little bit flat if you're using
higher ISO so I would use protune to limit the ISOs if possible to 400 or
less. Fusion does have Raw mode and the files are so much richer but there are
three issues. First I found that the dynamic range is no greater than the
JPEG. Second the DNG converters I tried flip the image horizontally. Third, to
stitch the raw files you'll need a third-party program such as PTGui or
Mystica. It also has some manual controls you can use long exposures, let's say
15 or 30 seconds but if you want to control the exposure manually for
shorter shutter speeds, you can't do that. So based on that I rated the photo at
8.5. This means it's significantly better than the average 360 camera of February
2018. Now let's talk about videos.
For videos, it's amazing. It's got great
detail and it's sharp almost everywhere. The stitching is pretty good except at
very close distances. And the best part is the dynamic range -- it's really amazing.
To appreciate how good the Fusion is, let's compare to the Insta360 Pro, an
8k professional 360 camera. On the left side, we have the GoPro Fusion. On the
right side, the Insta360 Pro at 8k. When I looked at them side-by-side at a
normal viewing size, I found that the detail was surprisingly similar. Even
when I zoomed in and compared a magnified view, the detail was still
pretty similar. Yes the Insta360 Pro is more detailed but not by as
much as I initially thought. Now let's compare the dynamic range. Based on the
tone of the grass, the exposure seems to be about the same. Now let's look at the
highlights. Surprisingly, the Fusion has better highlight detail. You can see the
Insta360 Pro has a blown-out highlight in the patio but the Fusion was able to
retain the highlight detail there. With shadows, the Insta360 Pro has
noticeably better detail whereas the Fusion's grass looks like mush. So I would
say the dynamic range between them is similar but that's remarkable
considering that we're comparing a $700 camera to a $3500 professional camera.
This shows just how good the video quality of the fusion is. You don't have
to take my word for it. You can go to 360Rumors.com, go to my comparison tool
and compare the Fusion with the Insta3360 Pro side-by-side so you can see for
yourself. So for video, I rated the Fusion 9.0 --
it's far better than the average 360 camera of February 2018.
Now let's talk about usability -- its workflow and its features. On the plus
side the features I like best are quick capture for example (I use that a
lot). I also like the workflow. It's simple and I like that you can choose
between full stabilization and anti-shake mode. I like to mix up
the two kinds of footage to make the video more interesting. I also like the
Smart Remote accessory. I think it's really useful. Fusion is also waterproof
but I noticed that the sharpness drops a lot when it's underwater and plus the
stitching isn't that great because it doesn't account for refraction. On the
downside, there's no self timer and in terms of the workflow I think it's
annoying that previews aren't saved so every time you open Fusion Studio, the
previews have to be rerendered which takes time. Speaking of previews, you can't
save your edits so when you close the app your edits are gone. The biggest issue
for usability is that it doesn't have a hard case. This forces you to be really
careful and sometimes you miss shots. So based on all that I rated the usability
at 7.9, which is very slightly below average. So the big
question is, "Is it worth it?" GoPro took a really long time to make their
own 360 camera but I think they really did a good job and out of all the 360
cameras that I have, if I had to choose only one for consumers, it would be the
Fusion and that's because it performs the best or close to the best in the
widest variety of situations. So if you can afford $699, this is what I
would recommend. Now the two biggest issues for most people will probably be
the cost and the fact that it doesn't have a housing. So if either of those are
an issue for you then there are certain other 360 cameras to consider. First
let's talk about photo. If your priority is photo, the one that I like best for
consumers is still the Xiaomi Mi Sphere. This is a camera
professional virtual tour photographers have been using and they've been really
happy with it and for good reason. It's got great photo quality -- better than
the Fusion. Another close second for photo would be the the Insta360 One and although
it's a little bit less sharp than the Xiaomi for photos, it's ace is DNG [raw]. It can
shoot in Adobe DNG RAW and *stitch* in DNG RAW so that's what makes it a good
camera for photo. For videos there are a few options. I grouped them by level of
detail then I looked at dynamic range, stabilization, and other features as
tiebreakers. My first runner-up to the Fusion is the Yi 360 VR. It's got great
optics and it's almost as detailed as the Fusion. It just has two issues. First,
it doesn't have a housing. Second is the workflow. It has no Mac stitcher and it's
very slow to stitch on a PC. The next five cameras are actually pretty similar
to each other although the first three are slightly better than the other two.
Those three are the Insta360 One, Xiaomi Mijia Mi Sphere and the Ricoh
Theta V. Between them the one I like best is Insta360 One because of its features
and by the end of March 2018 there will be an update that will be adding even
more features and will upgrade the stabilization. I also like that it has an
external housing. Next I like the Xiaomi Mijia Mi Sphere. Some of you might be
surprised that it's ahead of the Virb 360 but the 360 camera comparison tool
doesn't lie. Check the result for yourself. Then I like the Ricoh Theta V.
It actually has very slightly better image quality than the Xiaomi Mijia
Mi Sphere and the Insta360 One especially in low light but its stabilization is not
very good and its storage is limited to 19 gigs or about 30 minutes. Finally
there's the Rylo and the Garmin Virb 360. These two have very similar image
quality. I prefer the Rylo because of better image stabilization -- actually, the
best among all 360 cameras. It also has better stitching
and I like that it has an external housing that works both
underwater and outside of water. On the other hand, the Garmin VirB 360 has
better high-frequency detail. It also has replaceable lenses and it's waterproof
even without a case. And it has G-Metrix overlays. Check out how
the Fusion compares to other 360 cameras on 360Rumors.com. Now let's wrap up.
To summarize, we saw that Fusion isn't just for 360 photos and videos. I showed
you 10 ways it will transform your GoPro videos. In part 2, we talked about how to
use Fusion, including 7 basic techniques. In part 3, we talked about
its advantages and disadvantages and how it compares to other 360 cameras.
Fusion is truly revolutionary for action cameras. Just as smartphones completely
changed the way we use phones, the Fusion allows completely new ways of using an
action camera. Whether shooting by itself or as a complement to other cameras, the
Fusion will revolutionize your videos and photos. Now it's your turn. What kinds
of shots will you invent with the Fusion?
Hey guys this is Mic and Ihope you enjoyed this video. It was a lot of work. And you saw
the 360 camera comparison tool and how useful it is, and you know what? That's
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