The included mini tripod is used - as already mentioned - also as a handle. Make use of that protective bag that comes with the Gear 360.Ī gray carry case is supplied. Try to avoid scratches on the glass front of the lens as they’ll be clearly visible in pictures. And the 360-degree underwater panorama that you always wanted to shoot will remain wishful thinking with the Gear 360. It’s no action camera with this IP standard. Regarding water spray and dust, this device is only protected with an IP53 rating, so the camera should be able to at least withstand a rainstorm. It doesn’t really fit as a pocket camera, so transportation is somewhat unwieldy. A foldable mini tripod stand acts as a handle. That’s normal in 360-degree footage, and I feel Samsung’s auto-stitching algorithm does a good job overall.The Gear 360 is a small ball that has a diameter of about 6 cm. None of the current models available are going to blow you away, but with the Gear 360 you at least get bright colours, decent contrast and colour detail (particularly in the HDR still shot mode) to go with your nifty VR-friendly, all-around capture.Ĭheck out the 360-degree sample shots for yourself for an idea of the quality – you’ll be able to spot some evidence of the join, where one image is merged with the other.
That said, videos and photos, whether they’re 360-degree, single-lens or time-lapse, look fine by the current standards of pocket-sized 360-degree cameras.
Like its predecessor, software stitching can also be a weak link, showing the join or leaving a gap between the two lenses (like in the example above). The fish-eye lenses also flare very easily with bright sources of light, which can further detract from the visual quality. So don’t go expecting 4K Blu-ray levels of detail.
While Samsung’s technically correct in calling it 4K, when you actually view the footage you’ll only be seeing a small part of the image, and the quality is such that it looks less sharp than regular 1080p HD. With a single lens in use, you can only record in 1080p at 60fps. The marketing for the Gear 360 2017 shouts loudly about its 4K capabilities, but don’t be misled – this refers to the resolution (at 24fps) when shooting 360-degree footage. It’s a decent performer but, just like every other 360-degree camera we’ve reviewed, the appeal of its video and photos comes more from their novelty than their image quality. The previous Gear 360’s performance was solid all-round, and Samsung hasn’t shaken things up too much in this regard. With its microSD storage, LCD display and on-board physical controls, you’re able to cycle through the shooting modes and trigger the shutter using the camera module itself, with footage and photos being stored on the microSD card – you just won’t be able to preview or review your masterpieces. I should also point out that you don’t need a phone to use the Gear 360. It’s basic stuff, in line with Samsung’s apparent desire to keep things as simple as possible. There are also some basic shooting settings, like the ability to set the ISO sensitivity limit to either 400, 800 or 1600, reduce wind noise for videos or automatically correct tilt in the gallery. The app lets you share your videos and images too, via the usual social and messaging options, but you can only do so if you save them to your phone’s on-board storage.
With all of these modes, you can set the Gear 360 to use both lenses (for a full 360-degree image) or a single one (for an ultra-wide standard shot). The app itself is similar on both iOS and Android, although the latter version features live streaming in addition to the standard set of shooting modes: still, video, HDR landscape, looping video and time-lapse video.
With a Galaxy S8, I didn’t even need to manually enter the password – the Gear 360 and phone detected each other via Bluetooth and I was prompted to pair by tapping on the screen. You simply hold down the connect button until a menu appears, cycle through to the “connect to iOS” option and then use the Wi-Fi password to manually hook up your iPhone and the Gear 360.
U nusually, it won’t work on non-Samsung Android devices, which seems odd given the iPhone support.Īfter downloading the Gear 360 companion app, I had my iPhone 6 and the Gear 360 connected via Wi-Fi within a couple of minutes. There’s a full list on Samsung’s site, though I found it works fine on my iPhone 6, which isn’t listed as supported. The 2017 version of the Gear 360 is only compatible with some Samsung Android phones (running Android 5.0 or above) and the most recent iPhones.