Zlogspot - PocariSweet 77

The Insta360 Pro is an amazing camera, and the marketing materials can't even capture all of its remarkable features (partly because Insta360 keeps adding new features!).  Here are 17 undocumented features of the Insta360 Pro.  Since there are so many of them, I tried to group them into Photo, Video and live streaming, and both Photo and Video. PHOTO 1. 60 second shutter speed .  It has full manual exposure and you can specify a shutter speed as slow as 60 seconds -- slow enough to capture night sky photos. 2.   Unlimited intervalometer .  The Insta360 Pro has an intervalometer (i.e., it will take a photo after every time interval), and the time interval is anywhere from 2 seconds to a practically unlimited time interval (I put in a crazy number like 200,000 seconds and it accepted that value).  Note: The intervalometer is in the video mode as "time lapse". 3.   The intervalometer / time lapse can be for 3D not just 2D . 4.   Stitched 360 Photos i...

Ricoh has announced a huge discount on the Ricoh Theta SC, which is now only $199 !  I don't know yet if this is a permanent price adjustment or just a discount for the summer. The Theta SC has the same sensor as the Theta S, the most popular 360 camera and almost all of its features, including the best stitching in the industry. But at $199, it is almost half of the cost of the Theta S.  This makes the Theta SC quite possibly the best value for 360 photography. Here is a review of the Theta S - almost all of which applies to the Theta SC as well, except that the Theta SC has no HDMI port, no live streaming, and has a 5-minute limit on videos.  The Theta SC has interval shooting (an intervalometer) but I believe it doesn't have interval composite, so if you want to do star trails, for example, you'll need to blend the exposures yourself using tools such as Photoshop or Lightroom. Thank to you to MS and Tony Anastasi for bringing this to my attention!

Z Cam is the latest company to join Google's recently announced VR180 program .  Z Cam also showed their VR180 camera called 3D180. Z Cam Founder and Chairman Jason Zhang had this to say: "Z CAM is very well positioned in the VR180 camera market. Our solution's precise synchronization coupled with excellent calibration of the footage delivers amazing immersive experience to viewers. I am very excited that the VR180 era has finally come and we are very committed to entering this market." Z Cam CEO Kinson Loo added, "We are glad to be part of the program and expand our cooperation with Google. VR180 will open up a lot of interesting content opportunities and Z CAM's excellent image quality and ease of use will accelerate market growth. Seeing is believing!" No other details were available such as price or specifications.

Here is another low cost selfie stick that is slim enough to be invisible to 360 cameras, straight out of the box with no modification required. I've been recommending the Benro MK10 as a selfie stick because if you remove the ballhead, then it becomes invisible to 360 cameras.  The problem is that removing the ballhead takes a lot of effort because the ballhead is glued with loctite or something. Like the Benro MK10, I found  this cheap selfie stick called Monopod  that is slim enough to be invisible to a 360 camera, but you don't need to modify it. I tested it with the Xiaomi Mijia Mi Sphere ( reviewed here ), which is itself a very slim 360 camera, so anything but the slimmest selfie stick will show up in the shot.  Here is how the nadir looks with the Monopod selfie stick: Note that there are selfie sticks that look similar but which are slightly thicker and will not be invisible to slim cameras such as the Xiaomi Mijia Mi Sphere.  In the shot below, the ...

I just received my Insta360 Pro last night!  Here is an unboxing and my first impressions, or otherwise entitled, "How I spent my tax refund!" lol When Insta360 said they were going to create a professional camera to rival the $5,000 GoPro Omni rig, I honestly wasn't sure if it was just an exaggeration for marketing.  Sure, the Insta360 Nano and Insta360 Air were excellent cameras, but they were designed for consumers.  Could a young company such as Insta360 really build a camera that could approach the quality of the 8K GoPro Omni?  Those doubts were quashed when Insta360 Pro launched at CES, with specs that could make any 360 shooter drool: - 8K 360 video - 6K 3D 360 video - 4K live streaming in 2D (30fps) or 3D (24fps). - 4K in-camera stitching, also in 2D (30fps) or 3D (24fps) - High-speed 4K in 120 fps (for super slow motion) - 3D photos can be up to 8K (7680 x 7680), whether stitched on a desktop or in-camera It would be able to do all...

You can take 65-megapixel 360 photos in RAW format with no parallax stitching error with the Pano5+1 Mark II, a panoramic head for GoPro Hero 5 (with an included adapter for Hero 3 and 4). The Pano5+1 Mark II is the new version of the original Pano5+1 .  The new version has several improvements including: - compatibility with GoPro Hero 3, 4, or 5 (natively compatible with Hero 5, and an included adapter for Hero 3 and 4) - fully spherical (the original version required manually holding the camera for a downshot). - transparent body casts less of a shadow - the Pano5+1 doubles as a case for the Hero 5. - includes a carrying case. By using a Hero5, it is possible to take photos in RAW for maximum image quality and then stitch the edited images together.  Please note the kit does not include stitching software.  I believe you should be able to use PanoramaStudio 3 . Here is the video Here is a sample 360 photo .  The photo is of a car interior, which is usually a diffi...

Here is a quick informal photo and video comparison between two of the best 360 cameras at the moment: the Garmin Virb 360 ($799 ; first impressions here ) and the Xiaomi Mi Sphere ($250 to $300; reviewed here ). When I reviewed the Xiaomi Mi Sphere, I found it to have the best photo and video quality among consumer 360 cameras around $350 or less.  Meanwhile, the Garmin has launched the Virb 360 with 5.7K video* (4K in-camera stitched), which is the most feature-rich 360 camera I am aware of, bar none. Both cameras feature image stabilization, which puts them heads-and-shoulders above the competition, IMHO.  No doubt the Xiaomi is a great choice, but is it worth spending the extra to get the Virb 360?  To help you answer that, I took a quick sample of photos and videos from these two cameras for comparison.  (Note: the Virb is using firmware 2.70, while the Xiaomi is using firmware 12494). Here are the videos.  The first is a montage that alternates between th...

VRDL360 is a crowdfunded camera with 7K photo and 3K video resolution that looks like it's about to be fully funded.  It's still being offered at the shockingly low price of $99 .   Meanwhile here are full resolution sample photos. The photos were shared by the campaign organizers then I uploaded them to Roundme so we can see them in 360.  According to the organizers, the photos are completely unedited. The resolution of the files are 5656 x 2828, lower than the 7K resolution they claimed.  I am guessing that the final photos will have higher resolution if they will stick to their claim of 7K.  In any case, the exposure and sharpness look excellent, and I couldn't find any chromatic aberration.  The colors look good in some of the photos, while in others the white balance seems to have a little too much magenta.  The stitching looks flawless in several of the photos.  The dynamic range looks very good although few of the photos pushed the camera b...

Some news on the Ricoh Theta: the Theta apps for iOS have been updated to add support for 4K timelapse videos.  Ricoh also posted some spectacular 360 photos from Everest. Ricoh updated the Theta+ and Theta+ Video apps for iOS to allow 4K time lapses on iPhone 6S and above.  No word on an Android update. There was some speculation on whether this could be a sign of the impending release of the 4K Theta.  I personally don't think so...  but I could be wrong. Meanwhile, Ricoh shared these 360 photos from Everest by a Ricoh employee Olivier Vriesendorp . Here is one of them: Post from RICOH THETA. #theta360 - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

Here is an update on the Garmin Virb 360's availability and a sample photo. The Garmin Virb 360 is backordered in a few places.  Here is an update on its availability: - Amazon : I ordered mine on May 24, and now I'm getting a ship date of July 7... sigh.  Amazon is usually pretty good with preorders but seems like someone dropped the ball on this one. - Preorders from Amazon UK appear to be having their orders shipped tomorrow but no one has received theirs yet. - B&H Photo : as of today, it seems they're back in stock on June 20. - Best Buy : since Amazon's late and B&H was backordered last week, I grudgingly ordered from Best Buy, supposedly for pick up on June 14.  They charged my card immediately but until now have not shown that my order is being prepared.  Yup.   Update : I just got an email saying my order's been delayed to June 19.... >:-( They did the same thing to my Oculus Touch preorder, which was also delayed.  They even had stock o...

Here are some sample user videos from the Garmin Virb 360, and a sample photo. Sample video by Becky Lane : Sample video by Geoffrey Morrison . Sample video by  Focus Pulling : Sample photo by Focus Pulling : What do you think of these samples?  I am supposed to receive my Virb 360 order this week.  Hopefully it arrives on time.  In the meantime, if you are interested in the Virb 360, you can check out the Facebook group for the Virb 360 here .

This is Part 2 of this series in which we look at the best 360 cameras for beginners, this time focusing on the best beginner 360 camera for photographers . In Part 1 of this series , I discussed how 360 photos and videos are created, and I explained that my primary criteria for beginner 360 cameras is ease of use, to enable a beginning 360 photographer to learn the craft and avoid frustration. Part 1 was about the easiest 360 cameras to use (not just for taking the photo, but also for viewing and sharing them).  In this Part, the primary audience is photographers who are new to 360 cameras. The primary considerations for this group are the image quality and exposure controls .  I won't limit the choices to the absolute easiest 360 cameras, but the cameras here will still be easy to use. For 360 photography    If you're a photographer trying a 360 camera for the first time, you may be surprised that most of them don't offer exposure controls (beyond exposure compe...

You can now stitch Samsung Gear 360 photos online for free with NadirPatch.com , a web-based service that offers several tools for editing 360 photos. NadirPatch is a free web-based service for editing 360 photos , with tools for adding a watermark, patching out the tripod, or converting a spherical photo into cubes.  They've added a new tool for patching Gear 360 photos.  You simply upload the photo in double circular fisheye format and it will stitch it as a standard equirectangular projection. The 2016 Gear 360 was a very good camera that took great photos and videos but was hampered by poor compatibility (it would only work with high-end Samsung phones, S6 or above, and the desktop software was only for Windows).  NadirPatch's online tool would be useful for those who don't have a compatible phone or desktop, and comes at a time when the 2016 Gear 360 with 30mp photos can be purchased for less than $150 at the time of this writing.

The International Virtual Reality Photography Association (IVRPA) is conducting its 12th annual conference from June 3 to June 6 in scenic Vienna, Austria.  There are several interesting presentations at the conference.  Here is a video of one of the presentations. Update: added a playlist of other videos. This presentation is by Jorg Dietrich of Panoramastreetline.com (jump to 29:58): Here is a playlist of other videos: In addition to workshops and panels, there will also be exhibitors, including Ricoh, which will showcase the Ricoh Theta 4K . You can check out IVRPA's YouTube channel here and its official website here . Thank you very much to my good friends Jim Jensen ( Google+ Photo Sphere Community ) and Ben Claremont (Life in 360) for bringing this to my attention!

The Xiaomi Mi Sphere keeps getting better!  It now has a self-timer that you can use without the app!  Here's how to use it, plus a video demo. A self-timer is a very important feature for 360 photos because it allows you to move away from the camera after taking the shutter so that your fingers or hands don't appear oversized in the 360 photo.  Until now, the Xiaomi Mijia Mi Sphere 3.5K 360 panoramic camera required using the app to use the self-timer feature.  But now there's a self-timer feature that you can use on the camera, without using the app! Here is how to use it: 1.  Turn on the camera and connect it to the app. 2.  On the app, set the self-timer to 10 seconds.  The camera will remember this setting even if it is turned off, or if the app is disconnected. 3.  To use the self-timer, hold down the shutter button until you hear a beep. 4.  When you hear the beep, the camera LED icon will start flashing to let you know it's counting d...

Here's a new 360 photo from the highly anticipated Kodak PIXPRO Orbit360 from Kevin Cruz, and it looks pretty impressive! The Kodak PIXPRO Orbit360 is a new 360 camera with a unique asymmetric lens design, allowing it to function as three different cameras: an ultrawide, a hemispherical camera, or a fully spherical camera.  One of its lenses is the same as that of the Kodak PIXPRO SP360 4K, which I found to have the best overall video quality in last year's 4K video comparison .  At the same time, having both lenses in the same camera makes it much easier to shoot and process photos and videos.  This combination of convenience and image quality is why the Orbit360 is one of the most highly anticipated 360 cameras in 2017. A few weeks ago, Kodak Orbit360 beta tester Kevin Cruz shared sample videos .  Now he has posted a 360 photo from the Orbit360: The 360 photo looks quite impressive in its detail and dynamic range, especially on the smaller front lens (the one facin...

A photographer claims that he dove with his 2017 Samsung Gear 360 12 meters underwater without any kind of underwater case and was able to take photos.... The shooter uses the pseudonym  Aris Tocrate .  According to him, not only did the camera survive, but the photos look excellent, with seamless stitching notwithstanding the refraction of the water. Here's a crop showing the seamless stitching, notwithstanding the water's refraction. He posted two samples.  Here's a screenshot from his other post on the Samsung Gear 360 2017 group. I discussed it with one of my friends and my friend found another post by the same user, showing the exact same photo, but he posted it to the Nikon Keymission 360 Facebook group, also claiming he took the shot without a case: It therefore appears that this is just a prank (1 month and 22 days late I would say).  The truth is that the 2017 Samsung Gear 360 (available here) is water-resistant but NOT waterproof.  If you want to us...

Panono announced yesterday that they've filed for bankruptcy.  What will happen now? Panono is the highest resolution all-in-one 360 camera, with 36 lenses and 108 megapixels (in fact, the equirectangular stitched photo is 134 megapixels).   I recently showed its spectacular image quality . Despite being an excellent product, Panono is quite costly.  It used to be $1,500 which was already expensive, then they raised the price to $2,000.   With such a high price, there could only be so much demand for it. Yesterday, Panono announced that they were filing for bankruptcy  (I saw the announcement only this morning). NOW WHAT? Bankruptcy doesn't necessarily mean that Panono will close shop.  I'm not a bankruptcy lawyer, so take this with a grain of salt: in bankruptcy, a company declares that it cannot pay its debts as they come due.  The court appoints an administrator to control the company for the best interests of the creditors.  In Germany, as in ...

NCTech's iSTAR is a 50-megapixel 360 camera designed for rapid 360 HDRs. Remember Google's announcement of 20 StreetView-compatible cameras?  This is one of them. NCTech's iSTAR is designed for rapid capture of 360-degree HDR photos.  Here are the key specifications: - four 10-megapixel lenses - effective resolution: 50 megapixels - field of view: 360 x 300 degrees - integrated compass, tilt sensor, and GPS - up to 27EV dynamic range - raw format (.nctri) - IP64 weather resistance - wireless live view and capture over Wi-Fi Here is a sample comparison between a normal exposure and the iSTAR's HDR exposure: top: HDR; bottom: normal exposure You can see more sample shots here . Shooting takes 5 seconds for one exposure, 10 seconds for a 5-shot HDR exposure, or 20 seconds for a 9-shot HDR exposure. The iSTAR costs £4,000 for the Fusion Lite which can take a 5-shot HDR exposure, and £5,500 for the Fusion which can take a 9-shot HDR exposure.   Here is the official page for ...

Google announced that there will be 20 new cameras in 2017 that will be certified for compatibility with Google Street View. Google announced a new Street View certification program, and also announced that there would be 20 cameras "released over the coming months" in 2017 that would be certified under the program. There are four different types of Street View certifications: 1. Mobile ready - can upload to Street View directly from their mobile app without needing a desktop. 2. Auto ready - can be used to take Street View photos from a car "with the highest accuracy." 3. VR ready - these cameras take not only photos but also "geometry" and can generate connected photos. 4. Workflow ready - tools (with or without cameras) that can publish to Street View. Among the interesting companies mentioned are: - Giroptic : mobile ready.  This is interesting because the iO does not meet the minimum resolution for GSV.  I don't know if this means the Giroptic 360...