Carrying the Gear 360 around with me, I’ve been struck by just how rare it is that I want to take a spontaneous circular photo. In short, they’re all big numbers for a regular consumer to consider spending on a 360-degree camera, especially as the uses for such a system are still fairly tenuous. Panono’s camera is cheaper, at $1.5k, but only shoots stills not video. Figure on spending $30k for Facebook’s rig, and double that if you want Nokia’s OZO.
Honestly, though, there’s a limit to what you can expect from a two-lens camera: not for nothing do the 360-degree systems from Nokia, Facebook, GoPro, and others come entirely bristling with six or more sensors.
Mangled faces worthy of Joseph Merck are an occupational hazard in crowd scenes in contrast, landscapes can be blurred together with far more finesse. There are noticeable lines where the edges of the two wide-angle lenses overlap: just how noticeable depends on what’s in the frame. Samsung’s stitching can prove underwhelming, and the Ricoh Theta S generally does a more seamless job at merging the two frames obviously neither can truly compete with some of the more expensive 360-degree cameras out there. Obviously that’s a more niche application than Samsung VR or Facebook, but it does have an unexpected side-effect: you can use the Street View app for iPhone to remotely trigger the camera and have stills – though not videos – saved to the iOS camera roll.
Your last option is Google Street View, the app for which connects directly to the Gear 360 and allows you to share 360-degree stills of different locations. In Safari, though, you have a single equirectangular view that’s not interactive. View in Chrome, for instance, and you get a regular video you can drag around to see from every angle. As is also the case with Facebook, though, exactly what people will see will depend on which browser they’re using. If YouTube is your platform of choice, you can share directly from the Gear 360 Manager app or after editing in ActionDirector. Unfortunately, uploading to Facebook involves a noticeable loss of quality along the way. If your friends are viewing on a mobile device they can physically move it to pan around the frame if they’re on a desktop, they can use their mouse instead. You’ll probably get more traction on Facebook, mind, which can now handle both stills and video embedded in the timeline.
#SAMSUNG GEAR 360 APP FOR WINDOWS PROFESSIONAL#
Originally launched as the oddly named Milk VR, and subsequently retitled Samsung VR, the company’s own virtual reality library supports both professional content – including movies and apps – and user-generated content uploaded from the Gear 360. If you want a copy from the camera, you need to save it manually (you can select multiple thumbnails and save them all in one fell swoop, mind) otherwise, every time you view something stored on the camera’s memory card, you’ll need to wait for the processing to take place every time.ĭoubly-frustrating is the fact that there’s no apparent way to store 360 photos or video on a memory card, which means you’re limited to the generally 32GB of in-phone storage on the Galaxy S7. What’s somewhat counter-intuitive is that processed media isn’t automatically stored to your phone. As with the camera preview, you can choose between a 360 view – moving with a finger-drag or, optionally, as you physically move the phone – a panorama, or a split-screen with each of the two stills or videos. That happens on a per-view basis when you tap each item in the “Gear 360” tab in the app, the processing time depending on factors like length and resolution. Once you’ve captured a photo or video, it needs to be stitched before you can see it properly. Samsung’s dinky little tripod is good for impromptu shots, and the legs snap together to make a useful handle, but the best results often come when the camera is fairly high up off the ground which means locating either a regular tripod or something tall enough to stand the Gear 360 on top of. It’s not so much about positioning – after all, everything around the Gear 360 is going to be in the snap – as it is height. If you’re in time-lapse mode you can adjust the interval between shots in the app too the Gear 360 remembers your most recent setting, even if it’s powered off or disconnected from your phone.īest of all, there’s minimal delay after recording before you can take another photo or start recording video again.įraming with a 360-degree camera is a different experience than most of us are used to.
#SAMSUNG GEAR 360 APP FOR WINDOWS MANUAL#
Manual settings include white balance, ISO from 400 to 1600, exposure from +/- 3.0 in 1/10th of a stop increments, and resolution, as well as the ability to toggle HDR and sharpness on/off.
0 kommentar(er)
