There is no perfect 360 video camera. There is the right camera for the right job though. Sometimes that’s something simple and GoPro based, sometimes it’s something complicated and high end like a Red or Arri system. There’s a time and a place. Shooting 360 video is very much a game of compromises – making exchanges in quality for stitching or quality for being more dynamic. Here’s some of our favourite cameras and when we like to use them.

3D Cameras

First up, lets look at 3D 360 cameras. Should note here that you’ll only see the difference on headsets – not if you’re watching the content on desktop or mobile. This is why it’s often hard to justify the extra costs of shooting 3D – it gives stunning immersive results though and is the best way to produce 360 content for VR headsets.

The Jump gives 3D 360 video of dynamic scenes but you’ve got to add in the top and bottom cameras manually. The camera is quite large which means it’s not suited to small areas such as car interiors, especially if you want to add a top and bottom camera on seamlessly. Also, with people getting too close to the camera you start to see strange artifacting, where the stitching algorithms can’t work out what goes where.

The jump also has a tendency to put wavy halos around moving objects in the scene, especially if their background is not moving. This is something we found particularly problematic with the footage we got back from the Falklands when shooting penguins in their natural habitat. There’s a workaround but it involved a lot of heavy patching.

The really good thing with the Jump though is how correct it’s 3D looks, it feels very natural, and if you play to it’s strengths you get some great results. It’s not a simple case of uploading to Google and flinging what you get back straight back up… Well, not if you want it to look great anyway!

As the camera only covers around 140 degrees at a go, we have to shoot a number of plates or ‘slices’ to get the full 360 and here is the big issue with this camera system. You can only use it when you can control the scene and when the camera is in a static position. So you need to be very careful of the edges of your frame to make sure nobody or thing moves through and disappears!

For the right scene though, this technique has so many benefits, one of the biggest is being able to have your directors, lighting, DOP, client, whoever, behind the camera – no need for remote viewing.

Check out our project with Google and the FT – Dublin in the Dark to see examples of this setup in action.

On to the positives though, and there are a lot, the quality of the sensors and the lenses is fantastic, I’ve seen footage from it that looks great, even in low light. Very good dynamic range too.

What really blew me away though was the amount of control you have of the camera. You can tweak and manage everything about every individual camera and run previews, iterate settings, test again and really get the perfect looking shot.

It’s also worth noting that the modules are replaceable, so if something happens on a shoot you can easily replace the module and carry on.

I would say though that this is not a camera to be used casually, (and nor could you afford to!) learning the control and getting used will take a significant amount of hands on playing. For the right job though, with the right budget, this could be the best 3D VR Camera.

Mono Cameras

A lot of shoots don’t require 3D, either for budgetary reasons or because of other constraints. For example, shoots inside very small spaces such as car interiors or from drones, where the scenery is so far away that 3D is rendered useless. Also, for more extreme camera views, such as exterior car or helmet mounted uses.

The S1 Pro has only 4 cameras to make up the full 360 degree view, this means only four stitch seams, far better than the days of the GoPro based, 6 camera rigs and the patchwork quilt of video it produced. The camera is controlled remotely from either an iPad or a laptop. This has allowed us to adjust exposure while shooting gigs without having to come near the stage and remotely monitor from a creative perspective.

There really is so much to say about the S1 Pro, so I’m going to stick to the highlights –

1. It has a brilliant shooting mode which allows you to get the full image circle on to the lens. Meaning each video almost completely overlaps the next door camera – giving huge choices and flexibility in post production.
2. It can do live streams really effectively and reliably, out of the box
3. It does not overheat as it is a metal case
4. Good dynamic range
5. Good low light capability
6. Good quality lenses and sensors

You can get the best out of this setup by having the cameras on 2.7k resolution and 30FPS, this gives you a sharp and relatively high resolution output. You can only do this in the right conditions though, sometimes you’re forced to shoot at lower resolutions and higher frame rates. This is where the quality of the setup starts to fall short.

The weight and size of this 360 video camera makes it a great option for head mounts (if you have to!!!) we’d usually prefer to mount on an arm, over the shoulder for POV, but on wing suits you won’t have that luxury!!

The Stanley has great cameras, lenses, practicality of use, however, there is a major drawback. Parallax. The cameras are too big to get them close enough, meaning that stitching is very problematic. You certainly can’t have someone moving between seams anywhere near the camera or they will momentarily disappear. As a result we actually hardly ever find a time to justify it. Favouring instead the single camera version below.

Of course, you need to heavily control the scene to make sure nobody moves in to or out of frame but the results are fantastic, even in the smallest of spaces. We used this technique for the interior of the car on our Tempel project and for the small interior space of a passenger seat view on our Norwegian Airlines project.

Other VR Rigs

This post is meant to highlight our favourite 360 video cameras and those that we use day in day out. It’s by no means an exhaustive list of all the cameras, I wouldn’t even know where to start!

There are a few others not mentioned here that I would really like to get my hands on for a test: