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360 degree photography

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360 degree photography

Postby Bob » Thu Feb 07, 2019 2:34 pm

Thought I would give a progress report about my Insta360 One X adventure. I think it's best to create a new topic thread rather than tag onto Steve's request for 360 video footage. I don't think it needs to be exclusively about me and my camera. I don't mind at all if anyone want's to talk about 360 photography/video in general in this thread.

That said, I'm still very much in the familiarization phase. With the heavy rain we've been having, I haven't been able to get outdoors to try it out. The camera itself is not water resistant and the water resistant accessory case is not available yet (In general, I don't think I need the case). Instead, I've just been doing some test shots to learn how it works -- nothing I'd want to show anyone yet.

First impressions: This thing is fun. Comes out of the box set up for fully automatic operation. Even easier than Point and Shoot -- you don't need to point! Two buttons on the camera control shooting, menu navigation, and settings. You can shoot in manual. The camera is small and light weight and easily fits in my pocket. The lenses project out from the camera, so you do need to careful not the bang or scratch them. The camera comes will a padded case that you can slip the camera into to protect the lenses and the case comes with a lanyard which you can use to wear it around your neck if you so desire.

While the camera can easily be held in the hand, you probably don't want to shoot holding it that way. Your hand will definitely show up and, being so close to the camera, will be huge. You will probably want to use a selfie stick or a tripod. I got the Apple bundle which comes with a 32gb memory card, two batteries, the Insta360 selfie stick, and Bullet time adaptor (which has fold out legs so you can use it as a tripod or used like a hand grip). The camera software automatically removes the selfie stick. The downside is that the selfie stick is not Bluetooth enabled. You need to either set the timer to delay the shutter release or use the phone app to preview the image and control the camera. Insta360 is going to release an accessory Bluetooth remote which can be attached to the selfie stick or hand held. FYI, the Apple bundle is sold exclusively by Apple, but the camera the is same one sold everywhere and is compatible with both IOS and Android phones and comes with compatible cables for both. A camera setting tells the camera whether use the ios or android protocols.

Annoyances: The camera supports Bluetooth, but it's intended to pair with the optional remote. You can't pair it with a Bluetooth selfie stick. Also, unlike the previous model which used a Bluetooth connection to control but not preview, the app uses a direct wifi connection between the camera and phone to preview and control. At home, I've had to disconnect from my wifi in order to connect to the camera's wifi. You can connect the phone and camera with a (included) cable instead. That's also a faster way to transfer the files. One thing to be aware of: When connect the camera directly to a PC to transfer files, you need to use the IOS setting. If you are connecting to an android phone or tablet by cable, you will need switch the setting to match which one you're using at the time.

The camera uses proprietary format for photos and video, but you can opt to save the photos in jpeg or DNG (raw) format. The supplied software can also export the video as standard MP4. If you install the PC editing software, it offers to also install plugins for Premiere Pro CC (current and next to last versions only) that allow the native files to be used directly in Premiere Pro.

FYI, on my Samsung S8, I saved some photos in jpeg format and they appeared in the standard gallery app as equirectangular images. But, I could tap on the image and it would display the image as a fully interactive 360 image and give options for several projections.

More later.
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Re: 360 degree photography

Postby Steve Grisetti » Thu Feb 07, 2019 3:31 pm

Thanks for the review, Bob.

I, too, am waiting on a good sunny day to give mine a good test drive.

The chief challenge with the Samsung 360 Gear is resolution. It shoots in 4K but, at 360 degree, that doesn't go far and the picture isn't nearly as sharp as I'd prefer.

But that's the trade-off I guess when you get the $65 camera instead of the $500 one.
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Re: 360 degree photography

Postby sidd finch » Sat Feb 09, 2019 9:11 am

It really seems like it is a cool camera. I like that it can capture everything around it but I am still trying to understand how it could be really utilized to make videos especially if you wanted to mix footage from a 360 camera and a non 360 camera. Could you have parts that are 360 and parts that are not in the same video?

It would also be kind of tricky to record without having yourself in the shot. But I am really intrigued. At the very least it looks like an upgrade to the computer is the next step.

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Re: 360 degree photography

Postby Bob » Sat Feb 09, 2019 4:38 pm

Resolution is definitely an issue. 4K sounds like a lot until you realize that covers 360 degrees. You can only see about 90 degrees directly in front of where you are looking so you only see about one 1K of that -- about the same as SD. To get full HD equivalency, you really need about 8K. As for 5.7K, that falls roughly between HD and full HD so it's a bit sharper. Now if Topaz Labs follows through with a Gigapixel AI for video, things can get very interesting.

360 degree video is stored as individual frames in equirectangular projection; The frame aspect ratio is 2:1. This is equivalent to a 360 degree spherical projection. If an application supports it, the portion of the spherical projection you are viewing can be selected interactively by the user. This is what is used in VR. You can also use what is called fixed frame or over capture. With this, the full 360 degree image is recorded, but the user can only see the view(s) preselected by the creator of the video. This is similar to conventional video with the difference that the viewpoint can be selected at edit time and you can use key frames to move from one view point to another dynamically. You can even add multiple tracks of the same clip with different view points for, say, a pip of the backwards or side view on top of the forward view. You can get very creative. The final video would be rendered out as a normal 2D video.

Regular footage and 360 video can be mixed together easily in fixed frame. Everything is going to be rendered out into standard video format after all. Interactive VR, not so much -- you could imbed a standard video in a 360 scene (e.g. on a screen in a virtual 360 theater), but you wouldn't be able to create sequences of standard and 360 video and maintain an interactive 360 degree video. You could have sequences of 360 videos though.

it is tricky to avoid having yourself in the same shot. You could put the camera on a tripod or other support and set the camera to record at intervals or delayed shutter. Or, trigger it remotely. You could also use a selfie stick to hold it directly above you at a distance. You would still show up at the nadir point, but some cameras will cover that automatically with a logo or other image. Or, you could edit that out in a still shot using Photoshop. One thing to keep in mind. Because it's so easy to be in the shot, these are often sold as Action Cameras and that audience does not want to hide themselves.

360 photography has a lot of uses but it isn't for every one.
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Re: 360 degree photography

Postby Steve Grisetti » Sat Feb 09, 2019 5:41 pm

Great suggestions, Bob!

So far I've been setting the camera up in the middle of a room and either hiding or joining the other people in the room and letting it run.

I'm not sure how to shoot a scripted scene in 360 because, essentially, the camera (hence the viewer) kind of becomes a character in the scene rather than an observer. It's a whole new way to shoot a movie.
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