I got back a couple days ago from a 10 day trip up through Sequoia, King's Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks, and then back down CA Hwy 1 from Santa Cruz down to Ventura. Beautiful scenery for almost the entirety of the trip.
Prior to the trip I wanted to get an action camera of some sort to document it, and I had been considering picking one up to use as dash cam.
Budget being a significant factor, I looked into a number of different action camera setups, and found the best setup is ultimately to run multiple cameras. I don't have a YouTube channel, and I'm not too concerned with making professional cinematic videos, I just want to be able to review and share my experiences with friends and family. But the idea of multiple camera setups reminded of 360 cameras, of which most appear to pretty capable now a days, except one thing... I couldn't find any, save for one, that were either waterproof/shockproof/dustproof, or had an available casing other than a ziplock bag and rubber bands. BUt the concept seemed easy enough, buy 1 camera that captures in all directions, at all times.
Ultimately I got the Samsung Gear 360 (2016/eyeball looking model) and bought a waterproof and GoPro mount compatible casing for it. I really like this camera, and it does really well when I'm off the bike doing some sightseeing, but I ran into a couple of issues when using it one the bike.
First obvious issue is heat. I live out in the desert, and most electronics, when left out in the sun can overheat in a manner of MINUTES. I use my cellphone as a GPS, but if it's over 80 degrees out, I have put my phone in my jacket, and take all my directions by audio only. Mounting my phone to the triple tree in warm weather is are recipe for it to just crash on me. The camera suffers the same issue, especially when inside of an airtight plastic housing. I suspect GoPro's may be better about this issue, as you have the option to just put a lens protector on, and you don't need to seal the whole camera in a casing.
Next issue is battery life. Luckily, the camera I bought has replaceable battery units, and Amazon sells replacement/back-up batteries pretty cheap, however actively recording will yield you maybe a couple hours tops. I had a habit of charging the camera every night, and I believe there was only one day where the battery died on me when I wasn't done for the day yet. After a couple days on the road, I became much more selective about what I was recording, which helped me save battery power, and later on in rendering/stitching time as well. Also, with the casing, keeping the camera plugged in while on the bike wasn't an option. I plan to buy some extra batteries to keep on hand.
My biggest let down was the perspective. This is more of a general camera framing issue than it is specific to this camera, but 360 cameras generally capture better video/images when they are up high, and free from obstructions. It sounds like common sense, but let me elaborate...
So I chose to mount the camera to the upper right side of my windshield, which put it about an inch or two below my shoulder. The longer "beam" attachment that came with the mounting kit I ordered was too flimsy to put the camera higher without creating an unwatchable shaky mess of a video. The camera gave a great view of my front and immediate right. Most of the view to the back and left was obstructed by myself, which isn't a bad angle from a cinematic standpoint, but from a "dash cam" perspective, there's a huge blind spot to my left and rear left. Additionally, because of the relatively low height of the camera, a lot of the views I was hoping to capture (Hwy 1 specifically), weren't adequately captured because the camera was too low to "see" over the road edge and down the cliffs. I am very averse to mounting the camera on my helmet, but the best perspective from a capture standpoint for this style of camera is head height or higher. I'll have to think on that issue.
My last gripe is stitching/rendering time. By default, the camera takes two wide angle shots, and puts them side by side in either a .jpg or .mp4, no stitching required, and totally sufficient from a dash cam perspective in terms of usable video. If you want to stitch the videos into a 3D/immersive video however, be prepared to spend some time letting your computer, or your phone stitch the video. So, the Samsung Gear 360 app is proprietary to Samsung phones, Galaxy S6's and newer. On my Galaxy S6, stitching was significantly faster than on my computer, however, it kills my phone battery. The phone app is great for framing and previewing on the bike, or if you want to share a video or picture right then, but I wouldn't use it to stitch a significant amount of footage. Another note, the phone MUST stitch the video before it will let you view it.
There is video editing software you can download from the the Samsung website, but I can tell you, when I returned from my trip, it took my computer 3 DAYS to stitch all the video I decided I wanted to keep, compared to what would probably would have been a few hours on my phone. Don't just stitch everything and then review. Preview your videos, and be selective about what you actually want to keep.
You can also choose to only record on one side or the other, and it will more or less come out as wide angle shot, similar to a GoPro, no stitching required. This model does have a "loop" feature which you can set to record for a certain time block, and then it will start to overwrite the oldest video in that time block.
All that said, I got a lot of great shots and captures with this camera when I was off the bike, and was free to use a monopod, and was able to use the app on my phone to help frame shots. It's not a replacement for regular camera though, as it ONLY gets wide angle shots, or 360 captures. If you want to get a portrait style photo, or close-up, or really anything else other than a wide or 360 capture, you're going to want a regular camera.
I'm still going to keep this camera for recording trips, and try find a better capture solution, however, as far as a dash cam, I think I'm going to invest in a dedicated dash cam system. This alleviates the clarity of perspective vs. cinematic perspective issue, the overheat issue (I hope), and the power issue.
As most things, there are always compromises to be made. Generally, I'm happy with the camera, but when compared to an action camera, it's not going to stack up, and the same goes when compared to a dash cam.
***UPDATE 1 JUL 19***
Here's some captures for reference:
Single Lens Photo
SAM_0227 by
Hot Pursuit, on Flickr
Single Lens Video
SAM_0073 by
Hot Pursuit, on Flickr
360 Photo, before stitching
360_0214 by
Hot Pursuit, on Flickr
360 Photo, after stitching
360_0214_Stitch_XHC by
Hot Pursuit, on Flickr
360 Video, before stitching
360_0160 by
Hot Pursuit, on Flickr
360 Video, after stitching (2D render)
360_0160_Stitch_XHC by
Hot Pursuit, on Flickr
I'm working on finding a site that will share a 360 video in a true 360 format... stay tuned...
