Shopping For Consumer 360 Camera, Notes For A Friend

Top 3 Consumer 360 Camera Recommendations For A Friend

Ricoh Theta V :in camera stitching, best auto HDR, straightforward usage without desktop software. Best “out of camera” photos and videos.
Mi Sphere 360 :lowest price with decent overall features, will need some desktop editing for best results
Insta 360 One X : best stabilization and best desktop and phone software; highest video resolution

Best standalone desktop software: Affinity Photo
For getting rid of nadir and colour correction with preview.  Photoshop has plugins that can also do the same. Photodirector is less full powered but can also edit nadir and make color correction.

Best 360 standalone video editor. Other software like Premiere will require plugins.
Powerdirector. Photodirector and Powerdirector can be purchased as a bundle for about $90 on sale.

Useful Hardware Accessories

Best cold shoe adapter with a click lock. I find these very secure and extremely useful. I put cold shoes on flashes, small LED lights, small umbrella stands, action cameras, microphones and they snap right onto this cold shoe.

You will need to screw these 1/4 inch cold shoes onto your flashes etc. in order to use the cold shoe adapter.

Give your 360 camera an easy to grab handle with this 1/4 inch extender.

If you’re using a Gopro with the snap on cold shoe adapter. You will need to buy this Gopro cold shoe adapter. Shipping from China can take up to 2 months.

Mini collapsible tripods. These need to be twist opened instead of a simple pull action but are the closest to the Lollipod tripods which are now obsolete. These mini tripods can hold up to about 4 lbs.

Hard Drives
Western Digital wireless drive, My Passport Wireless Pro that acts as wifi hotspot and takes usb card readers. Has built-in SD card slot, meaning you won’t need a computer to do transfers. It also has a USB 2.0 port, and has built in battery that can be used to charge your phone and other devices.

Posting to social.
Facebook takes 360 pics and videos. Google maps will accept 360 photos or post to their Poly site for 360 virtual tours and send link to visitors.