The Gear 360 2017’s older brother still one of the best affordable cameras you can buy. It can capture images at a massive 30MP, 7776 x 3888 (that’s almost 8K) via two 15MP sensors with fisheye lenses. Video is 4k, 3840 x 1920,  Expandable memory, Wi-Fi, NFC, and Bluetooth connectivity are also among the camera’s key features. The Gear 360 is dust and splashproof. It does require you to have a Samsung smartphone of S6 or newer in order to work.

Price hovers around: £85-105.00 UK or import it crazy cheap from the US $67 (£48)

This remains on my list simply because of the amazing price you can now pick this camera up for, it’s a great option for beginners worth considering if you just want to play with 360 and are a little short of cash. With the firmware update sorting some of the lens glaring and stitching problems this shoots some of the best quality still images of any of the affordable cameras. It’s easy to use and to transfer straight from the camera to phone and onto social media. It is a little on the bulky side though, so it’s not really pocketable if your looking at carrying it everywhere. The battery is replaceable, so you wont need to carry a bulky battery pack if your out all day, just a couple small spare batteries in your pocket. The other thing I like is the lenses are replaceable something no other 360 camera other than the Garmin offers. If you want to shoot video then I wouldn’t suggest this as it has no built in stabilizer, it will need a gimbal. However this has only had one or two firmware updated since its release in 2016, whereas all other manufacturers update their firmware almost on a monthly bases and they are now all better than this camera in every way. Honestly if you can I would suggest spending that little bit more on one of the other cameras. 

Check out my hands on review here.

The MADV Mini camera is the size of a watch face and coated with PU paint, leaving a fine, polished finish. The camera also comes with a silicone casing to protect the camera from scratching. It has a diameter of 35.5mm and a height of 25.2mm. The camera weights 23.5g, which takes up practically no room, perfect for people who pack lightly for their expeditions.  Images are 5k resolution, video only HD 1920×960. It can also live-stream on YouTube.

Price $99

If you just fancy shooting in 360 from time to time and aren’t bothered by the quality, you don’t want to have to carry around the weight of a normal camera then this is for you. It’s small enough to keep in your bag all the time. Just attach it to you phone the app will automatically launch and you can just point and shoot.

Second Place

The Xiaomi Mi Sphere re named MadVenture360. It’s not a new camera as such, it’s still the same hardware, it’s just rebranding of the Mi Sphere to help them break into the western hemisphere.

The MadV360 team are the same team that created the Mi Sphere, but they are parting ways with the Xiaomi brand name and will be out on there own and called Madventure 360. Unlike its twin camera, this one will ship with accessories included, the all new invisible selfie stick, plus a GoPro attachment.

Expected Price: £220 ($309)

If your buying this instead of the Misphere then be aware there is no difference other than you’ll be buying the extra accessories. 

Essential 360 Camera is the world’s smallest 4k 360° camera and captures 3D spatial audio using four built-in microphones.

Price: £150 ($199)

Its looks neat, but the downside is you need to have an Essential phone for it to work. It connects magnetically to the phone and communicates through those two gold pins. The 3D spatial audio sounds like it would be great to have, but as the phone costs £500, this will push the price of this up to $700, so no thanks.

The KeyMission 360 is the first in what will be a line of action cams from the company. The camera has two lenses with 20MP sensors that can record footage in 4K with electronic stabilization. All stitching is done in camera, it’s waterproof to 98 feet, shockproof up to 6.6 feet and can be operated in temperatures as cold as -10c, 14 degrees Fahrenheit.

Price: £319 ($428)

There are a few flaws, from accidental recordings, an unreliable app and poor stitching on the images. Video quality isn’t great either. For that price I wouldn’t look twice at it. Entry level 360 cameras do a much better job.

Features professional-grade video quality at up to 5.7K/30fps in 360 degrees and 4k livestreaming to facebook or youtube, one of a few that has in-camera stitching. Photos only 5760×2880.

Price: £354.99 ($475)

The cheapest of the cameras capable of shooting 5k, this is actually competing with the likes of GoPro & Garmin for almost half the price. They say it’s pocketable and easy to carry around, though to me it looks bulky compared to a Ricoh Theta. The footage i’ve seen posted from users does indeed look great and if you can’t afford the GoPro this could be a great alternative. If your inclined to shoot stills more often then the Xiaomi beats it. However this isn’t a Mac freindly camera, so if you use a Mac i would suggest looking elswhere.

A startup formed by former Apple and Instagram engineers is a palm-size, stabilized fully spherical camera.  Capture 4K-resolution 360-degree video and photos and pick, crop, and export a 16:9, 1080p video. without worry about the composition. It comes with a case/short selfie stick, 16gb micro sd card.

Price:  £375 ($499)

Now available on both IOS 7 Android. Just to look at it seems almost a copy of the insta360 one, but discussing some feedback from users there are a few differences. The build quality is excellent made with an anodised body and led display unlike the plastic insta360 one. The main stand out feature is actually Rylo’s image stabilization one of the best around at the moment, it’s editing ability and sharing of what you shoot. For example, Rylo’s FrontBack feature can create a picture-in-picture look effect or create a motion timelapse, the software they supply is for now the best available. If you want to shoot in low light then definitely don’t go for this, it’s low light output sucks! I have to say I can’t see the value for the price, with a $200 markup on the likes of the Insta360 ONE, I would buy the Insta.

UPDATE: December 2017 holiday firmware upgrade and now the low light performance looks much better and you can now edit saturation, highlights, shadows, vibrance & tone.

UPDATE: April 2018 has added the ability to shoot with only one lens 180º giving very slight better quality, but not obviously noticeable. They have also added a motion blur, a photo timer and wireless connection. 

Kodak have gone for an unusual design with this one with one lens larger than the other. One shooting 235º Dome mode and the second 197º ultra wide mode. This they claim is like having 3 cameras in one. It’s splash proof and can record 4K at 30fps and 120fps at 1280 x 640. They claim it can survive a 2m drop (with a lens cover) and extreme temperatures. They are offering two bundle packs a standard and ultimate. Both come with accessories, the ultimate includes more accessories than the standard. Check the website here.

Price is around the £399.99 ($535) 

We’ll wait and see for some reviews to appear, but if that price is correct then i think they’re going to struggle to sell this one. To me the specs aren’t up with the Garmin, nor likely is it going to be worth the extra £ on the Xiaomi.

Now shooting 4k, with image stabilization, spacial audio with 4 on board mics and now in-camera stitching for videos. They have also come up with dedicated waterproof case with hardly any noticeable stitch line which can be used up to a depth of 30 meters and the professional spacial audio microphone add on.

Price £399.99 ($535)

When I saw the sample footage, I could see the same old red dot flare the S gets shooting in sunlight which disappointed me somewhat. The Theta V is undoubtedly an improvement on the Theta S. Now shooting 4k, with image stabilization and now in-camera stitching for videos, but when compares to that of the price of the Insta360 One or Xiaomi I think it’s a little over priced. If you like your dynamic range, this probably is the best out there and for ease of use, it doesn’t get much easier this camera is certainly the best option for you. It’s probably the best camera for shooting and uploading straight out of the camera with no post processing, because of that amazing dynamic range and its one of the best in low light situations.

Update: A firmware update has improved the video stabilization to 6 axis, but it still not as good as the Rylo, GoPro or Insta360 One. It has also improved chromatic aberration and reduced that dreaded red dot of doom!

16-megapixel image sensor increases resolution to 2880 x 2880 pixels, Internal 64 GB memory and 1.5-hour battery life for capturing and storing up to 3 hours of 360° 4K footage ,Built-in accelerometer, e-compass, gyroscope and non-assisted GPS sensors for geo-tagging.

Price: £479 ($643)

In my opinion this isn’t a true 360 camera as its only one lens therefore unable to capture the nadir. There is NO photo mode, photos have to be taken from video. This would only be good for those that only want to suction cup and attach your camera to a car, bike or something and don’t want to use it for anything else. I wouldn’t consider this if I were you.

After a long wait GoPro finally released the Fusion. It shoots video at 5.2k and lets you use a new feature they call overcapture, essentially allowing you to reframe your already shot footage. This makes sure what you want in frame is always in frame. It’s stabilization is up there with the best, not quite as good as rylo, but im sure it will only improve. GoPro have released a dedicated editing studio plus plugins for Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. It comes with an all in one selfie stick that extends into a telescopic monopod and has a neat handle that unfolds into a tripod. Plus you can buy spare batteries, so you won’t have to worry about running out of power. Plus its waterproof straight out the box, no need for a casing.

Price: £649 ($870)

If you want to shoot video then this amazing piece of kit. The stabilization is top notch with the best available, and it does has two modes of stabilization. One mode is the camera will always be point ahead, north no matter the angle of the camera. While the other mode is standard stabilization that still pans around with the cameras direction. It’s pretty handy with photos to, though not the best out there. The underwater footage i’ve seen it does suffer with refraction, but then all cameras so far, apart from the Theta V with its cover does. It does require 2 micro sd cards and the desktop software is apparently slow. GoPro are improving it with regular firmware updates. If you can afford to buy this, i’m sure you wont be dissapointed. 

This one has all the bells and whistles. It’s as rugged, waterproof to 10 meters and capable of withstanding high temperatures and comes with four built-in mics so you get spacial sound too. Shoots 5.7K/30fps unstitched, but the in-camera stitching will only stitch at 4K for now. 4K spherical stabilization ensures a smooth video regardless of camera movement. Built-in sensors provide G-Metrix data overlays in 360 degree augmented reality. They claim you can constantly record for more than an hour on one charge without overheating and of course you can livestream. You can even control it with your voice “OK Garmin, start recording”. It does come at a price though.

Price: £685 ($920) 

This was once the best camera for 4k videos, but the other manufacturers have caught up with it. If you mainly want to shoot stills, it’s no better if not worse than the Xiaomi. When shooting the max 5.7k it’s unstitched and you need to have expensive software to stitch it manually yourself. The only things it has going for it is, you can buy replacement lenses, its waterproof without any casing and it has all the G-Metrix data overlays for extreme sports. In my opinion unless your into extreme sports and aren’t careful with your camera then don’t buy this camera.

The new plus version still has 8 Full HD custom lenses arranged in pairs to capture true stereoscopic 3D 360° footage. It can give you LIVE preview and LIVE broadcast, 4K Stereoscopic 3D 360⁰ Video and Photo, 3D audio and its IP65 (water jet proof).

Price: £1,100.00

Yep it looks exactly the same as the last one. You do get a kit for that price which includes a headset and a case, but in my opinion 3D 360 hasn’t really taken off yet. Maybe it will, but right here and now you need a headset to view it and very few people have one. Especially when most are viewing normal 360 with there phone or table, the majority of people won’t care if its 3D or not. I actually really like 3D 360 and it’s the cheapest camera out there capable of shooting 3D 360, but the improvements from the old camera aren’t that much only minor, so unless you have money to burn and want to play with 3D I would consider this, otherwise I wouldn’t buy it.

High-resolution 360° spherical video content with the GoPro Omni. Included with the rig is everything you need for footage capture, ingest, and processing packed into a convenient waterproof storage case. Six included GoPro HERO4 Black cameras record up to 8K spherical footage when housed inside the Omni rig. The six 32GB memory cards included with the Omni can be read simultaneously using the included card readers and USB hub. Kolor Autopano and Giga software programs are provided for post processing. Instead of relying on the GoPro cameras’ internal batteries, a Core SWX HyperCore V-Mount battery and D-tap cable are also part of the kit. A charger and plate for the battery are also included. When you’re ready to begin, just give the wireless remote a click.

Price: £1,199.99

I know its not actually a 360 camera but the results you can achieve are amazing. It Combines the power of 6 individual GoPro Hero’s producing crystal clear 8K 360° video and absolutely huge still images.

This has seemingly risen from the dead after the initial company went into bankruptcy, but they found a new backer and seem to be growing steadily. The Panono is a ball-shaped 360 camera with 36 lenses and  it can capture 16384 x 8192, 134-megapixel photos. For more check out Panono.com

Price: £1322 ($1767)

From feedback i’ve read from owners it does suffer with some stitching errors and it’s a pain having to send the photos to the panono cloud to be stitched as they don’t give you stitching software to use yourself. You also have to place the camera at least 4 feet from anything or the stitching will show up, so its no good for car interiors or cramped houses. It does have a cool feature where you can toss it in the air and it takes a photo when it is on the highest peak. It does give you one of the highest possible resolution photos of any single shot 360 camera out there.

The Smaller S1 is a professional 6K virtual reality content production for 360º recording and live streaming.

Price: £1,400 ($1,999)

This is a popular professional 360 camera as its one of the most affordable. Though it doesn’t come with the stitching software, that’s a further charge on top or if you already use a 3rd party stitcher like Mistika, then you can just use that.

Kandao Obsidian Go an affordable beginners professional camera, They each have six lenses and have several advanced features including depth-aware stitching. For more check out kandaovr.com

Price: £1,900 ($2,499)

From discussing feedback with users of the Go they have said it only has entirely automatic exposure for the ISO etc so you are unable to manually change the settings, which surprises me somewhat for an expensive camera like this. Perhaps this could change with a firmware update, we’ll have to wait and see.

Teche TE720 Pro is an professional 360 camera with 7 lenses, 5 lenses horizontally around then one for the nadir and one for the zenith. It can shoot 15K photos 15,000 x 7500 and 8K video 7680 x 3840, but its unique trick is the ability to support filters (52mm). It has 9-axis high-speed gyro intelligent correction, its dust and splash proof, 448G storage capacity.

Price : £2,700 ($3,799) from Stabilizer Pro.

This looks very interesting for the Pro shooters, I imagine with dedicated cameras for both nadir and zenith this should have much better image quality than other similarly priced cameras. Plus the added ability to use filters, which is very rare among all-in-one 360 cameras. The TE720 includes a UV filter for each lens for protection. You could use colour, polarizer filters and ND filters for long exposures in daylight.

Manufacturer site can be found here.

The current McDaddy of 360 cameras.  360 + 360 3D imaging, capture photo and video in 8K ultra high definition with seamless optical flow image stitching, real time image stabilisation, 120fps high speed shooting for capturing ultra slo-mo videos and live stream in 3D 360.

Price: £3459 ($4640)

This is a 360 camera of every pro’s dreams. I’d love to get my hands on one of these.

This is a 360 camera designed for professional use at events and can livestream 360 video in 4K resolution for up to 48 hours constantly due to its heat dissipation technology. The Orah also comes with a slew of other features including advanced stabilization and ambisonic sound.

Price: £2,600 ($3,595)

If you want a professional 360 camera that is designed for livestreaming, being able to shoot 48 hours there is no better alternative!

R

S

Kandao Obsidian R is aimed at pro still photographers (with high resolution, at up to 8K 3D). Whereas the Obsidian S is aimed at pro videographers (with high frame rate of up to 120fps at 4K 3D or 50fps at 6K 3D). They each have six lenses and have several advanced features including depth-aware stitching. For more check out kandaovr.com

Price: £5,300 ($6,999) each.

The Obsidian R & S both do allow you to have full manual exposure controls, live streaming and can shoot 3D 360. it’s smaller than I expected which is a good thing as it will fit easily into a backpack.

The Z Cam S1 Pro is a professional 6K 360 camera with four Micro Four Thirds sensors for exceptional image quality and capture 3D 360 video in 6K resolution (6144 x 6144) and live streaming.

Price: £6,300 ($8,880).

This is a popular professional 360 camera as its one of the most affordable. With the Sony Micro 4/3 image sensor, it will allow for superior low light sensitivity and dynamic range. However it doesn’t come with the stitching software, that’s a further charge on top or if you already use a 3rd party stitcher like Mistika, then you can just use that.

The LIVE PLANET Camera is a 3D-360 degree camera with live streaming in 4k perfectly stitches and encodes in real time, right on board and produces Natural VR™ – the only stereoscopic VR that uses 3D industry standard optics to allow viewers to comfortably watch VR content for extended periods of time.

Price: £7,100 ($9,995)

The Live Planet camera is remarkably compact compared to some 3D 360 camera rigs, at only about 4 inches length and 3.5 inches height and 1.5 lbs. weight. Live Planet’s tagline is “15 minutes to fame.”  This refers to Live Planet’s goal of simplifying the live streaming or recording process so that users can start live streaming to all major VR platforms in just 15 minutes.

3D images with a 4K camera, thanks to 17 paired lenses that can be used to livestream 3D video and “spatial” audio. It’s even water- and dust-resistant with an IP65 rating. Designed for developing and live streaming high-quality 3D content.

Price around: £9,500 ($10,499.99)

This is a 360 camera aimed at the pro’s, I do wonder how much better the performance is to warrant the 10,000 price tag.

Z Cam V1 Pro, Z Cam’s flagship 360 video camera with nine Micro Four Thirds sensors. I has 9 x SD card slots, up to 128 GB each.

Price: £24,000 ($33,880)

I haven’t seen any footage from this yet, but for the price it should be exceptional, the jury is still out.

Qoocam (Not sure how to pronounce that) is a camera with three lenses, and can be used either as a 360 camera or as a 180º 3D camera. It has a unique swiveling body. When the camera is vertical, it uses two fisheye lenses on opposite sides to capture 360 images and video. Though images are only 9MP, which is disappointing. Video will be 4K and it can shoot 120fps. In 3D mode, the camera swivels to a horizontal position to use two fisheye lenses on the same side. It’s capable of live streaming via a PC. Its main selling point though is its advanced depth mapping capabilities. Depth mapping opens up new capabilities that are not possible without it. With depth mapping you can refocus your photos and videos in post production, you can even change the background completely without using advanced editing programs. Though i’m not sure depth mapping will be available in 360 mode, most like just 180. If it is 360 this will be a first and it will be huge step for the industry.

Kandao Qoocam will be launched on Kickstarter in April 2018 and expected to ship May 2018.

Expected Price around: £285 ($400).

Designed for rapid, high precision 360º imaging. The world’s most powerful fully automated Google Street View Ready camera. iSTAR Pulsar has been undergoing extensive testing in the field and we are looking forward to bringing this new groundbreaking technology to everyone. The rugged weather resilient design and easy fully automatic workflow enables anyone to capture vast amounts of data – both indoors and out. Whether mounted on a vehicle, trekker or drone, iSTAR Pulsar pioneers the ability for user generated ‘big data’ photography for everyone. A professional 360 camera that can take 50mp photos. The Pulsar has two variants – the Fusion Lite with a 5-shot HDR mode and the Fusion which can shoot at up to 9-shot HDR with 27EV dynamic range.

Expected Price around: £4,000 for the Fusion Lite and £5,500 for the Fusion.

According to NCTech, iStar will be released soon. NCTech also hinted that it is developing “3D technology products” that would “meet the needs of those awaiting the iris360 Pro but at a fraction of the price.”

The Insta360 Titan is a new professional 360 camera from the makers of the popular Insta360 Pro. The Titan features 8 micro four thirds sensors that can shoot up to 10K 360 video. It’s also been confirmed that the software to stitch the Insta360 Titan video will be free.

Expected Price around: $12000

The Titan is set to be released in Q3 of 2018, with more features to be announced in the coming months.

Now replaced with the all new Vuze+

This one comes in four different colours, black, red, blue & yellow. It borders right on the consumer/professional category range and is the cheapest available that lets you shoot 3D 360. There are a total of 8 cameras and yet its still very light and compact at 12 x 12 x 3 cm. It captures audio via four on-board microphones, IP64 dust-tight and splash-proof, comes with a mini tripod,  SanDisk 64GB MicroSDXC Memory Card and a Hardshell Case.

Price: £800

This is aimed predominantly for creating video footage, so if you want to take stills I’d suggest to look elsewhere. The app is also a little buggy, but this should improve in time. Currently there is only a PC version of the desktop software, MAC users will have to wait, but your not missing much as the software is very basic with next to no editing functions.

It seems they cut their losses and done a runner, along with all the backers (myself included) money.

VRDL360 will shoot 7K photos, video though is only listed as 3K which I think is a mistake. 4K is now standard and should be the least spec of any new release from now on. Some sample shots can be seen here, but they don’t look to be in 7k to me. A successful indiegogo project, but it remains to be seen if it can beat the likes of Insta, Ricoh or Xiaomi. They recently announced it won’t be supporting live streaming yet, which is another fail in my opinion. What was looking to be promising, now seems to be sinking and falling behind in the 360 race already before its released. They have a lot of work ahead of them to compete and be worth the estimated price tag.

Price: £200-£250.

Well i think those that have not received there camera yet will be waiting a very long time. There has been no updates received from VRDL since mid January, (as I write its now mid March) it seems they cut their losses and run, along with all the backers money.

Plan has been scrapped

iris360 Pro is a new camera aimed at professional users produced by NC Tech.

Well this has been scrapped. Having taken many factors into consideration NC Tech announce there decision not to pursue production of iris360 Pro. Find the announcement here.

This is now old tech and I wouldn’t bother.

The LG 360 CAM is one of the most affordable cameras on the market. It has two 13MP, 200-degree wide angle cameras, more than several of its competitors. It shoots 2K video, has a 1,200mAh battery with 4GB internal memory, which can be increased with a microSD card and a 5.1 surround sound channel recording through three microphones. A waterproof housing is available £18.99.

Price: £139.99

The LG 360 Cam makes it easy and relatively inexpensive to capture 360 photos and video, but it only has simple editing and not many sharing options, plus It requires a microSD card that’s not included to work. This is now old tech and I wouldn’t bother.

This is now old tech and I wouldn’t bother.

With the Insta360 you actually have two options: The Air that works with Android devices via either USB-C or Micro-USB. While the flatter Nano is built for iPhones via Lightning. Both of them are built to quickly and easily create 360 videos to share and livestream on the social networks of your choice.

Price: £169 (Nano) or £109.99 (Air)

This is one of the most portable & convenient on the market. It’s a clever design and most importantly, it just works. You plug it in, take photos, upload, done. The quality of the output isn’t all that great though and the app is poor. If your concerned about image quality then the LG has the edge over this one. I have been impressed with the developers at insta listening and talking to owners and updating, adding new features via firmware on a consistent basis.

This is now old tech and I wouldn’t bother.

The Giroptic iO 360 camera is an excellent compact camera that works by attaching to your phone. It is available with an iPhone and iPad-friendly Lightning connector, as well as Android USB-C or micro USB connectivity. It can capture 2K video, sitting behind ultra wide, 195-degree lenses with bright f/1.8 aperture. There’s also the option to take 4K photos, as well as livestream straight to Facebook, YouTube or Twitter.  

Price: £169.99

It is compact, ridiculously easy to use, and affordable. There are 360 cameras out there with better resolution, bigger batteries, and more features. It looks to me like a koala hugging your phone. The Giroptic iO makes 360 video production effortless, affordable and perhaps most importantly, fun.

This is now old tech and I wouldn’t bother.

Ricoh was probably the market leader for 360 degree cameras with the release of this. The Theta SC model lets you shoot 14 megapixels, video in 1920×1080 30 fps. You can also livestream your videos and transfer footage to a mobile without connecting to a PC. You can also buy a waterproof housing to shoot underwater.

Price: £179.99 (coloured models) – £289 (black model)

I would however hold off if you were looking at buying this, as Ricoh have announced the release of an all new 4K version. The price of this model should then drop. 

Check out my hands on review here.

This is now old tech and I wouldn’t bother.

This one is splash proof and can record UHD content at 30FPS via an ultra wide 235-degree lens. They claim it can survive a 2m drop (with a drop cover) and extreme temperatures. You have the option to pair two PIXPRO SP360 4K cameras together for fully spherical content capture. A mobile app and stitching software come bundled with the camera.

The Kodak PIXPRO SP360 is cheaper option if you don’t mind sacrificing 4K quality.

Price: £319

I would hold off if you were looking at buying this, as Kodak have released the 4KVR360 version. The price of this model should drop rapidly.