I'm not approved by Google, yet. Recently I got a Samsung Gear 360 and I can tell you that the quality for the photos is Good, not awesome but it's really acceptable for what I paid. The photos must be take with daylight, not directly to the sun or the images show a line in the middle. The mobile app only works with Premium Samsung devices, S6 and recent. I have to say that the mobile app is really, really bad because it crashes a lot and sometimes it does not load propperly 90% of the time. There is a huge delay/lag between you tapping the capture button and when the camer does takes the photo; I've missed a lot of shots thanks to that. At night the place must have extremely good lightning, otherwise the image will be dark, completely dark. The video quality for the camer is acceptable since it's just a camer for a hobby, not professional. It does not save space when you are traveling with it.
In my personal opinion, It's a really good camer for the price I paid because you can use a micro sd card and it has a removable battery. My second choice was going to be the Ricoh Theta S but I didn't like the fact of not having a removable battery and it only has 8gb storage.
To answer your question, Rizwan, there are pros and cons in each camera. So far I've experimented with both Ricoh Theta S and Samsung Gear 360. [I'd skip the LG camera for now. You may find some comments online praising it and holding it above Ricoh. But trust me, just search around Google Map and you'll see a bunch of poor quality photospheres made with LG. Some samples-- https://goo.gl/clh0lU https://goo.gl/Vdktks] The Samsung camera can be tricked into working with phones other than Samsung's compulsory ones, after you've set it up properly and sync'ed it to Google Street View. The workaround is pretty awkward, but it gets the job done. Like Luis said, the quality of Gear 360 is acceptable. Still, it falls far below my expectation of the "high standard" that Samsung usually pushes for. To give you an idea of the difference between these 2 cameras, here are some samples.
As evidenced in the pictures, Samsung looks a tad washed out while Ricoh preserved the textures. Ricoh has major issues with high contrast lighting, resulting in hideous chromatic aberration. That's something that can be fixed in Photoshop. What you can't fix in photo-editing though is Samsung's washed out textures in darker parts of the photos, even in good lighting. Here's a more recent set that I shot recently with the Ricoh-- https://goo.gl/3VnN30 Images like these would be impossible with the Samsung, as we'll see below.
Notice that Samsung also has an issue with overexposure. We've tried to lower the EV level and turn on HDR, yet the sky seems to look a little too bright, especially for countries around the equator. Funnily though, it seems to work out well enough for this guy. https://goo.gl/LqC6q4 His outdoor images tend to come out decent. Take this shot for instance. https://goo.gl/PD18PT It must be said, however, that shaded areas always come out far too dark. And worse, just when you least expect it, you'll run into problems just from shooting trees, as seen in the blue tint on the outlines of the trees here -- https://goo.gl/jFcDel. In our case, we've also noticed unsightly blue, green and pink dots in our foliage.
Last I read, Samsung is set to release a Gear 360 Pro. So that might fix the many problems present in the current model. Until then, my best advice is to watch this video to shoot more accurate photosphere with your phone. https://youtu.be/XpVs4RyShqY
These are some images I made by following the guide. https://goo.gl/3YNkCLhttps://goo.gl/2GAOVGhttps://goo.gl/965zEq [Please bear in mind the above pictures come with great amount of post-processing on Photoshop, and they aren't possible without Domemaster Photoshop Actions Pack to fix the misaligned top and bottom.] Of course, a smarter method would be to use a customized pano-head for phones, such as this one-- https://youtu.be/j9S12xZOee8 If you're the lazy type, you can give this pro guide a go. This requires you to have a good camera with fish-eye lens. https://youtu.be/znT-kzOXf-A Only this way brings you the pictures that you will cherish. Here are a few images to get you motivated-- https://goo.gl/KZTw7Vhttps://goo.gl/9t3WFn
Last but not least... If there's already a photosphere of a landmark on Google Map, don't take it. Just walk away, please. Simply because it's declared a heritage site, or even national monument, doesn't mean you have to take a picture and share with the world. There's a train station that was recently closed down in Singapore. https://goo.gl/4MOYKY It was open to the public for a short while so the masses flooded into it. And what do they do? They take turn to stand in the exact center of the building and take the exact same picture. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. It's like their brainwaves were synchronized. Not one person even thought about taking a picture from other parts of the station. So today we only see 2 types of photosphere of this historic building. One is of the center. The other is of the train track outside.
Thanks @Gamera@LucioV@LuisHM for your detailed replies. Its quite helpful..I am using LG 360 cam and its quite fast and no issues in crashing. Also heard About Samsung alot but it only work with samsung but LG has memory card which is good to use alone.
I don't think many people use an LG to take street view pictures TBH, Rizwan. Read the first part of my long-scroll comment. Anyway, for any problem pertaining to the LG camera, you might post your questions here: http://360camerasforums.com/index.php?/forum/10-lg-360-cam-forum/
Thank you for your comparisons with examples. This is of great help to me. Although I have just bought a Theta S, it gives me an idea of its 'product place' and what I can expect from it. I do feel that the images loaded to smartphone and tablet are far greater quality than the same images that appear online. If this goes well I intend to add to my DSLR kit to include the 8mm Sigma and Pano Head and produce quality 360 images. Thanks again for good information
2022
