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Xiaomi 360 3.5K Sphere camera review

What features do a stand-alone camera need to make it compelling enough that you would want to buy one when the cameras in our phones are already so good? How about the ability to capture 360-degree images and videos? Let’s take a look at the Xiaomi 360 3.5K Sphere camera to see if it should earn a spot in your gear bag.

What is it?

The Xiaomi (pronounced as: show me) 360 3.5K Sphere camera is a small stand-alone dual-lens camera that can capture 3.5K 360 degree images and video.

What’s in the box?

Xiaomi 360 3.5K Sphere camera
Pouch
Tripod/selfie stick
micro USB charging cable
User manual

Hardware specs

23.88 MP
Dual 1/2.3″ Sony image sensors that support up to 3456×1728/30fps or 2304×1152/60fps
6-axis electronic image stabilization
microSD card slot – requires U3 cards
Built-in microphone
1600mAh lion battery for up to 200 photos or up to 90 minutes video recording
Operating temperature is 14℉ to 113℉ (-10 degree Celsius to 45 degree Celsius)
IP67 water/dust rating
WiFi connection to mobile device
1/4″ threaded socket

Design and features

The Xiaomi Sphere Camera has a unique form factor compared to other standalone action cameras. It’s about 3.0 x 0.5 x 2.7 inches. Both sides of the camera have a bulging 190-degree wide-angle fisheye lens that helps to eliminate blind spots that other 360-degree cameras can suffer from.

One side of the camera surrounding the lens is made of a matte black plastic with a logo at the top and nothing else.

The other side of the camera is also matte black plastic and has the other lens and two status icons that light up in blue to show the current camera mode, which is either image capture mode, or video capture mode. Either icon will light up in blue when that mode is active. The camera will remember the last setting and will power up in the last mode that you used.

The frame of the Xiaomi Sphere Camera is made of aluminum and the top edge of the camera has a microphone, a power button which doubles as the mode selector, a WiFi button, a capture button, and another microphone.

The buttons have some tactile feedback when you press them, but they aren’t very “clicky”. It’s also pretty easy to accidentally toggle power on the camera without realizing it and/or switch modes since the power button is used for both actions. One good thing is that as long as you’re not in a noisy environment, you’ll know when the camera powers on, powers off, and the mode is changed because the camera plays a 4 note tone when powering on and off and a 1 note tone when changing modes. Note that it is possible to adjust the volume of these audible notifications and even turn them off.

On the bottom edge of the camera is a standard sized threaded tripod socket and some electrical contacts for an optional charger or another accessory which does not ship with the camera.

One side of the camera has a cover that protects the charging connector and built-in memory card slot.

The Xiaomi Sphere Camera charges with a micro USB cable and it uses microSD cards to store the captured images and video. Note that the camera does NOT come with a microSD card. It’s up to you to provide your own memory card.


When the camera is charging, a battery status LED will light up in red. When charging is complete, the LED will turn blue.

The Xiaomi Sphere Camera has a nice build and a quality look and feel.

Capturing images manually and with the mobile app

After charging the Xiaomi Sphere Camera and inserting a microSD card, you can immediately start using the camera just by pressing the power button and then using the capture button to capture an image or start recording a video. Of course, the camera doesn’t have a built-in display, so you can’t preview your shots or watch any of the images or video that you’ve captured until you connect the camera to a computer or remove the microSD card and use a card reader to view the files.

If you want to be able to preview your shots, view captured images and video, and adjust the camera’s settings, you will need to use the Mi Sphere Camera app (compatible with iOS and Android) to connect the camera to your smartphone.



The app’s interface is pretty self-explanatory. There’s a red capture button, a mode button and different types of capture modes like time-lapse and slow motion.


Here are all the camera settings that you can adjust using the Mi Sphere Camera app.



The app does make it easier to set up your shots, but I didn’t use it that often as a way to capture video and images while I was testing the camera. I mainly just used the buttons on the camera itself along with the default settings.

Let’s check out some sample images and video

Unfortunately, WordPress does not natively support embedding 360-degree photos and videos directly into articles. You can install a plugin to display them, but I don’t want to install a plugin just for one review, so I shared some of the images and videos to my Facebook account. They are public, so you can click and enjoy without needing your own Facebook account to view them.

360 of the Indianapolis airport.

Posted by Julie Strietelmeier on Tuesday, June 19, 2018

 

360-degree pic

Posted by Julie Strietelmeier on Monday, June 18, 2018

 

360 video in Kings Canyon National Park in California.

Posted by Julie Strietelmeier on Tuesday, June 19, 2018

 

360 on beach in Carmel CA

Posted by Julie Strietelmeier on Tuesday, June 19, 2018

In the app, you can view the captured images in different styles like pano, flat, crystal ball, and tiny planet style pics (shown below). But as far as I can tell, you can’t share the images in these specific types of view modes though.


There’s a button on the share screen that is supposed to let you choose the view mode, but it is greyed out and nothing happens when you press it, so all of my images are shared as flat 360-degree images that you can pan around in with your mouse like the ones you see above.

What I like

  • Simple to use with basic controls
  • 360-degree image and video capture is unique and fun (for a while)

What needs to be improved

  • No live streaming
  • 75-minute video capture limit
  • No built-in  display to preview shots, requires a WiFi connection to a mobile device

Final thoughts

360-degree images and video are obviously cool and are fun to capture and view. But are images and video like this worth paying $286.99 to capture them? That’s the main question, isn’t it? Other than taking it with you when you go on an epic vacation, I can’t imagine using a camera like this one on a day to day basis. Maybe that’s only because my day to day life isn’t epic enough to justify a camera like this one. So I’m not going to judge if you want a Xiaomi Sphere Camera 360 because it is pretty cool and maybe your life is morning 360-degree worthy than mine is.

Price: $286.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Xiaomi.

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Xiaomi 360 3.5K Sphere camera review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 19, 2018 at 5:05 pm.

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FridgeCam lets you see inside your fridge even when you’re at the grocery store

Do you ever find yourself at the grocery store wondering if you should buy a new bottle of salad dressing, or a head of lettuce only to get home and find that you bought a second of head of lettuce when you didn’t need one. Now you’ll end up wasting the food. Is there a solution to this problem? The Smarter FridgeCam claims to be the solution you need to save money and waste.

The FridgeCam is a wireless camera that you can place INSIDE your refrigerator and it will snap a picture each time the door is closed to keep a record of the current contents. You can then access that picture or a live view of the camera from where ever you are – even at the grocery store.

There’s also a companion app that helps you keep track of expiration dates for foods and aids you in creating your shopping list.

The concept for this camera sounds interesting, but I’m not convinced how well it would work based on how much of a mess my fridge usually is. It tends to be crammed full of things so I’d only be able to see the front most items.

With a price tag of £149.99 which is about $202 US, the FridgeCam is pretty spendy. What do you think? Could a camera like this be useful? If you think so, you can order one from store.smarter.am

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FridgeCam lets you see inside your fridge even when you’re at the grocery store originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 14, 2018 at 12:00 pm.

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The Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is the next generation


For many years, Blackmagic Design has been a major player in the film industry, supplying all types of great equipment for videographers and filmmakers, including equipment for the beginner all the way to high-end equipment for professional studios. Blackmagic Design cameras are well-liked and offer many industry leading features.

One of their newest releases is the Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. This camera is being touted as “the next generation handheld 4K digital film camera”.

The camera has a four-thirds size sensor, 13 stops of dynamic range, and dual native ISO up to 25.600. Additional features include a very bright 5-inch touchscreen, both SD and CFast card slots, 4 built-in microphones, a mini XLR input with phantom power, a 3.5mm stereo audio jack, a USB-C Expansion Port, a full-sized HDMI port and Bluetooth. CFast 2.0 cards can record in RAW format, and ProRes at up to 120 frames per second. If there is a need for a long high-resolution recording, you can also record directly to an external SSD or flash disk via the built-in USB-C Expansion Port. The built-in audio recorders have high-quality preamps and eliminate the need to use a separate audio recorder.

The new handheld design makes the camera easier to grip, and its features make it a capable digital cinema camera for many types of events ranging from fashion shows and weddings to independent films and documentaries.

Despite its powerful features, the compact size of this camera makes it very portable. It uses standard removable LP-E6 type batteries, and if installed, they can be charged while using the AC adapter to power the camera. The batteries can also be charged using portable battery packs plugged into the USB-C Expansion Port since that port also accepts power.

If you would like to order the Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, you can head over to Adorama and pre-order one starting at $1295 for the body only.

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The Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is the next generation originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 13, 2018 at 12:00 pm.

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The Mevo Plus by Livestream may just be your all-in-one streaming solution

There are many options in today’s technology-driven world that fill the need for someone to stream live events, whether they are personal or professional events. As I continue to look at what is available, I am finding very capable devices with great specifications and versatility, for relatively reasonable prices.

One such device is the Mevo Plus which is designed to work via an iOS or Android app to live stream using your mobile device. You can stream to Livestream, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or Periscope. Since it is designed for personal and professional use, it provides for a multi-camera production via the use of a multi-camera style app. You can stream in full 1080P HD resolution and you can record locally in 4K onto an SD Card. The Mevo Plus even has electronic image stabilization and a wireless connection that will remain connected up to 100 feet away from your mobile device. It is just 2.5-inches in height, and its features include an ultra-wide 150-degree lens, a 12Megapixel image sensor, 2×2 MIMO antennas, 802.11ac wifi, 16:9 aspect ratio and a rechargeable battery pack. There is also an optional Mevo Boost accessory that provides additional power with its 12,000mAH batter and Ethernet, USB Type-A, and USB Micro-B connections, and a tripod or light stand mounting option.

The Mevo app allows you to create the effect of up to 9 different camera views or viewing perspectives.
You can purchase the Mevo Plus at Amazon or B&H Photo Video for $499. The Mevo Boost is extra.

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The Mevo Plus by Livestream may just be your all-in-one streaming solution originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 12, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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The Zoom Q8 Handy Video Recorder is really handy after all


While I must admit that Vlogging is not my thing, I have dabbled with it a bit to see what my presence would be in front of the camera. After all, I have always been a behind the camera type of guy and I have always resisted the temptation to become a face known to social media.

A couple of years ago, I invested in a Zoom Q8 Handy Video Recorder, specifically for the purpose of Vlogging and producing YouTube product review videos. While I never quite realized my online video aspirations, I did end up using the Zoom video camera quite a bit in other scenarios.

The Zoom Q8 is quite small as handheld cameras go, but it offers some great features and I found it to be of great use whenever the need for a quick B-roll recording would arise, and especially so when packing light was the other requirement. It records up to 2304 x 1296 video at 30 frames per second with a 160-degree Wide-Angle lens and has a detachable X/Y Condenser Microphone. Other features include several preset lighting scene modes, a built-in speaker,  a color 2.7 inch LCD touchscreen, it can be used as a USB Webcam and an Audio Interface, it is compatible with Zoom Microphone capsules, has built-in dual XLR/TRS Combination inputs, and it even comes with a small lens hood. I am quite impressed with the quality of the audio it recorded, and I like the fact that the audio can be saved as uncompressed WAV files and AAC files.

While this is not a professional video recorder, it certainly is very useful and can certainly save the day for a small project when you are in a bind.

You can give the Zoom Q8 a try by picking one up at B&H Photo Video or Amazon for $349.99

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The Zoom Q8 Handy Video Recorder is really handy after all originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 26, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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