The LG 360 is a great entry level device for those looking to dip their toes into the burgeoning world of 360-degree photography and video capture. While it's not perfect, it's cheap and capable enough for early enthusiasts to have fun with.
Retailing at Dh719, the LG 360 will work alongside any smartphone running Android Lollipop or iOS 8 or later, via LG's 360 CAM app. Initial set-up is a little fiddly, but fairly straightforward after a few goes.
One of the LG 360's great strengths is its compact design. Out of its case it's about the same size as the handle of a table tennis bat, and unlike Samsung's upcoming rival the Samsung 360, fits easily in the pocket.
There are just two buttons, a power button on the side and a shutter button on the front. It’s pleasingly simple, but one or two extra features on the device itself (especially a battery meter) would have been good.
While the physical controls are great for selfies, the camera comes into its own when used with the app, which offers a viewfinder and remote shutter control for when you don't want to be in the picture.
Oh yes, the pictures. With its two 13MP wide-angle lenses, the LG 360 takes great images and 2k videos that are seamlessly stitched together to offer a brilliantly immersive experience.
It struggles a little in low light conditions in the home, but performed well during the daytime, and even did a good job of capturing the Sheikh Zayed Mosque after sunset.
Sharing such videos and images on Facebook is straightforward. Other platforms are a bit more problematic, as is editing images and videos once they’ve been taken, although hopefully LG will upgrade its software in due course to simplify this.
It’s still early days for 360 cameras and the LG 360 is still not the finished article.
That being said, those looking to experiment with this exciting new world won’t be disappointed, with plenty of fun to be had at an affordable entry price.
q&a fine tune your images
John Everington expands on what the LG 360 has to offer:
Is it ready to go right out of the box?
You’ll need to invest in an SD card to slot into the camera first. Bit of a shame that LG does not include one, although a 16GB card will cost you less than Dh30 these days. Probably best to go for a larger option, especially if you’re going to shoot loads of video. Images in 360 are about 5MB each, while a one-minute video is around 800MB.
How does it actually connect to my smartphone?
The LG 360 acts as a sort of Wi-Fi hotspot that your phone connects to view the live output from the camera and download images. Meanwhile, a Bluetooth connection lets the 360 Cam app wake the camera up when it’s in a low-power state. Got that?
I’ll take your word for it. Is it just point and shoot, or can I play with the settings?
When used alongside the app, you can adjust the controls as you would on any decent smartphone camera, adjusting exposure, aperture, white balance etc. There are ways to edit the images after you’ve taken them, but they’re more complicated.
Are there any big competitors to the LG 360 right now?
Ricoh’s Theta S is popular internationally, but not available in the UAE yet. Samsung is going all out for 360 imaging. While the Samsung 360 camera has yet to be officially launched here, it’s available on souq.com from around Dh1,400. Look out for our review coming soon.
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