In October this year, I had the opportunity to test the new 360fly 4k action camera. That is the camera you see above. This little ball takes 360º videos and photos, and is also water-, dust- and shockproof. And most important of all, it has no seams.
What does "no seams" mean? Well, traditional 360º cameras usually have two lenses mounted on each side and the captured images are stitched into one 360º image. The 360fly is just one lens, and captures the 360º view without stitching. This really intrigued me, so I took it to my Taiwan trip to test it out.
In Taitung, I went up in a hot air balloon, the only such service in Taiwan. It was a great experience, and I captured it with both 360º photos and videos.
This is a 360º timelapse video of the setup process, go ahead and play it, and use your mouse to shift it around to see the full 360º view:
It is so cool to be able to capture the whole thing in timelapse, compressing a long process into a few seconds, AND still see it in 360º!
Once we were in the air, I also captured a 360º video of our ride. Check it out (again, click on the video to move it around):
Here is a 360º photo of the ride too.
Here are some photos I took at Chulu Ranch (初鹿牧場) in Taitung:
The 360fly works indoors nicely too, even though it is an action cam. This is a 360º photo of my friends and I drinking tea and eating tea eggs in Taitung:
In the Chishang Township of Taitung, we cycled at Mr Brown Avenue (yes, it is really named that) or 伯朗大道.
When I took this photo, I was lying on the ground, and didn't realize the lady was cycling straight at me and the 360fly camera. I got away just in time, haha!
It is also heck of a lot of fun to do group photos with the 360fly:
After Taitung, I visited Kaohsiung and we cycled around the city with the free bicycles provided by the hotel we stayed in.
I thought it would be fun to mount the 360fly 4k camera on the bicycle with the special bicycle mount, and give you guys a little 360º video tour of the Huashan Creative Park, home of the Upside Down House and other fun art.
We really enjoyed riding around Kaohsiung, though I wish the weather was not so hot in October!
The 360fly camera was easy to use and set up. Once I got the camera paired up with my iPhone via the app, using Bluetooth and wifi, it was easy to control the camera and to see what it saw. The videos and images are stored on the 360fly's internal 64GB memory, which you can transfer from the camera to your smartphone (via the app) or transfer to your computer (via the PC or Mac application).
Charging is done via a magnetic base/dock. You can't stick a micro-usb cable directly into the 360fly to charge it, since the camera is fully waterproof and sealed. So you need to remember to pack the little charging dock when you travel with it. The dock doesn't take up much space anyway.
The iOS app I used allowed me to directly upload videos and photos to sites like Facebook, which support 360º videos and photos, so I didn't even need to use a computer for uploads. Very convenient when you want to travel with just the 360fly and your smartphone.
I think this 360fly camera will go into my gear bag for my future trips. It is too fun to pass up.
If you want to find out more, go to the 360fly Asia's Facebook page or www.360fly.com
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Sponsor's Message:
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