This is a 3D 180 video, meaning you can watch it back in full 3-D, all you'll need is an Oculus Go, a Gear VR or even a cheap foldaway headset attached to your phone. If you have one of these, you'll be able to get the most out of this video, because you'll see this comparison with full on 3D depth that you couldn't see with the naked eye. If you don't have one, and that's okay, because most people don't, you can still watch this video back in flat VR 180, but it's not going to look this good. So today we're going to compare the Vuze XR, the Kandao Qoocam, and the newly-released Insta360 EVO.
These are the top three consumer 3D 180 cameras that also double as 360 cameras. As you can see, they both have two modes, they fold away and they can do two things at once. So if you are considering buying your first 3-D camera it's good to be able to have something that does both of them. However, in this video we're going to focus more on 3-D VR 180, I'm going to show you some sample photos, some videos from all three of these cameras, and we're also going to discuss the pros and cons of each.
By the way, this video was shot entirely with these three cameras, I'm not using any DSLRs or any other kinds of cameras. And you might be wondering if I've got the three here, then how am I filming this. Well, this is how, a have a second Vuze XR. (laughs) See what I did there? Now let's look at some samples, and at any point, you're welcome to hit the pause button, if you wanna take more time to look around each shot. I did my best with all these examples to make these photos look as good as possible, and this first one here was shot Kandao Qoocam in DNG 8 RAW mode, which is Qoocam's version of RAW mode.
It's very good, and after color correction, the dynamic range is looking really impressive. Next we have Vuze XR, and you probably notice an increase in sharpness and a decrease in dynamic range. Those highlights are looking pretty blown out, compared to the previous photo. Finally we have the Insta360 EVO, this was shot in RAW mode and color corrected. Overall it's looking good, I'd say it's looking a bit dark and contrasty, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with this image.
And now, for a surprise contender, it's the Insta360 EVO again, in HDR mode, I shot this in HDR with two stops, and this looks by far the best of all four examples we've seen so far. The dynamic range is beautiful, the clouds have definition, the shadows aren't too dark anywhere in this image, this exposure is nearly perfect. You may be thinking it's unfair to use two samples from the EVO, but the fact is, the EVO has hdr mode, and the others don't, and this is a really powerful tool for getting excellent exposure in mixed lighting situations like we have here. And as you can see here, hdr from the evo blew the others out of the water.
Aaaaah, cheers, here's a new mixed lighting situation, this time we're inside, in a shopping center, and again the dynamic range of this Qoocam shot is looking impressive. I was able to recover the highlights from the skylights above, using dng 8 and overall the exposure is looking good where it's not looking so good is in it's color vibrancy and also those visible noise on my face and in the shadowy areas of this shot.
Now for the XR, and again I'm noticing a significant increase in resolution when I look at the kitchen area especially with the depth you could really see a big difference between this and the last shot. The colors are definitely looking impressive here, they're colorful, while also being realistic to what I was seeing with my eye. The only place it falls flat really is if you look up again the highlights are blown out.
Here's the EVO in raw mode there's nice sharpness, decent color although I wasn't really able to get the colors I wanted with shot, overall again it's looking pretty good but a little bit contrasty. Here's the HDR version with the evo and again it just fixes all the issues I had with the previous shots. The dynamic range is basically perfect, the colors are really good there's no visible grain, it's sharp and if you're watching this in the VR headset, the depth looks so good in this shot. It really feels like you could reach out and take that coffee cup from me, but don't you even think about it. Now for some video samples and I found everything we talked about with the photos also applies to videos similar things with dynamic range sharpness, color and so on. With the Qoocam the dynamic range is impressive once again where a significantly let down it's a low resolution this is 4k and it's just not enough. When watching this back in the headset the low resolution is extremely noticeable.
By the way, I'm not going to color correct any of these videos clips, you'll see them exactly how the are when they come out of the camera. The Vuze XR again has exposure issues but with the increased resolution I'm also noticing an increase in depth this image feels deeper because it has more pixels overall it's able to illustrate the sense of of depth a lot better. I'm talking about in 3D mode of course, which to me emphasizes that high resolution is extremely important watching back 3D because those are extra pixels that add to the depth and therefore the overall 3D experience.
By the way, how good is my garden looking? I'm getting to the age now where gardening is a thing, and it's just like so uh, nevermind. This time the EVO doesn't win by a country mile, but it still does win overall. The dynamic range looks the best and this feels the most lifelike because of those nice colors because of the depth created by those extra pixels. This is the best 3D view point of my balcony of all three.
The over blown highlights, the only thing that really stand out to me is a negative with this shot. Now I want to draw your attention to the boarder of this shot so look up, down, left, or right and with the Qoocam they include this weird black frame which is noticeable when you look at the rectangular image of this. But you're also seeing some of the black creep into the shot. So this is no longer a full 180 degree field of view it becomes more like a 160 degrees because the black is covering some of the image. I'm pretty sure they did this to cover up the other lens and other unwanted details on the outside. The lens is technically 220 degrees so it is seeing all that extra stuff but it's the software that's limiting the field of views so hopefully they see this and change it. With the other two cameras if you look to the boarder you'll see a clean circle all the way around. This means you are getting a full 180 degree field of view and they're not covering anything up. This is good in most shots but if you look to one side sometimes you can see a lens poking out because if you think about it the lens is a stick out of the camera and if the other lens is capturing 180 degrees it's going to include the neighboring lens in this shot because technically it is in the 180 degree field of view.
It hasn't been too bad with either of these cameras but it's something you gotta think about, you gotta put yourself in the audiences shoes think about where they're going to look and you need to remove all the imperfections possible. Finally here's a quick stabilization test and the Vuse XR has really basic stabilization and it's not doing a great job here. The video is moving up and down while it's not bumpy and shaky it is moving and that's kinda annoying. The Qoocam actually surprised me with it's video stabilization because this is looking pretty good.
I'm walking down the street bumping the camera yet it remains relatively smooth. Good job Qoocam! But yet again the EVO takes the cake, this is the best stabilization of all three I'm shaking the camera quite a bit here and you're not noticing anything. I talked about this in my EVO review, how this is probably my favorite feature of the camera this creates a super smooth moving 3D video experience. So after seeing those samples this is how I'd rank them in third place we have the canned out Qoocam which is what I'm filming this on now, and it's a camera that does have it's pros. Such as the DGN8 Raw, I don't know if I quite did it justice in this video but I've seen some incredible results in 360 using the DNG8.
The battery life of the Qoocam is mind blowing it lasts 3 hours on one single charge. It produces decent video stabilization, it's at least stable enough to walk around in. Next is the only one of the three that can produce a depth map, which means it essentially makes it easier to to isolate different areas of the image later on if you wanna animate them or manipulate them in another way. Because of this depth map capability the canned out software allows you to refocus your photos almost as if you were shooting with a DSLR and you can choose just me or just the background and everything else would go out of focus.
That's quite cool, but it really only looks good on a phone screen and this brings me to the flaws of the Qoocam and the biggest one you can't deny it, it's resolution it's significantly lower in resolution then the other two cameras. Who doesn't want higher resolution? If this was the only camera that offered 3D you probably wouldn't notice it as much but because we have the other two they shoot 5.7k video and 18 mega pixel photos. The resolution just ain't that great with the Qoocam. This factor alone puts the Qoocam in third place. In second place we have the Vuse XR and the first pro I want to talk about the design this is by far the best design of the 3D 180 camera that also doubles as a 360 camera. It's so simply designed and easy to use this thing is a pleasure to shoot with. There's no confusion it's very easy to understand also because the handle is so wide it's easy to grip from behind and hide yourself from your 180 shot.
Whereas, with the other cameras it's kind of hard to carry them, and there's not enough to grip onto to easily hide from your shots. Honorable mention, to the Xrs nice looking colors and this is equal sharpest of all three cameras. The higher resolution is definitely noticeable, and if you shoot with this thing a situation where the exposure isn't to tricky, you will get good result. Which brings me to the main con and that's the exposure because there's no manual control of this camera there's no HDR mode. You're going to have issues when shooting in mixed lighting situations like we saw earlier. most shots I've taken so far in mixed lighting has resulted in blown out highlights and that is not good. Another thing I'm working on the firm way of this thing as we speak so hopefully we see some kind of improvement with the exposure. Also the word flow is a little bit clunky you can't preview your 5.7k videos on your mobile, you have to go to your computer to do that.
So it will give you a decent result but you will need to exercise patience. In first place is the EVO and it didn't come close by this much, it's more like. As you saw from the samples it has by far the best photos and videos with the best sharpness, but also dynamic range, and color. These things are basically the most important factor when comparing cameras you want excellent image quality and you get that with the EVO The EVO actually has the highest photo resolution over the Vuse XR by this much? I'd also say the EVO is best for 360 shooting, I know we didn't talk about that in this video, but after using all three of them as both 3D 180 cameras and 360 cameras, I can say the EVO has produced equally excellent results when shooting in 360 mode. Do check out my EVO review if you haven't already to get more of an idea of what it can do in 360 mode but it is definitely the best camera around in 360 mode. One of the reasons is it has the most features, how good were those HDR photos I shot with it? You can do that not only in 180 mode but also 360 mode has raw has amazing stabilization there's so many things you can do with this camera.
It's not just a 180 camera and not just a 360 camera a lot of these things can be done in the insta360 EVO app which is also the best app of all three cameras It's very easy to use, well built, well designed, it also has the fastest word flow to both mobile, computer one more pro is it's hall of fame compatible which means you can view your 3D content without needing a dedicated headset, it just comes out at you. Like I talked about in my EVO video this isn't exclusive to the EVO but they have made it extremely easy to do this. With the EVO app, with the hall of fame it all makes it easy. Whereas I haven't yet figured out how to do this effect with the XR or the Qoocam. A con of this camera is it's definitely the worst design of all three. It's just big and clunky and kind of hard to move between 360 and 180.
It's workable but the design is no where near user friendly as the other two cameras. Also because of this when you flip the camera into 360 mode because the body becomes so thick it does effect the stitching a bit on the sides especially at near distance objects, I know they're working on the stitching algorithm and it's definitely gonna get better don't get me wrong but anything about this far away from the sides in 360 mode is definitely gonna get cut off.
So tell me who is your winner and why leave a comment down there and let me know I will link all three of these cameras down there in the description if you are considering any of them you'll find them there for the best price possible I'm also going to include links to some of the samples you saw in this video if you want to view them yourself in 3D, in a headset, if you just watched this entire video in flat 180 you saw probably 1/10 od what these cameras are capable of. The depth aspect is truly incredible so I would advise if you can do your best to get your hands on even a cheap headset and watch this video back again in youtube VR. The 3D effect is seriously cool it will be worth your time I promise.
All three of these cameras also have dedicated Facebook groups so I'll link them again down there and I would suggest joining them if you wanna see samples and other cool stuff based around these three cameras. Also don't forget to hit that subscribe button for more awesome videos based around 3D 180 cameras and 360 cameras. Leave a like if you like this video or a dislike if you didn't (laughs) just wanted to play with the depth please don't leave a dislike please alright woooh, it's my first ever 3D 180 video, feels good hope it looks as good as I think it's gonna look because I'm pretty sure it's gonna look awesome. OK bye