When it comes to regular cameras, we are accustomed to the seeing the common rectangular design. However, 360-degree cameras being a rather new thing in the industry don’t yet have a standard design that all brands follow. This has made room for innovative designs for brands to experiment on and we have been treated with some really interesting designs by various manufacturers.
Samsung are no strangers to the 360-degree camera scene, the company first showcased its concept 360-degree professional-grade stereoscopic 360-degree camera called Project Beyond back in 2014 and we are yet to see it being released officially for the public. Last year, Samsung released a consumer grade 360-degree camera called the Gear 360. The Gear 360, like we mentioned earlier, came with an interesting spherical design with cameras on either side, which promised to be an eye-catcher no matter where you took it with you.
The original Gear 360 however, was not perfect by all means in terms both design and hardware and hence required some changes/upgrades in its successor. The new Gear 360, which also runs Tizen Operating System, was launched recently alongside the Galaxy S8 and S8+, held true to that point with a refreshing design and a very powerful hardware capable of 360 degree live streams in 1080p and 4K recording.
Samsung haven’t completely scrapped off the design details from the initial Gear 360, but they made it more smaller in size just enough to fit in your pockets and added a shaft which doubles as a stand and a grip, Samsung terms it as “Playful Design”. The grip apart from making it more convenient to hold the camera in hand also expands the field of view of the camera while carrying around. The grip also makes more room internally for more hardware to be packed in (and hence the livestreaming and 4K capabilities) along with better heat dissipation without affecting the sensors from the heat like on the previous Gear 360.
All these changes in design haven’t affected the Gear 360’s waterproof and dust resistance capabilities as it is covered with an IP53 certification. It’d be interesting to see what Samsung has next in its line-up of 360-degree cameras but that would be a long wait as the new Gear 360 is currently its main focus.
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