Action camera is no longer a new product category, but it still has plenty of rooms for improvement especially for design. Most action cameras are rectangular and barrel-shaped; these are not bad designs, yet a change in form factor doesn’t always hurt. At a glance, 360Fly looks like an oversized golf ball, but this is actually a fully-functioning action camera with an impressive 360-degree field of view lens. You can mount it on your bicycle helmet and record everything all around you at once. We actually dropped the camera and let it roll on the concrete floor. Absolutely Sturdy!

Unlike most cameras, the lens on 360Fly is spherical and it points straight upwards. Once the video is captured, you can view it on your smartphone via 360Fly app compatible with iOS 8 and Android 4.3 or up. The camera connects to your phone via Bluetooth LE and turns your phone into 360 degree viewfinder with remote control. Thanks to its single lens and sensor design, you can easily swipe the video and see it from any angle you want. Besides being resistant to water, dust, and shock, it also has enough battery power to stay on for about 2 hours. I had a chance to test drive this little fella’ last weekend at the SCVR Film School.

Maximum video resolution is 1504 x 1504 pixels at 27.97fps with f/2.5 aperture and minimum focusing distance of 30cm. There is built-in microphone and accelerometer sensor for camera orientation. In general, it has many things to make it a capable action camera. Internal storage is 32GB and it comes with charger cradle as well as tilt mount. Let us not forget that video entertainment performance with 360 degree field of view has become one of the major highlights of every VR device. The app provides a VR mode, and when paired with a compatible VR, the screen will deliver the exact point of view as if you are inside the scene. I think a lot of people cant move beyond the resolution specs but in my opinion the versatility and portability of the camera makes it a great starter camera unit. The 360 Fly can also be useful in professional situations. Before you actually use a high end gear to shoot, using the 360 can provide you a sense of how the scene might look in 360. It is an easy way to observe the frames before you actually use the high end camera. It allows you to rectify the scene and make appropriate changes.

360Fly, although new, is not the only camera with the ability to record video in 360 degree field of view. It is a direct competitor of Ricoh Theta S, the first camera to introduce unique spherical perspective. Theta S uses two lenses: one at the front and another at the rear. Each of them records 180 degree video, and the camera will then combine the videos to make a seamless 360 degree field of view. Ricoh Theta S is now in its third generation and there have been a lot of improvements over its predecessors. The camera is now able to produce 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution videos at 30fps. You can control it via your phone over Wi-Fi with Theta app.

I think that the 360 Fly makes a great starter consumer 360 camera. You can carry it to your holiday events and make the best use of it. On its own, it is definitely a worthy Christmas gift for this year! With the company making more enhancements to the software package, it is definitely a worthy investment.