Short version, struggling to find good data on what consumer priced kit is best for street view studio uploads.
The TL;DR version…
I am a road and dirt rider in N Thailand where we have lots of unmapped trails and terrain. I have been meaning to get a 360 cam to upload to street view but have been put off by complexity, hardware confusion, etc. I will soon be in the west and hope to buy something to bring ‘home’ on a budget.
I seek compatible hardware with;
GPS included and no mobile / blue tooth links needed.
Large battery and or user replaceable batteries (or reliable external power option, less ideal).
Direct compatible output for desktop street view studio (I want to take camera output, minimal editing, direct to street view on desktop without mobile apps, many steps, high processing workflow, etc etc).
Reliable data gathering (some of these off road trails are hot, challenging, hard work… It would be useless to me to do an multi hour trail ride to find the hardware loses signal every 10 mins).
Budget !! Used also good. I will be in UK next month where buying options are better than home / asia.
I have little interest in creative video work, making 360 youtubes, editing anything… This is a one task bit of kit. Ride, upload, street view publish…
I have looked on googles sites but there is not a lot of clear breakdowns on what upsides / downsides or what works directly without mobile uploads or pairing for data gathering (deal breaker). Google community isnt much feedback for this.
Looking at
GoPro Max
GoPro Fusion
Insta 360 ??
Theta V
Fly 360 4k
What else ??
I really want the cheapest option that has the least compromise given my use case…
After Google’s launch of Street View Studio publishing video and time warp videos from the GoPro MAX have never been easier! It’s literally drag and drop after you’ve exported the video from GoPro Player! GoPro MAX has amazing image stabilizing. Of those cameras you have listed, the MAX offers better image stabilizing, probably better image quality. The MAX captures in 6K and downscale to 5.6K resolution.
If you go to my profile history, you’ll find links to both footage uploaded to both Mapillary and Google Street View. See for yourself if you find the quality satisfactory. If not, you most likely have to get a way more expensive and heavier camera.
Hi, just wanted to give you a heads-up. GoPro’s latest update to their exporting program GoPro Player broke the MAX completely, so if you haven’t bought the camera yet, I would wait or maybe look into the new Insta 360 1-inch 360 camera.
I had filmed a massive number of streets here in Oslo on the MAX last week, but the new update has corrupted every file, and I am unable to export the videos with GPMF data nor with stabilization.
If the bug isn’t fixed by GoPro in the following weeks, I actually have to buy another camera from another brand and reshoot it all.
the cheapest option with reasonable quality? LG 360 CAM LG-R105 in combination with a (cheap) mobile for adding the GPS data every 2 seconds the Cam makes a 360 picture (yes I see your 1. requirement but as I read your message budget requirement will beat it…)
Assuming you have somewhere a phone with gps it will cost you less than $100 to get that cam 2nd hand ebay or somewhere else. Is the picture quality good? Hmm, not ‘good’, but acceptable especially if it is the only source of information available
Yeah am not that interested in phone pairings… The off road jungle trails are not phone friendly… I do have multiple garmins so unsure if a garmin GPS trace can be matched or if it needs a bluetooth connection to link.
Also lack of removable battery etc… I could likely get a Theta V used cheaper and at least have GPS inbuilt.
All of the post processing features like World Lock, Horizon Level, Mount Optimization and GPMF Data all result in a corrupted export. Turning them all off allows for a successful export.
Hi @Sef , sorry for the late reply. To answer your question: yes, I am sadly still having the same problem exporting my MAX videos with correct settings. GoPro Support says their team is handling it, but that was weeks ago. Recent update on the App Store did not fix the bug.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the firmware on a new device is old. So just don’t update it on installation, give it a shot and send it back if it doesn’t work. We have 3 GoPro max with OpenStreetMap Belgium and we like them a lot!
I don’t really know. Either way, you can still use it in timelapse mode: slightly better resolution, but no horizon leveling and only one imager per 2 seconds, no postprocessing at all
