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Interval shooting for the Samsung Gear 360

One of the features that is missing on the Samsung Gear 360 is an intervalometer, or interval shooting mode, where the camera will automatically take photos at selected intervals.  The Gear 360 does have Time Lapse, which is one way interval shooting can be used.  However, it’s not the same thing because the end product is just a time lapse video, and you won’t get the individual photos that comprise the time lapse video.

In my case, I wanted an intervalometer so that I could take aerial 360 photos even when the camera is out of range.  The Time Lapse feature does not meet my needs (unless I’m willing to settle for video stills).

I found a workaround that can partially add interval shooting for the Gear 360 — it’s again through Google Street View, which also enabled a remote shutter for noncompatible phones.

When the Gear 360 is connected to the phone via Google Street View, there is an option called “Auto-Capture”.  The cryptically named feature is actually an intervalometer — the camera will automatically take photos at a specific interval, and you will have access to all the photos.

Steps:
1. Download the Google Street View app.  You may need to create a Google account, etc.
2. Turn on the Samsung Gear 360, then hold down the menu button.  When you see Gear 360 Manager, press the menu button twice to switch to “Google Street View.”  Then press the shutter button to select that option.
3. On your iPhone, connect to the new Wi-Fi network “Gear 360_(xx:xx).OSC”  Enter the password shown on the Gear 360’s display.
4.  Once the iPhone is connected, launch the Street View app.
5.  There will be a sign that says “Connected to Gear 360”.  On the right side of that are three dots.  Tap on it to bring up the Settings.
6. Turn on Auto-capture.  Press X to exit the Settings.
7.  Press the camera icon on the bottom right to start the capture.  The camera will keep taking photos at regular intervals.  Press the camera icon again to stop capture.

Each of the captured photos will be at the full 30mp resolution of the Gear 360 and moreover, will already be stitched.

This feature has several limits:
1.  There is no way to adjust the intervals.  It will simply keep taking photos, transferring them, stitching them, and then taking the next photo as soon as the previous photo is stitched.
2.  The photos are NOT stored in the memory card.  They go straight to your phone’s gallery or camera roll.  Which means…
3.  You must be able to maintain the Wi-Fi connection between the Gear 360 and the phone.
4.  The Street View stitching algorithm seems to produce less precise stitches than the Gear 360 Manager app.

In my case, the requirement to maintain a Wi-Fi connection probably makes it unsuitable for taking aerial photos as I intended.  So, I’m still hoping for a real intervalometer.

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Mic Ty

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  • I realize that this has been a while, but have you found another way to take interval pictures?

    Even 8 months later, the Google Streetview app is still bad at stitching pictures. I want to be able to just walk and capture pictures without having to click each time myself. The other advantage to the Google App is that when it saves it to your phone, it saves the GPS data. But, saving it to the internal card saves the better unstitched image, just no GPS. I'm looking for a way to capture walking paths while walking.

    • Hi there. Unfortunately Samsung hasn't added an intervalometer. You might want to get a Ricoh Theta as a second camera (it does have an intervalometer). The LG 360 Cam is also supposed to have something like an intervalometer but I couldn't update the firmware for it.

      Best regards,
      Mic

    • Any other 360 cameras you know of with an intervalometer? Does the Ricoh Theta have an unlimited loop until canceled or memory is full? Can you set the intermittence timer or is it hardcoded to specific intervals?

      • Hi. Theta V, Theta S, Theta SC, Insta360 ONE, Xiaomi Mijia Mi Sphere, those are some cameras with intervalometers. On all these, the interval can be adjusted.

    • I know this thread is old, and I apologise if this info has already been provided somewhere, but I have only recently purchased the gear 2017 and was running into the same issue with interval shots. I have a crude workaround which I am yet to try on an extended run. I run Android so I can’t speak for iOS devices.

      It involves an app called “automatic tap” an app called “keep screen on” and turning auto rotate off on the phone.

      All you need do is set the auto tap app up and have the gear app open, set the parameters for tap intervals and number of taps on the position over the shutter button and away it goes.

    • Its anything from 12 to 22 seconds between photos on my Samsung S6 (android 7) and Gear 360 2016.

      Would be interested if 2017 version of Gear 360 is any faster than that.

  • I’ve created a simple Android app that enables interval based 360 photo capture for Street View like projects. I’ve released the application source code, but also included a Android APK build for non developers. You can find the APK in the /dist folder here and instructions for use in the readme.txt

    https://github.com/jdeats76/OSCIntervalometer-