One of the hottest 360-degree cameras right now is Samsung’s Gear 360. When Samsung began accepting preorders for it in Korea, they reportedly sold out within minutes. On eBay, it has been sold at up to $200 over its Korean MSRP. But one of the drawbacks of the Gear 360 is that it is compatible with only recent high-end Samsung Galaxy phones, namely the Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+, Note5, S7, and S7edge.
As with other 360-degree cameras, connecting to a smartphone allows the user not only to shoot remotely, but also control the exposure, and share photos and videos to social media. Not having a compatible smartphone is a serious disadvantage. Ordinarily, that would be a dealbreaker, but the Gear 360 has an ace up its sleeve: preliminary reports and samples seem to show that the Gear 360 has one of the best, if not the best, image quality for video among consumer 360 cameras as of the moment.
Here are some sample videos.
Suppose you wanted the Samsung Gear 360, but don’t have a compatible smartphone. What can you do with the Samsung Gear 360 without a smartphone?
The Gear 360 has a power button, menu button, and shutter. Pressing the menu button cycles through several options, pressing the shutter works as entering the option, and pressing the power button cancels or goes back to the previous menu.
Here are the menu options:
- Photo mode (2 second self-timer by default)
- Video mode
- Time lapse mode
- Video looping mode
- Switch between 360 degrees to 180 degrees front lens to 180 degrees rear lens (under Settings)
(Thanks to Steve Shew for the info on the menus!)
SHARING YOUR PHOTOS
Hey, I’d like to know if I can change the rate on the time lapse feature without a smartphone. It may not seem like it, though.
yes you can do it through the in-cam menu IiRC
How do I do that? Somehow I can’t find the right information anywhere.