An interesting review. My Vuze arrived yesterday afternoon (Thursday) and I haven't had much chance to try it properly yet. I agree the beeping for everything is annoying but I found a setting allowing all sound to be turned off. I did a firmware update as soon as I received the camera so possibly this was added and you haven't updated yet. I have a Ricoh Theta which initially appears to give better 360 results than the Vuze but as I am mainly interested in VR180 I am not too worried. I haven't worked out if there is a focussing mechanism yet or if it is fixed focus but the short VR180 test I did gave poor image quality at any distance but close up seemed to be more in focus. In some ways that makes sense as 3D looses its effect after 20 to 30 meters or thereabouts. The lenses are an f2.4 relatively wide aperture which are probably fixed and won't have the best depth of field. I am hoping updates will iron out most of the image quality issues. So far I have side loaded into the Oculus Go, but it's a bit of a pain mainly due to the Oculus Android system. A smoother workflow would be definitely welcome.
Agree with much in this review. Definitely can turn off the beeps, but as mentioned in another posting, this might be a firmware update. My desktop software wasn't exporting sound, but the company quickly sent me a link to an updated app which cured the issue. Am sooo hoping more firmware updates come along as I really like the ability to change EV values. ISO etc to try and get a better dynamic range. Other than this it's definitely a camera I'll be using more of.. but for still images.. presently the Xiaomi has the upper hand.
Yes that seems so! I really hope Vuze updates it with some longer shutter speeds as well, so in low light you can capture detail with less noise. Fingers crossed. :)
Thank you for the review. I also have a Xioami Sphere and I used it for half a year and I love the photos. You can shoot RAW and make 3 shots with different exposures for a HDR photo. With some photo editing you get sharp and good photos and it works well in 360. But ... the quality of the filming is not so good. And I also miss the 3D effect in my Oculus Rift. I was wondering how the quality of the film of this camera would be compared to the Xiaomi Sphere, so your review made me very happy! The film quality of this camera is better and I think there is even room for improvement with firmware updates. And you get a 180 3D extra mode. I can take the Sphere with me for photos and use the Vuze XR for film. Can you please answer some questions about the camera? - You told that you can record continually for over an hour. Can you tell something about the battery life? - In your replies you told that the stabilization in 180 view does not seems to work. Could you check it some more, because move the camera in 180 is more important than in 360 (you gone use it more like a regular camera I think) - The lenses on the Xiaomi are relatively big and this makes the camera vulnerable. I use a hard case with a soft filling to keep it safe. Is the soft bag of the Vuze XR enough to store it in your backpack if you go outside? - With 360 you shoot everything. With 180 you want to keep your subject in de middle just like a normal camera. But you do not have a view screen. You also cannot check how close your are to the subject. Is this a problem? Is the result different then when you where filming?
Hey Ypma, thanks for watching! That's a good idea about using the combination of the two cameras - I didn't realise the Mi Sphere did 3-exposure HDR photos... that's kind of amazing. :P To answer your questions: - It recorded for about 45 minutes continuously in 5.7K. You'd probably get longer if you drop the video resolution to 4K. - I will do a bit more testing of the VR180 stabilisation! - The Vuze XR's soft bag is okay for me, but if you wanted a hard case for the Mi Sphere, you'll probably want one for the XR too, it's about the same. Having said that, my XR fell on the floor while it was in the soft case and wasn't damaged. - Good question about framing the subject in 180! My favourite approach is just to think, "where would I want my head to be? And facing in which direction if I can only look forward?" Then viewing it in VR180 *should* feel natural. If you have any other suggestions I would like to hear them!
Like to use it with my Oculus Go 180 3D. Looks Great as I hate turning my head 360 to look around. Some bugs but I’m sure Vuze will fix them. Works great with my MAC and Final Cut Pro. Recommend for the Home Photographer to shoot I’m 180 3D and occasional use in 360. Sold my Fusion and I believe I made a good move to my liking/usage.
That error on opening stills is wrong. I ran into it as well. What it should actually say is something like "turn on in camera stitching to view images." If you go into settings and enable the in camera stitching, images will load on the phone.
Hi renderman! Unfortunately I don't think that will work very well. The FoV of the GoPro is only about 120° at maximum. Of course for VR180 you need 180, so there will be a lot of the picture missing around the sides. But you might get something to work by putting both videos into the Google VR180 creator: vr.google.com/vr180/apps/ Would be interested to know what you get out of that! gopro.com/help/articles/question_answer/hero7-field-of-view-fov-information
Hi David, I got my XR just 3 days ago and already has a scratch on the lens. It’s shallow but really effects the image. Those alcohol rubbing repair kit do they work? What else can you suggest? I don’t want damage it further. Thanks.
Oh no! I feel your pain, I’ve done this (a few times)! You can try the kits but I doubt they will help. I’ve had to replace my whole unit when this has happened to me. If you have a friend who is good at electrical repair though, you could see if you could buy a broken (but with ok lenses) XR and get them to swap just those parts. Might work? Good luck!
In 180/3D mode, is each camera 16:9, or is each camera square format? Edit: As a sponsored live streamer, I really do appreciate your integrity and disclosure at the beginning of the review. Well done, thanks.
Square. Or at least from what I can tell. Before the video is "rendered", you get a single video file with two video tracks, each with 2880x2880 resolution.
@@DavidAddis Wow. I wasn't expecting that, but it makes sense. I feel there is so much lost opportunity by taking a 16 :9 and cutting it in half, basically. Thank you David. Your review is extremely useful to the community at large.
@@Jamesdtrepanier I guess you'll have that problem with any VR180 camera! But honestly I wouldn't worry about it in this case... I would just walk carefully (proper heel-toe kind of thing), and stabilise it with Vuze VR Studio or Mistika afterwards (you can see how that goes in my other video).
hello David ... you have a nice voice !... :) thank you for your explanations and your shots in 180 and 360 ... I received this morning the Vuze XR and I just watched your two reports on this Vuze XR ... you are not a beginner and your videos are very pro and very objective ... the question I ask myself is how to view a Vuze XR 360 / 2D video on a computer because the videos I just watched are on RU-vid. .. thank you for helping me and advise me so that I can view my future videos on my computer ...
It is possible to view a 360 video on VLC Player. You get a "view" that you can rotate by dragging the mouse around. It's certainly not VR, but gives you some sense of immersion. You can do the same in the Windows 10 app "Films and TV", where you can switch between a single "view" and seeing the whole (equirectangular) video.
Thank you David for your answer. I managed to read with the player GOPRO ... it's still surprising that Vuze has no player ! ... As you are not a beginner, may I allow myself to ask you with which application did you realize the beginning and the end of your video? .. Thank you
Sure! If you mean the Tiny Planet bits, I created them in Adobe Premiere 2018 using the GoPro 360 plugins, after I exported the videos from Vuze VR Studio as equirects. I find doing them this way gives me the most freedom, as I can choreograph them to the music of the whole video.
I have recently bought a Vuze XR ...and recently bought Premiere Pro to play with my videos, I have only done one video so far and its not that great haha. I did it in 4k 60fps as I thought that it would be better for recording motion but its a bit blurry the lines in the video (stitching?) are quite bad and its pretty shaky. I am not sure if 5.7k would be a better option at 30fps? I have never used Premiere, Vuze software or the camera before so I am a beginner really in all aspects. I would like to reduce the shakiness of the camera, I have also just watched your video on sorting out horizons and going to have a go - have you done any other videos on the subject or any good links you can recommend?
Hello! Yes I made 3 tutorials, the third one is quite useful for some generic tips to reduce shake (basically, get a tripod!). 🙂 Defo worth recording at 5.7k. If you can afford it, Mistika will do a better job of stitching the result to eliminate stitch lines at the edges of each lens. It also has some excellent stabilisation for 360 video.
Hey David, thanks for this great review! 😃👍🏻 As I am new to this field, I have a question you might know, can I have a instant live preview of the stereoscopic view directly on the oculus GO with the camera without any time delay? Thank you very much 😃
I'm a QooCam owner having just bought a Vuze XR to take to Vegas. MAN, I'M GETTING FRUSTERATED BY THE WORK FLOW! What further steps do I have to do?? When you render a VR180 video from Vuze XR studio and upload to youtube, it gets STUCK AT 95% PROCESSING! Unlike the QooCam, which just works. What's the deal?
Very useful video, but I have struggled with the Vuze VR Studio - this is not at all intuitive, and I've been unable to track down a manual for the studio.
What software are you using to view the VR180 still images in VR? Uploading them to Google Photos doesn't seem to work like it does with my 2D 360 photos
Hi George! I haven't viewed any VR180 stills yet, only movies. To view movies, you can sideload them to the Oculus Go very easily, just copy them over and use the Gallery app. Perhaps that would also work for stills?
I need a camera to record my horse riding lessons. So it would just sit on a tripod in the middle of the arena and then I’d like to watch the whole lesson when I get home, would this camera be sufficient for my job?? Thanks in advance Samantha
Hi Samantha! Yes, it would do the job. Bear in mind if you're quite far away from the camera, you might end up quite low-resolution, but if you just want to get the general gist of what's going on in order to recap, I think that would be okay. You could consider a Zoom H2N or something to capture better quality audio (in surround sound). Alternatively you could try to mount it on yourself (!) and then stabilise it afterwards, which might be quite interesting too. Let me know what you end up doing!
Hi David, Just got mine. All working fine, including streaming 3d to RU-vid. Only thing is I can't seem to watch the live stream in 3d on my Oculus Quest, which is what I really want... To watch my own 3d live stream on my Oculus Quest. Am I missing a setting somewhere? Thanks
so excited about this camera, but I need a viewfinder to see what I shoot outdoors where there is no wifi to connect your smartphone, so can this camera be connected to a smartphone with a cord into that usb charging port?
potential buyers should know that as of march 2019 the Vuze XR can't post 360 photos to facebook direct from their phone - the 360 photos it produces lack the meta data required by facebook to recognize a 360 photo so the photo ends up being a skewed equirectanular photo instead of a 360 photo. hopefully this will be fixed with a firmware update - doesn't bode well when the software is this unpolished with what is basic functionality for a 2019 consumer 360 camera
Nice review, thx. You mentioned that the 360 video quality of the Insta 360 one x is better. My main focus will be filming 360 videos with mounted camera on my microlite airplane. So stabilisation, dynamik range, sharpness, stitching and videoquality is important. An aerodynamik design and long battery runtime is helpful too. Are you going to compare both cameras side by side or is the Insta 360 one x the best money can buy right now?
I don't have one, so no direct comparison I'm afraid! But going by Ben Claremont's videos, I think the One X is a better purely 360 camera, yes. Unless there are some improvements released via firmware. Of course, if you want to do VR180 as well, the Vuze is your best option. Hope that helps!
a bit more on the stabilisation of the Vuze XR would be good as I have heard there are some issues particularly in 180 - how do you go about getting the best stabilisation - or is there an update coming to fix this issue ? @@DavidAddis
Great review and very clearly presented! Have an Oculus headset myself and I'm indeed thinking about getting either a Vuze XR or Qoocam for shooting VR180 videos (and indeed since spec-wise Vuze is 5.7k while Qoocam is only 4k, Vuze might have the upper hand here despite the slight price difference). From your experience, may I ask how is the image stabilization on the Vuze XR in VR180 mode? (Does it cause any nausea to view in a headset, if the video is shot from a handheld position? Also, I wonder how natural does the depth effect look?) Thanks a lot!
Thanks, A-chan! I couldn't get the stabilisation in VR180 to work properly, it made a huge difference in 360 but not very much in 180. I would probably mount to a tripod (or gimble) for shooting VR anyway. Or Mistika's stabilisation is amazing, so that would work too. :)
@@DavidAddis Thanks for the reply! That's very informative. Hmm..I see, so probably VR180 stabilization is indeed difficult on all cameras (due to the lack of half the frame information compared to 360 videos), but as you said probably shooting on a tripod is the best way to do this anyway (and mayby post-production softwares might be able to help with stablization). Thanks for the helpful reply. Great job again on the review video!
@@DavidAddis Great Review ! thanks ! I am interested in both 3D and 360 as you are. I was thinking to order 2 x Gopro Fusion cameras and place them next to each other in a twin 3d VR configuration . What do you think? that would give me 5.2K + 5.2K = 10.4K resolution in total and the excellent video quality of the gopro. However, i worry about syncing them as there is a horizon drift too. In addition to that the software of Fusion i hear is unreliable and frustrating. What do you think? I would like to hear your opinion on that, even if it a yes or no :-)
@@nikosgkoygkoylias2603 Interesting idea! Sadly, you wouldn't get 10.4K 180 resolution because you would have to chop each camera's video output in half (so you just get the front-facing half). So it would still only be 5.2K resolution stereo 180. You couldn't make it 10.4K 360 stereo, because the camera separation isn't right for any perspective except looking straight forward. You would need 4 GoPro Fusions, really, and then some very careful stitching. And yes, horizon drift (not to mention exposure, and time syncing) would be an issue. Could be a very exciting project... or it could be easier to buy an Insta360 Pro. ;) :D
Yes, it all makes sense what you said. Thanks for your advice. I was also concerned that using only 2 x Fusion the 3D effect would be minimized when looking to the sides but i was kind of ready to compromise :-( thanks for confirming that . High Resolution is my priority. I ordered the Fusion from UK . Hopefully, i am going to have it before New Year. This should satisfy my 360 appetite. I ve been using 2 x Gopro Hero4 (4K@30fps each) on a gimbal for my 3D appetite :-) Your footage from Vuze XR looks exceptional in my Headsets(Sony Xperia 5 Premium 4K display) but it is shot in the gloomy UK ... i wonder how the colours would look in a sunny day especialy compared to Fusion if you have ever tried this camera too...
thanks for the great review, you only forgot to tell something about stabilization, i know it's easy to fix in 360 but 180° looks unstable in some samples (unless you use a tripod)
Thanks emanuele! Moving the camera in VR is kind of a contentious topic anyway, right? I prefer the camera mounted in a rock-solid position (probably on a tripod) so that it isn't nauseous to view later. Otherwise, an extremely smooth motion moving directly back and forth is okay, but I guess you would want a slider for that?
poor review, just a quick i have one and here are my thoughts, is the battery replaceable, how long does it take to charge, is there any sort of screen on board, what settings are there does it do hdr in photo mode etc etc sorry but i thought you left a lot out, these unboxing videos are a bit of a waste of time, i want to see more on what it can do than opening a box.
