At Garmin’s suggestion, I tried another card with the same results. The first camera got so hot in the middle of 10 minutes of shooting that footage was corrupted on the card. One of the marketing claims of the camera is that it can “constantly record for more than one hour on one charge - without overheating.” It’s odd that this would make it into the marketing materials when in my experience it hasn't been true. But what came out of the box for the first VIRB 360 I had (yes, I’m on number two) was something that almost cost me a shoot. Like many other 360-degree cameras on the market, it’s a first-generation product right now. Sadly this polish did not extend to Garmin’s VIRB Edit desktop software, which was incomplete at launch and still crash-prone today. That the app was this polished from day one is a big deal when the rest of the industry is pushing a release-first, patch-later model. I was able to live stream to Facebook on the first try (the resolution on live streams is a low 1280x720, which looks even worse in 360 degrees, but that the camera is able to do this is at all is a big step up from its nearest competitor, the Nikon KeyMission 360). The one thing I wished for was the ability for raw photo capture to a DNG file, but at least you have the option for a flat color profile for the JPG file. Once you connect the first time, it will automatically find the camera later and you have a lot of professional controls at your fingertips to control exposure. The app itself is smooth and easy to use, at least the iOS version I tried on my iPhone 6s. That said, if you want more advanced settings or to preview your footage or photos before shooting, you’ll need the Garmin VIRB app.Ī refreshing amount of buttons, switches and screens to work with directly on the camera. Many manufacturers are eliminating screens and controls from their cameras, and so it’s refreshing to see this degree of control without needing to eat up phone batteries. There’s even a handy sliding switch to turn on video, not a bad idea compared to a button that’s easy to accidentally hit. The camera features plenty of buttons and a screen to change settings right on the camera without the need for an app. Measuring all of that stuff requires a lot of battery power, and so thankfully the battery is replaceable with just a quick removal of the tripod mount (or the also-included GoPro mount) to access the battery compartment. It’s the company playing to its obvious strengths. Besides the higher resolution, the Garmin features a bevy of sensors to measure things such as speed, altitude, distance, and location. So what’s it like shooting with the Garmin? Wonderful and frustrating at the same time. The camera also shoots on Micro SD cards. The Garmin fits the mold of most other consumer/prosumer cameras, using two sensors and lenses sandwiched back to back to form a 360-degree image. At this price point, few options (other than perhaps the Vuze 4K 3D 360 camera) that use more than two lenses exist. All of the modes are 30 fps except for the 3.5K, which is 60 fps. You can also shoot lower resolution 5K, 4K, or 3.5K. The landscape for sub-$1,000 cameras that can shoot decent quality is remarkably thin, and even though GoPro's touted its Fusion as the best camera in this space, it’s nowhere to be found at press time and the Garmin shoots higher resolution anyway (5.7K versus 5.2K). This made me a little nervous with a client shoot coming up, but I pulled the trigger and hoped for the best. The camera was so new that I couldn't even purchase an extra battery for it at release time in June. Much more expensive than the Gear 360 by about $640, but if it had extra resolution and stitch lines that didn't move, that was enough for me. It had 5.7K video in a package smaller than my first and for $800. I was excited for the product but everything about this app experience has built resent and now I will most likley return my Etrex 22x and get somethiing else.The camera had just launched. I'm going to go with my gut feeling here and say that's most likely not working smooth either. Then the cherry on top is when you click on Birds Eye View (high resolution imagery) they want you to pay a 29.99 a month subscription. After searching for places it adds them to your points of interest and you cant delete them from there. I've tried to update my Garmin but the update installer isn't supported by M1 macs yet so that's a no go. The app is dreadfully slow, then I've typed in destinations like a lake name followed by state and it drops me randomly in Canada consistantly. I've powered on once sitting in my room, left the unit on my bed and it's saying I've traveled 500 ft in with 51 feet of asent first off. This app is terrible and has me second guessing my purchase, I'm thinking I should return the product I paid good money for.
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