GoPro Camera Fusion - 360 Waterproof Digital VR Camera with Spherical 5.2K HD Video 18MP Photos

So, I chose this particular camera instead of the MAX for a few reasons. The first one, the price was right. The second one, it shoots RAW photos, which the newer GoPro VR Camera doesn't (at least not as of this review).Things that I like about this camera will focus on both my work and personal fun factor use.1: It came with the selfie pole that doubles as a tripod. This may seem trivial to many, but it's actually much better than I thought it would be. Depending on the angle and extension you hold it out, the pole is completely gone from the picture.2: The fact that the pole can be extended and retracted very easily is a big plus for carrying it everywhere and start shooting right away. Since it is a gopro accessory, you can also connect any other gopro or compatible action camera and accessory to it, if you won't use it for the fusion.3: Ruggedness. It feels solid and the rubbery case makes it so easy to handle without much concern of slippery fingers which could spell camera doom. The buttons are also easy to reach and use and just feels solid4: It's actually waterproof without any extra hardware! Ok, so you cannot go diving too deep with it, but it will still work for some nice underwater, rainy day or watery footage you may want... but for deep diving, you will have to get a special case. Now, underwater footage isn't so good for VR, but is good enough in overcapture, which is what I use most of the time, lately.5: Almost unnoticeable stitch-line! This is a HUGE issue with many VR Cameras, and I have many! not even my 6 camera VR rig compares. Now, granted, you can remove almost completely the stitch-line using special software, but when I export to the Fusion software, it is almost unnoticeable 8 out 10.6: Faster Turn-in: ok, I know there are faster better in-camera stitching options out there, but for the price I paid, it's hard to complain. Take the footage, dump the SDs into a project folder, run fusion, tell it what to render as VR or overcapture and let it do it's thing. Photos are almost immediate. Video can take longer7: Timelapse Multishots: so I take bursts or timelapses as photos, because it will export the best, sharpest image I want... or create a short video if you prefer. your uses may vary, but I found it helpful for my work8: Battery Life: It may come as a surprise, but the battery actually lasts quite a bit! I bought additional batteries and the dual charger to always have it ready. Heck, there is hardly a day I don't go out without it. For work doing virtual tours for clients or just for fun, battery lasts a long time9: Image Stability: so I made sure to rough handle it to test its limits on motion sickness, but surprisingly, it is able to keep a nice horizon very nicely! Granted, there is a bit of shakiness still, but the stitch is also almost impossible to find even with the vibration of the drone, car, bike or jog. I'm still going to buy a sizable gimbal for overcapture footage, exclusively for this camera, but even with the selfie stick, I'm pleased so far.10: you can use the GoPro remotes independently or alongside other gopros, even if they aren't a fusion! It just works far better than expected!Now, there are a few things that I sort of don't like, but not a huge deal1: two microSD cards: ok, so I don't hate it, but having to have 2 cards all the time, and having to export both cards for each project is truly a little annoying and can be time consuming if it's 64 or 128GB per card that you are transferring out. But knowing how long it takes, makes it easier to set a timeframe for clients.2: stitching on the phone isn't quite as good as on the app itself. so it's good enough for personal facebook, but definitely not for delivering to clients. but when I do it for clients, I prefer doing it with the higher quality anyway, so RAW on photos and 4k ~ 5.2k on VR video or up to 3k on 2D video.3: app can be annoying to work at times. so it's not as bad as it once was, but it's definitely not as good as I'd like for it to be. But it gets the job done, even if it requires a few extra steps... for easy sessions I just use the gopro remote and I'm golden.4: No bracketing. If you aren't sure what that means, basically the ability to take underexposed, normal and overexposed photos at the same time, ranging from 1, 3, 5, 7 ~ levels. While you cannot do it in one shot, you can simulate it, but of course takes extra time. The benefit of this shines in RAW, because you can take really underexposed photos for better detail on bright windows, and overexposed photos to bring up the details in shadows. Combine all that in photoshop or other favorite software and voila!5: Finding the software on the GoPro site is extremely difficult and it's probably easier if you just google it, since it's pretty much hidden away on their website to promote their newer cameras... But it's still there... just harder to find...6: i cannot find anything else to complain about... the minor issues are just that: minor! All my other VR Cameras are now mostly for decoration in my office, except those for underwaterI honestly didn't see anything that wowed me from the MAX, so the fusion is just as good if not better, with the only issue of lacking a built-in screen and needing 2 microSDs instead of 1.... but for the amount of footage I shoot in a day, I'd still be carrying 4 cards, anyway, so yeah....Anyway, I hope this review was helpful.

I had little trouble getting started with this camera. It appears as though GoPro has fixed their bugs at initial launch with some firmware patches.I think there is little understanding or documentation on how to use and edit these kinds of cameras, but if you have experience with stitching panoramas or editing in Adobe Premiere or Photoshop, you should be able to figure out how to use this camera within a few hours. Editing in 360 as well as their overcapture/reframe mode take about the same skill level.Pros:-The stitching in the software is almost always on point, there will always be imperfections, but for the most part, stitching at eye level viewing angles is consistent.-Multi axis stabilization (software based stabilization) is very impressive, and holds the camera angle in place (in my case I've noticed by default it points north at the horizon, regardless of how you physically move the camera) which makes for great footage from a moving vehicle going over rough terrain (emulates human head movement) or while walking and unintentionally twisting/tilting camera. In low light you do get some strange blurring, so I cannot always recommend using it, but you can choose whether you need it after recording your video.-Battery life is good; usually doesn't run out of battery during a day's worth of casual use. Probably had the battery run down over an 8 hour period with about an hour's worth of clips taken-stitching software offers a lot of export modes, camera raw adjustments (for both video and photo)-voice recognition is pretty accurate, does not get a lot of false positives. Of course your friends will want to talk over you when you try to use voice commands-type C charging-editing in premiere with the provided plugins is surprisingly easy if you are experienced with premiere, not too difficult to learn if you are new to premiere. If you don't know how to edit in premiere, I think gopro's quik works with this camera, but I haven't tested it.-App works well (android) to preview shots in 360, and play back files from the camera before rendering. Its a little slow and sometimes a pain to connect to, but overall very usable.Cons-wake time is slow, takes about 10-15 seconds to start up, so it is not super convenient for the unexpected, but when it is powered on, it will start recording immediately-Price point is a bit steep. I'd say I got my money's worth, but for some, the price is steep-requires a lot of hard drive space on your computer, I would recommend having about 4 TB available to sandbox around with this camera. Premiere will need more swap disk space than normal-need a newer computer to edit video, especially when using the reframe function. Don't expect your 6 or 7 year old computer to play nicely with this camera. It kind of works on my 7 year old desktop, but I get a lot of errors in Premiere. Works flawlessly on my new laptop.-about every minute of raw footage is about 1 GB of video files before stitching, files get bigger after stitching.Conclusion:If you are in the market for a 360 camera, and don't have a serious budget constraint, I would pick this camera, as it is made and supported by an American company. There are some great low budget cameras that have similar specs on the market, but they are from relatively new Chinese companies, so I don't know if I trust them to support the camera long term, even though gopro has been struggling themselves.