QooCam 3 Ultra Review: The 360 Camera to Beat?

I've been testing the QooCam 3 Ultra for the last few weeks, a real contender for the best 360 camera ever with 8K resolution, 10bit video and large sensors.

In this hands on review of the QooCam 3 Ultra I test all the capabilities of this feature packed 360 camera and see if it lives up to the hype.

What do you think of the QooCam 3 Ultra?

☻MY 360 Camera KIT☻

☻Best 360 Camera ACCESSORIES☻

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#qoocam3ultra

[nunixx]

Insta360 just dropped the X5 and man, the low-light performance and image quality are insane! Plus those swappable lenses... I'm seriously tempted. Think you could compare these two for me?

[Macadamia]

I just got mine today folks and wow i cant wait to explore a new way of playing around with camera and this is absolute the best, hands down

[jonnelson]

I have been really impressed by the Qoocam 3 ultra.
I think there may be a misconception about the DR boost. After some testing, I think the DR boost allows you to protect the highlights by dropping the ISO all the way to 6. Think of it as being a ND filter. I have then been able to recover the darker areas fairly easily in Resolve since it's 10bit. BTW-the documentation says something about DR boost for bright or well lit (don't remember the exact phrasing) scenes. So it doesn't work the same as HDR in other cameras.
I have the 1 inch 360 and the x4 insta360 and really like the Qoocam.
One more thing...I live in Florida and it's still 80-90 degrees and the Qoocam has NOT overheated. I have lost so many important events on the insta360 cameras from overheating...even before i moved south.

[victorbrown]

You got a couple of the specs wrong...1) it's IP68, waterproof to 10M and dustproof. 2) it has 128gb of internal storage. Other than those errors, good review.

[captteemo]

I have to speak against claiming you cannot attach it to a surfboard/bike or so. I attached it to a quad and made a tour through the forest with it and it worked really well. Maybe some extremly bumps stuff might be a bit too much for 1/4" but basic offroad is no issue at all regarding the weight. I used smallrig mounts

[WhiskeyOscar]

Great review with good info. I hope you will consider sharing your thoughts or doing a review of the pros and cons of the DNG8 vs the AEB functions including the workflows you use for color correcting in LR particularly for virtual tour photos. I have had success merging, exporting, correcting etc. but due to my lack of experience not sure if my workflow is optimal especially when it comes to the best file types to use. The few Youtube videos addressing this are pretty hard to follow. Since you have been experimenting I imagine you could address this as well or better than anyone. The Ultra seems to be the ultimate solution all the way around.

[DavidBeechfieldBrownArt]

In the video at 12:35 the colour is more than a bit off....those highlights as well. Its such a shame!

[dath_realm]

do you have any video samples we can download?

[yuidfbse]

I bought this camera to see if it could beat my X4, and promptly returned. Let me be real honest here. This camera brutally blows up all highlights.. always and under scenario.. it looks simply horrendous, appalling, shocking. Yes DR BOOST helps things a little but it's applicability is very limited and a far cry of giving acceptable results IMHO. Also, low light shooting is basically to forget about it (even though that can be partially forgiven because these cameras will never be able to cut it with such small sensors), plus add that (and that's not to excuse) colors are mediocre at best. And the heavy boxie form factor plus lack of any waterproofing is really a no-go either. All in all, yeah 8K (that I have to say is consistently sharper and more detailed than the X4's) plus tons of features boxed in an un-ergonomic design that overall (and coming down to what matters), as a whole has an IQ that really doesn't cut it in any way. Thanks for the review, excellent as always and helpful to reassure me and confirm that my X4 is both a hardware and software masterpiece compared to the QooCam Ultra. Till these cameras realistically can shoot 12K or 16K using 1 inch sensors so that cropped and reframed footage ACTUALLY looks like something like 4K and low light capabilities are there, we will really be stuck at this (consumer) level for quite a while. I'd say maybe in 5 years we'll get there or close enough.

[captteemo]

Better for lowlight than the 1RS 1Inch? Thanks for your test! :)

[captteemo]

Thanks a lot for the detailed comparison! :) What is the min shutter speed needed to avoid jittery lights?

[РусланАфиатуллов]

Can you upload video from this camera for us to download it on vr headset?)

[gerard]

What about live streaming specifications????

[philipbloom]

What’s going on with those highlights. They are clipped so badly with zero falloff.

[FuzzleyFuzzington]

Could you say what settings you used for this? I've taken some videos inside and they are very noisy. This is shooting with auto in what I considered decent light. This is all on auto, 8K, 30 fps, dr boost off, 10 bit. I'm quite disappointed so far.

[davidroser]

Thanks for review. Can this camera film time-lapse video using just the one lens without having a "spherical" output ? In some scenarios I just want shoot single lens time-lapse as a gopro would do - with a rectangular output. Maybe I have setting(s) incorrect ?

[shanepinner]

Could you please do a tutorial video on capturing 360 ideo and the stages required to export 360 video to Youtube.

[JBH]

Wish Insta360 would take photos more seriously. Millions of Virtual Tours in use, yet they dont take the time to add much extra for photos. They have the tools and talent, just no willpower to get it done. I like my X4, but it could be even better.

[johnroberts]

I really wanted to like this camera but just had to return it. Why? Having run it for under five minutes the sound was wrecked with a horrible screech which continued even after a short break. Hopefully I was unlucky and got a faulty version because the picture quality is great.