While only on the market since this past summer, The QooCam 3 quickly became my favorite consumer 360 camera. I’ve put it through its paces for everything from urban exploration to 360 photojournalism, to family photos. Its ease of use and speed have encouraged me to take it on most shoots where I wouldn’t have otherwise taken it.
The QooCam 3 Ultra, at least on paper, seems to take the specs just a step further in some ways. The big headline feature is the return of 8K video, something that was a huge selling point for Kandao’s previous effort, the QooCam 8K. The QooCam 3 Ultra supports 8K/30 fps videos, 5.7K/60 fps, and 4K/120 fps, compared to the 3’s 5.7K/30 fps. The Ultra also supports log capture for video. Livestreaming is supported as well.
The body’s a little bit larger than the regular 3, and more rectangular, but still maintains the design language of the QooCam 3. Aside from the finicky battery door, I didn’t have much to complain about, so this isn’t a bad thing. The Ultra’s sensor is a little bit smaller (1/1.7″ vs. 1/1.5″ on the QooCam 3) but the lenses are still at f/1.6, so it will be interesting to see how the quality stacks up versus the lower model camera. Photo resolution is up to 96 megapixels versus the regular 3’s 62 megapixels. While more resolution is great, the biggest feature for me is the in-camera stitching. I have been waiting for this since Nikon’s KeyMission 360. The biggest complaint I have for 360 work is the insane workflow that involves apps just to get a basic photo out the door. To eliminate this, at least for photos, is a huge step.
The QooCam 3 was already a pretty good effort and if the company took off from making cameras for the year, it would have still been a good year. The promised upgrades for the Ultra model seem compelling enough to make it worth a look, especially if the company prices it as competitively. Still no word on that or any sample footage.
Kandao plans to show off the camera at the Consumer Electronics Show on January 9 in Las Vegas. It looks like it should make 2024 an interesting year for 360 cameras.
