Best first-person POV camera
9:47 AM
Update 2025: Over the past few months, a lot has changed, and there are numerous improvements in the camera market, and consequently, updates to the best POV camera options. In this article, I have updated everything to keep you up to date. Check it out!
The Ultimate POV Camera Combo: All You Need for Perfect Shots:
Insta360 X5
The Best POV Camera with 8K Resolution and Complete Flexibility for All POV Angles.
Explore Deal*
Mouth Mount
With the Grill Mouth Mount, you get the best accessory for amazing POV Shots.
Explore Deal*
The Challenge of POV Shot
Every owner of an actioncam tried at least once to shoot a video in the point of view (POV), also kown as first-person view perspective.
Here is a Gimbal Guru Tipp:
Make sure the stiching line is not right in the center of your recording. So you avoid weird stiching artefacts in your final video.
Summarized, a 360 camera is really powerful and in my opinion, nearly perfect for POV Shots.
Update 2025: With ongoing technical advances in 360-degree cameras, 8K has now become a standard. This means that even after reframing, the quality is so good that it's now comparable to conventional action cameras. As a result, this can no longer be considered a disadvantage with current cameras!
The user has many options for mounting the camera on the body. The three most popular options are the Head- Strap, the Chest- Mount and the Mouth Mount.
Everyone who has already tried this, knows the problems that can arise:
- It can happen that your Actioncam/ GoPro was not balanced horizontally and you get a crooked picture as a result.
- or the actioncamera tilt alignment was set incorrectly and you are not filming the desired image section that you actually wanted.
- it can also happen, that you want to take a larger image section but the wide angle of your action camera is not sufficient.
- another issue is the electronic image stabilization of actioncams. When you activate the image stabilization, the video is cropped automatically. You lose valuable image details and wide angle view, which is mostly desired for POV shots!
Why a 360° Camera is the Ultimate POV Camera
All these problems can be solved easily with one type of camera. The keyword is: “360 cameras”. You can attach your 360 cam easily like any other actioncamera on the head, chest or mouth- mount, but this time you don't have to worry if the camera is set perfectly horizontal or the perspective is set 100% correctly.
Make sure the stiching line is not right in the center of your recording. So you avoid weird stiching artefacts in your final video.
Because of the 360 sperical video recording you have full control of all your perspective parameters in post procuction.
The horizontal balance is done automatically by the 360 camera if you activate the electronic image stabilization. You also can fine tune your perspective parameter in post production. You are able to change the rotation, the tilting and panning. It’s also possible to change to zoom value. You can go from narrow to ultrawide, only by changing the reframing values of your software. Also keep in mind that’s possible to change the view completely. This gives you the possibility to add additional dynamic movements into your shot.
Really cool is the electronic image stabilization of 360 cameras. They don’t crop the picture and the stabilization result is better, than normal action cams.
Summarized, a 360 camera is really powerful and in my opinion, nearly perfect for POV Shots.
However, there is one disadvantage. The video quality at this point not as good as with standard action cameras. For example the Insta360 ONE R, which I used in this video records 360 Videos in 5,7K. But you have to consider that the resolution refers to the entire 360 room and most of the time you reframe only a certain part of the picture.
The quality is good, but at this point not as good as for example a GoPro which can record in 4K or higher. But in my opinion the quality is good enough and combined with all the listed points, I would prefer a 360 camera in every aspect.
Update 2025: With ongoing technical advances in 360-degree cameras, 8K has now become a standard. This means that even after reframing, the quality is so good that it's now comparable to conventional action cameras. As a result, this can no longer be considered a disadvantage with current cameras!
New cameras with an 8K resolution now deliver very high resolutions even after reframing:
Here you can find more videos where I show the use of 360-degree cameras as a POV camera:
Without a mouth mount:
Conclusion
The best POV camera right now is the Insta360 X5. It impresses with perfect stabilization, extremely good image quality, great low-light capabilities, and offers all the advantages of a 360° camera described in this article. With the right accessories, you'll be perfectly equipped to capture any kind of POV shot.
Insta360 X5
The Best POV Camera with 8K Resolution and Complete Flexibility for All POV Angles.
Explore Deal*
Mouth Mount
With the Grill Mouth Mount, you get the best accessory for amazing POV Shots.
Explore Deal*If you enjoyed the article and video, subscribe to my Gimbal Guru Youtbe-Channel and look forward to more videos about 360 cameras, actioncams, video editing and gimbals!
* = Affiliate Links
0 comments