GoPro Fusion - Hands On Review

# GoPro Fusion Review: A Deep Dive into the First 360-Degree Camera from GoPro

Hey Davin here with Digital Trends, and today we’re taking a look at the GoPro Fusion. This is the company's first 360-degree camera, recording video in a full spherical area around it. While it’s not the first such camera to hit the scene, the big question remains: Can GoPro give us something that will actually make consumer 360 video relevant, or is immersive video still just a gimmick?

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## What GoPro Did Well with the Fusion

The Fusion has all the same GoPro attributes we’ve come to expect. It boasts voice control, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth built-in, and it connects seamlessly to the same great GoPro app. Another standout feature is its support for Protune, which gives users a lot more control than what some cheaper 360 cameras offer.

One of the most impressive aspects of the Fusion is its waterproof design. It can handle underwater use without a case, down to about 16 feet. However, it’s important to note that shooting underwater does cause distortion that messes up the stitching lines, so underwater footage won’t look great unless you’re okay with visible distortions.

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## Resolution and Lens Design

The Fusion bumps up the resolution to five-point-two K, which is certainly better than the usual 4K. However, all those pixels are spread out across the spherical area, making the image less sharp compared to a traditional action camera like the Hero Six Black shooting at 4K. While it’s still one of the best dual-lens 360 cameras in terms of resolution, zooming in too much can cause the image quality to fall apart quickly.

The Fusion also uses a unique offset lens design, which GoPro claims helps with stitching and allows for more accurate combination of the two hemispheres. In our experience, this results in some of the cleanest stitching we’ve ever seen. However, there’s one major caveat: you need to use the Fusion Studio desktop software to achieve these results.

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## Stitching Quality on Mobile vs. Desktop

While the mobile app offers a much better user experience overall, it’s slower and clunkier than desired when it comes to stitching. If you try stitching on the mobile app, the results are significantly poorer, with clearly visible stitching lines—a real shame because the app itself is otherwise fast and user-friendly.

The desktop software, Fusion Studio, is where you’ll get the best stitching quality, but it’s still slow and clunky. This is a significant drawback for average consumers who might prefer the convenience of the mobile app.

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## Over Capture: A Double-Edged Sword

Over capture is GoPro’s term for reframing spherical content into standard fixed-frame output. It essentially allows you to reshoot a shot as many times as you want by tapping and dragging on the screen, holding your phone in space and moving it around, or pinching to zoom and pulling all the way back into a “little planet” perspective.

While we think this is one of the better uses of 360 video, there are some serious limitations. Over capture works in a very linear fashion, meaning if you make any mistake while reshooting a shot, you have to go back and redo the entire thing again. There’s no way to edit a single point on the timeline, which becomes frustrating after the first few attempts.

Another issue with over capture is that it makes it nearly impossible to achieve a steady, professional-looking shot, even if the camera was originally locked down and stationary. This is because you’re reintroducing camera shake in post-production, effectively undoing the benefits of the Fusion’s excellent stabilization system.

While this might be acceptable for those aiming for a handheld feel, we much prefer the keyframe-based approach used by the Rilo, another recent 360 camera. The Rilo allows you to set points for the camera to look at and lets the software handle all the panning and tilting automatically, resulting in smooth, polished footage that’s perfectly timed.

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## Competition and Target Audience

The Rilo, while a lower-end, lower-cost camera, highlights areas where GoPro’s over capture could improve. The Fusion is clearly aimed at action sports enthusiasts, and for its target demographic, it’s the best 360 camera available at $700. However, it doesn’t have the same broad appeal as other GoPro cameras like the Hero series.

If you’re willing to invest in this niche product, the Fusion offers a unique perspective that traditional action cameras can’t match. But for now, investing in a 360 camera remains a risk. Whether the novelty of the format will fade or how much time you’re willing to put into post-production will determine if it’s worth the investment.

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## Conclusion and Future Outlook

While the GoPro Fusion isn’t perfect, it has the most potential of any 360 camera we’ve tested so far. It fits well into its specific niche and offers features that make it a strong contender for action sports enthusiasts. However, it doesn’t quite live up to the hype of being the savior of consumer 360 video.

We’re optimistic about the future of the Fusion and look forward to seeing how GoPro evolves this technology. For more information on the GoPro Fusion, make sure to check out DigitalTrends.com for our full review.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey Davin here with Digital Trends and today we're taking a look at the GoPro fusion this is the company's first 360-degree camera recording video in a full spherical area around it but of course it is not the first such camera to hit the scene but now that it's here the big question is can GoPro give us something that will actually make consumer 360 relevant or is immersive video still kind of a gimmick first there's a lot that go pro did well with this camera has all the sort of same GoPro attributes like voice control Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in and of course it connects to the same great GoPro app and it does have protune support so that's great you know it gives you a lot more control than what some cheaper 360 cameras give you it's also waterproof without a case down to about 16 feet but it's really just there to keep it protected actually shooting with this camera underwater will cause Distortion that messes up the stitching lines so it won't look great if you're trying to use it underwater resolution is bumped up to five point two K which is certainly better than the usual 4k but all those pixels are still spread out around that whole spherical area so it's not as sharp as you might expect say from a camera like a hero six black shooting at 4k resolution and as soon as you start to zoom in at all it falls apart pretty quickly still for a dual lens 360 camera it's probably the best resolution we've seen so the fusion also uses this really unique offset lens design which GoPro says helps in stitching and actually makes it possible to more accurately combine the two hemispheres together and in our experience that's absolutely true this camera has some of the cleanest stitching we've ever seen but there's one large condition and that's that you have to be using the fusion studio desktop software in order to get those results and that program is slow and clunky right now if you stitch in the mobile app which is actually faster the results are much poorer and the stitching line is clearly visible and that's a shame because the mobile app offers an otherwise much better user experience and it's where you'll find over capture over capture is GoPros term for reframing spherical content to standard fixed frame output and it essentially allows you to reshoot a shot as many times as you want so you can either just tap and drag on the screen to change perspective or you can actually hold your phone up in space and move it around and you can pinch to zoom and pull all the way back into a little planet perspective and anything you do is recorded as a digital camera move that changes the look of your final video now we think this is one of the better uses of 360 video and a lot of other companies have implemented their own versions of over capture while GoPro gives you a good amount of perspective control it also has some problems over capture works in a very linear fashion and if you make any mistake while you're reshooting a shot you have to go back and redo the entire thing again there's no way to just edit a single point on the timeline now it's fun the first time you're using over capture and reshooting a shot but the second third tenth time you have to do it because you keep making a little mistake that's not fun anymore it's just frustrating the way over capture works also makes it nearly impossible to get a steady professional-looking shock even if the camera was originally locked down and stationary over capture will make it look like your video was shot handheld and that's because you're basically reintroducing camera shake as you're panning around with over capture so you're adding in-camera shake in post-production and that completely removes the benefits of the otherwise excellent stabilization system that's in the fusion now I guess that's fine if the handheld book is what you were going for but we much prefer the keyframe based approach of the Rilo which is another pretty recent 360 camera it allows you to just set points for the camera to look at and then the software handles all the panning and tilting automatically and it's perfectly timed and smooth and looks really polished and you can go back and edit any point at any time now the rival can't do everything the fusion can do it's a lower end lower-cost camera but this does show that there is room for improvement in GoPros over capture and if you're thinking you'll just edit on the desktop when you need smoother results well while over capture is technically in fusion studio it's really in there by name only it allows you to set just a single lock perspective before you flatten the video so if you want to create the slick adrenaline-fueled edits you see in GoPros official sample videos you'll need Adobe Premiere Pro so that's that's fine if you're an editor that's fine you can do that but we are a little disappointed that over capture doesn't offer more either on mobile or on desktop for the average consumer so the fusion certainly isn't perfect but for its target demographic of action sports enthusiasts it's probably the best 360 camera that's available at seven hundred dollars it's not going to have the same broad appeal as other GoPro cameras but if you have the money to burn it will give you a unique perspective that you can't get with a traditional action camera but the fusion just isn't the 360 video Savior we were hoping for for now investing in a 360 camera remains a risk whether the novelty of the format fizzles out on you depends on what you shoot and how much time you're willing to put in to post-production we do look forward to following the evolution of the fusion though and we're optimistic about its future it probably has the most potential of any 360 camera that we've tested and it does fit well into its specific niche right now for more information on the gopro fusion make sure you had two digital trends comm for our full reviewhey Davin here with Digital Trends and today we're taking a look at the GoPro fusion this is the company's first 360-degree camera recording video in a full spherical area around it but of course it is not the first such camera to hit the scene but now that it's here the big question is can GoPro give us something that will actually make consumer 360 relevant or is immersive video still kind of a gimmick first there's a lot that go pro did well with this camera has all the sort of same GoPro attributes like voice control Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in and of course it connects to the same great GoPro app and it does have protune support so that's great you know it gives you a lot more control than what some cheaper 360 cameras give you it's also waterproof without a case down to about 16 feet but it's really just there to keep it protected actually shooting with this camera underwater will cause Distortion that messes up the stitching lines so it won't look great if you're trying to use it underwater resolution is bumped up to five point two K which is certainly better than the usual 4k but all those pixels are still spread out around that whole spherical area so it's not as sharp as you might expect say from a camera like a hero six black shooting at 4k resolution and as soon as you start to zoom in at all it falls apart pretty quickly still for a dual lens 360 camera it's probably the best resolution we've seen so the fusion also uses this really unique offset lens design which GoPro says helps in stitching and actually makes it possible to more accurately combine the two hemispheres together and in our experience that's absolutely true this camera has some of the cleanest stitching we've ever seen but there's one large condition and that's that you have to be using the fusion studio desktop software in order to get those results and that program is slow and clunky right now if you stitch in the mobile app which is actually faster the results are much poorer and the stitching line is clearly visible and that's a shame because the mobile app offers an otherwise much better user experience and it's where you'll find over capture over capture is GoPros term for reframing spherical content to standard fixed frame output and it essentially allows you to reshoot a shot as many times as you want so you can either just tap and drag on the screen to change perspective or you can actually hold your phone up in space and move it around and you can pinch to zoom and pull all the way back into a little planet perspective and anything you do is recorded as a digital camera move that changes the look of your final video now we think this is one of the better uses of 360 video and a lot of other companies have implemented their own versions of over capture while GoPro gives you a good amount of perspective control it also has some problems over capture works in a very linear fashion and if you make any mistake while you're reshooting a shot you have to go back and redo the entire thing again there's no way to just edit a single point on the timeline now it's fun the first time you're using over capture and reshooting a shot but the second third tenth time you have to do it because you keep making a little mistake that's not fun anymore it's just frustrating the way over capture works also makes it nearly impossible to get a steady professional-looking shock even if the camera was originally locked down and stationary over capture will make it look like your video was shot handheld and that's because you're basically reintroducing camera shake as you're panning around with over capture so you're adding in-camera shake in post-production and that completely removes the benefits of the otherwise excellent stabilization system that's in the fusion now I guess that's fine if the handheld book is what you were going for but we much prefer the keyframe based approach of the Rilo which is another pretty recent 360 camera it allows you to just set points for the camera to look at and then the software handles all the panning and tilting automatically and it's perfectly timed and smooth and looks really polished and you can go back and edit any point at any time now the rival can't do everything the fusion can do it's a lower end lower-cost camera but this does show that there is room for improvement in GoPros over capture and if you're thinking you'll just edit on the desktop when you need smoother results well while over capture is technically in fusion studio it's really in there by name only it allows you to set just a single lock perspective before you flatten the video so if you want to create the slick adrenaline-fueled edits you see in GoPros official sample videos you'll need Adobe Premiere Pro so that's that's fine if you're an editor that's fine you can do that but we are a little disappointed that over capture doesn't offer more either on mobile or on desktop for the average consumer so the fusion certainly isn't perfect but for its target demographic of action sports enthusiasts it's probably the best 360 camera that's available at seven hundred dollars it's not going to have the same broad appeal as other GoPro cameras but if you have the money to burn it will give you a unique perspective that you can't get with a traditional action camera but the fusion just isn't the 360 video Savior we were hoping for for now investing in a 360 camera remains a risk whether the novelty of the format fizzles out on you depends on what you shoot and how much time you're willing to put in to post-production we do look forward to following the evolution of the fusion though and we're optimistic about its future it probably has the most potential of any 360 camera that we've tested and it does fit well into its specific niche right now for more information on the gopro fusion make sure you had two digital trends comm for our full review\n"