Aleta S2C 360 Camera Camcorder Standard Set (Without Batteries)+ 12V DC Adapter (US Version)

A little background, I use 360 cameras mainly for virtual tours so I am primarily concerned about photo quality and speed of workflow than I am with things like video. I have used DSLR's with pano heads and 3 previous consumer level 360 cameras (Theta S, MiSphere, OneX) and I went to 360 cameras because of speed of 360 creation although I have since missed the lack of details I get with them - and I did not want to spend 1000's for a professional level of camera. I am not going to get into the technical specs of the camera - those are easy enough to find by a web search - and will focus on my experiences with the camera and company.I heard about the Aleta S2C sometime ago but have been waiting for it to become more refined as well as to see about the Theta Z1. Although there was quite a hype over the Theta for good reasons it still did not satisfy my need for hi-resolution output. So weighing my options I took a chance and purchased the Aleta as I could always do post-processing to increase the final photo quality - but I could not post-process to increase resolution; I mean 12K for the Aleta vs 7K for the Theta Z1 - no competition.With my short experience, it seems like the Aleta development team is very active putting out frequent updates and enhancements and with the latest firmware version (1.06.07) and App the camera is really producing very good output - both in the in-camera HDR and the 7-exposure bracketing for manual HDR combining. To me, the HDR photo output is as at least as good as the OneX's HDR output and has good accurate color balance - plus it blows the OneX totally away with its level of detail and resolution. The camera does not output a RAW format which would be a plus but if I have a need for this level of control I use the 7-brackets and merge them to a TIFF and use it for post-processing. This latest firmware update increases the cameras overall dynamic range (by extending the exposure time) so that it now can produce proper overexposed for shadow details and underexposed photos for highlights.Some of the earlier reviews here should be udpated by the owners as the updates have likely resolved most if not all of their complaints but I can understand their frustration with some of the earlier problems with the camera - I was lucky enough to purchase the camera with these latest updates available that resolved the issues I encountered - like they had previously.As I stated, I use the camera for still photography and not video so I will not address this area as there are better options for that if that is your thing and have need for it. But if you are in need of high quality, high detailed photos you should be happy with the results you get from the Aleta.I believe the company is much smaller than the likes of Ricoh or Insta360 but I have been VERY pleased with their responsiveness to problems that I have encountered or requests for enhancements when I post on their Facebook page or even Facebook message them. Employees have even messaged me providing me update information and asking how the updates have been working - I don't think I have ever gotten any such service from any electronics company, period.I may update this post when I do a full job with the new updates with some pictures (don't hold me to it). But if you have any specific questions that you have post them to the Amazon questions and I will likely get notified and I will give my best response to help you.

I have had this camera for a week now and have gone through all the modes trying out all the features, and the phone App. So far is has been mostly positive. Just to cut straight to the point; there is really only one reason to buy this camera over the Insta360 ONE X , and that's the resolution of the still Panoramas which is 66MP, or 12k (just shy of 12,000 x 6,000 pixels). I'm running the phone app on a Samsung Galaxy s7 and the app worked OK, but did feel slow at times and lost Wifi a few times on my 20' pole. The app is being improved constantly, as well as pretty frequent camera firmware updates. I paid $1,000 after using a discount code I found, and even at that I felt the cost was a little too high for what I got considering the cost of the Insta360 ONE X is much lower. Also the 18650 batteries didn't last as long as I had hoped (1hr). Also some of my 18650 batteries didn't work so battery compatibility might be an issue. So if your mostly into video I would get the Insta360 ONE X , but if you need the highest resolution 360 HDR panoramas this is the best I have found in this price range. Also be aware that some of the online reviews of this camera mention that you can shoot in a bracket mode called RAW that saves out the individual UNSTITCHED images, but since there is such a small overlap between photos no stitching software is capable of easily stitching the photos so the company removed that mode from the phone App software. I did however figure out you could cycle through the various modes on the camera itself and select the RAW mode which saved out the individual frames, and when I tried to stitch them in Autopano Giga I got an very strange, and unusable result. If this camera had the ability to save out some higher quality format like HDR, EXR, or TIF I would have given it 5 stars, but you only get JPG. Also even at ISO 100 you do still see some noise when zoomed in (this was shooting in daylight). A $1,000 camera should be able to give you noise free photos shooting in daylight, as even my phone camera can do that. Merging bracketed shots in a program like Photomatix Pro can help a lot though with reducing noise, and giving you great quality 360 panoramas.

I just got it for few days. It's actually bigger than the other 360 cameras I have. You can’t put it into your pocket, but still can be grabbed by one hand.For my first try, it took me a while to start because the package came with no battery and physical instruction, but there was a message from the seller offering user manual and new firmware link so I finally got it all set. The APP works fine with my Xperia Z5 and it’s simple to get live preview and all the controls. The 12K 360 photos with HDR are impressive. I tried some shots at day and night and they are significantly better than my previous 360 cameras. The 4K video is just OK (frame rate is low), but it’s good that both picture and video are saved directly in 360 format. Still need some time to play around all the functions, but so far I think it's a good deal for higher quality 360 picture taking. The price is reasonable, the operation is easy and fast, and the 12K photos do look great.Pros:-12K high resolution photo-HDR-Easy operation APP-Fast shooting in 360 format-Good quality in low light-Supports both 12V DC and replaceable batteriesCons:-Not as compact as other 360 cameras-Video is only 4k with low frame rate-No battery included-Unclear user instruction