Why You Should Choose a 360 Camera Over an Action Camera in 2025

Right now, 360 cameras are more popular than ever and have emerged as a fantastic alternative to conventional action cameras for anytime you want to film yourself doing something — from travel to sports and vehicle capture to vlogs. And with the release of a number of groundbreaking 360 cameras this year, there's never been a better time to own one.

In this post, I’ll share five pros of getting yourself a 360 camera, as well as three cons you should know about.

Pro #1: Insanely Wide Field of View

360 cameras have an insanely wide field of view, giving them a clear advantage over traditional action-type cameras. With action cameras, even wide-angle lenses struggle to capture both you and your background when the camera is close — often cutting off the lower half of your body if handheld.

But 360 cameras capture everything around you, including your entire body and surroundings. When you reframe the shot later, you can make it as wide as you like.

They also automatically hide the selfie stick, which sits in the camera’s blind spot and gets stitched out. So, you can hold it out in front or beside you to make your view even wider.

Pro #2: Choose Your Frame Later

The second advantage of 360 cameras is that you don't have to choose your final frame while filming.

With regular cameras, the fixed perspective means you only get one shot to get it right. But with 360 cameras, even if you’re unsure what the final frame will look like, the magic can happen in editing.

That awesome shot you were after might’ve been right in front of you — and now, because you captured everything on location, you’ll have far more options to choose from.

Pro #3: Multiple Perspectives from One Shot

Which brings me to point three — and that is: 360 cameras will give you multiple perspectives with every single shot you take.

That’s right. One single shot can produce many different perspectives pointed in different directions.

• Want to show your reaction and your point of view? You can.

• Need B-roll from another angle? You’ve got it.

One shot is all it takes. No extra filming is required.

Pro #4: Perfect Stabilisation

Number four is that 360 cameras come with perfect stabilisation. While traditional action cameras can stabilise pretty well, they only record a small window of the scene, so the perspective can wobble if you tilt the camera.

With 360 cameras, no matter how much you shake the camera, the horizon stays dead steady — because it captures everything and can easily fill in the gaps to keep your perspective locked.

Pro #5: More Creative Shots and Effects

Pro number five of getting a 360 camera is: there are so many more creative shots and effects you can achieve because of the 360° capture. This allows you to reframe your shots to perspectives that just couldn't be achieved with any other camera.

Some examples include:

• Funny ones like the tiny planet perspective

• Silly ones like nose mode

• Cinematic ones like bullet time

• And my personal favourite: motion effects like the hyperlapse effect, which can be filmed and edited in just minutes

While the hyperlapse effect can be done with traditional cameras, it’s going to take a lot longer and be way more complicated.

What About the Cons?

Of course, no camera is perfect. Let’s look at three potential downsides to keep in mind when using a 360 camera.

Con #1: Editing Takes More Time

The first con is that editing 360 videos takes a bit longer. Since you're not locking the perspective while filming, you'll need to do it later. It’s the price you pay for more creative shots — though most 360 apps are simple, with easy tap options.

If you want to fix your field of view forward or backward, you can usually do it in under a minute.

Con #2: Pixel Loss When Reframing

Con number two is that the resolution is spread out over a full 360° sphere. When a camera is marketed as 8K, that’s before the video is reframed to a flat perspective. After reframing, you lose a lot of pixels, and the final result looks more like 3K.

In my opinion, though, resolution matters less than uniqueness and creativity — especially since most people will view your footage on a small phone screen.

Con #3: Not Ideal for All Scenes

The final con is that a 360 camera won’t be ideal for every scene.

360 cameras excel at wide-angle shots, especially with interesting close-distance objects. But for:

• Faraway scenery, Or

• Zoomed-in shots like below

...the lower resolution becomes more noticeable, and your footage may look low quality. Also, sometimes you just need a fixed perspective — so not everything will be better in 360.

To counter that, most cameras now include a single-lens mode, which captures in one direction and goes up to 4K or even 5K by using the sensor differently. This makes 360 cameras essentially two cameras in one: a 360 camera and a standard 16x9 camera.

Final Thoughts

Now, the beauty of this is — while there are awesome cameras available right now like the X5, you don't even need the latest one.

Some of the older generations, like the X3, are now going for under $300 USD, which means you can still benefit from the five pros I talked about in this article, even if you're on a budget.

If you're leaning toward the X5, use my affiliate link to get 2 free replacement lenses plus 1TB of free cloud storage.