Insights

360° camera vs. drone footage: what do you need?

5 minute read

"Can you also just make a drone photo?" is one of the questions we get most often — and the answer is almost always yes, but it helps to first be clear on what a 360° camera and a drone each do and don't solve. Both capture an environment, but from a completely different perspective and for a different purpose.

What does a 360° camera do?

The 360° camera is the tool for indoors: every room, every corner, down to the smallest detail. This is what we use to build the navigable tour where visitors "walk" from room to room themselves. This is the right choice when the layout, atmosphere and finish of an interior need to tell the story — a shop, a restaurant, an office, a showroom.

What does a drone do?

A drone looks from above and from outside: the setting of a property, the scale of a plot, the route to the entrance, the roof, the garden or the surrounding buildings. That's a perspective you simply don't get from the ground. For real estate, an aerial photo shows in one image how a plot is situated; for industry, it shows the scale of a business site or the progress of a construction project.

When do you combine both?

The strongest results often combine both: a drone shot that puts the location and context into one clear image, followed by a 360° tour that then takes the visitor inside. That way someone first gets the big picture and then the detail — exactly the order in which you'd want to get to know an unfamiliar place yourself. Want just standalone drone footage, without a full tour? That's possible too — see our page on drone photography and video for what that involves.

And what about 360° video?

Besides static 360° camera shots and drone stills, we also offer 360° video: movement and atmosphere for a livelier experience, usable both on the ground and in the air. This is especially valuable when movement itself is part of the story — think of a process on the shop floor or the buzz of an event.

In short

Not sure which technique fits your situation? You don't have to figure that out yourself — tell us what you want to show, and we'll advise which combination gives the best result.