# How to choose a 360° camera for a virtual tour

URL: https://www.panoramr.com/guides/how-to-choose-a-360-camera-for-a-virtual-tour
Published: 2026-11-01
Updated: 2026-11-02

For a virtual tour, choose a 360° camera by the size of its 360° photo, how it copes with bright windows (HDR or bracketing), how you get a finished 360° JPEG out of it, and whether a phone app can fire it while you stand out of sight. Every current camera from Insta360, Ricoh, DJI and Kandao takes photos large enough for a tour. A RICOH THETA saves a ready 360° JPEG; an Insta360 needs an export or in-camera stitching; the largest photos, 120 MP, come from the Insta360 X6 and the DJI Osmo 360 II.

## What matters for a virtual tour

A virtual tour is a set of 360° still photos, so most of what a 360° camera says about video does not matter here. Four things do:

- **The size of the 360° photo.** It decides how sharp a room looks when a visitor zooms in on a detail. Every camera below takes a photo far larger than a tour needs to look good; Panoramr's [photo checker](https://www.panoramr.com/tools/360-photo-checker) only warns below 4,000 pixels wide.
- **Bright windows.** An interior with daylight outside is the hardest shot. An HDR or bracketed photo mode, which blends several exposures, keeps both the room and the view. A larger sensor usually helps in a dim room too.
- **How you get the 360° JPEG.** A tour maker takes a finished 360° photo, a JPEG twice as wide as it is tall. Some cameras save one straight away; others save their own format, which you export in the maker's app or desktop program first.
- **Firing it from your phone.** Each of these cameras pairs with its maker's phone app, so you can press the shutter from another room and stay out of the photo.

## The cameras compared

The current 360° cameras from each maker, with the figures from their own websites, checked on 1 November 2026. Prices are what each maker's store showed that day, in its own currency; they change often.

| Camera | Largest 360° photo | Sensor size | The 360° JPEG | Price seen |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Insta360 X6 | 15,520 × 7,760 (120 MP) | 1/1.1 inch, two | Export in the Insta360 app or Studio, or stitch in the camera | £619 |
| Insta360 X5 | 11,904 × 5,952 (72 MP) | 1/1.28 inch, two | Export in the app or Studio, or stitch in the camera | £519.99 |
| Insta360 X4 | 11,904 × 5,952 (72 MP) | 1/2 inch | Export in the app or Studio, or stitch in the camera | £299 |
| Insta360 X4 Air | 7,680 × 3,840 (29 MP) | 1/1.8 inch | Export in the app or Studio, or stitch in the camera | £359 |
| DJI Osmo 360 II | 15,520 × 7,760 (120 MP) | 1/1.1 inch, two | Saves JPEG or RAW | From £509 |
| RICOH THETA X | 11,008 × 5,504 (about 60 MP) | 1/2 inch, two | Saved ready by the camera | €666 + VAT |
| RICOH360 THETA A1 | 11,008 × 5,504 (about 60 MP) | 1/2 inch, two | Saved ready by the camera | €749.99 + VAT |
| RICOH THETA Z1 | 6,720 × 3,360 (about 23 MP) | 1 inch, two | Saved ready by the camera; RAW (DNG) too | €1,083 + VAT |
| Kandao QooCam 3 Ultra | 13,888 × 6,944 (96 MP) | 1/1.7 inch | Stitched in the camera; JPG or DNG | US$509 |

The sources are each maker's own pages: Insta360's [X6](https://www.insta360.com/product/insta360-x6), [X5](https://www.insta360.com/product/insta360-x5), [X4](https://www.insta360.com/product/insta360-x4) and [X4 Air](https://www.insta360.com/product/insta360-x4-air); DJI's [Osmo 360 II specs](https://www.dji.com/uk/360-2/specs); Ricoh's [THETA line-up](https://www.ricoh360.com/theta) and [store](https://emea.store.ricoh360.com/en/collections/all); Kandao's [QooCam 3 Ultra specs](https://www.kandaovr.com/qoocam-3-ultra/tech-spec). Insta360's in-camera stitching is in its manual, described in [the Insta360 guide](https://www.panoramr.com/guides/how-to-make-a-virtual-tour-with-an-insta360-camera). Every photo in the table is twice as wide as it is tall, and every one fits in a Panoramr tour, which takes 360° photos up to 16,384 pixels wide, and up to 23,000 from a computer with 8 GB of memory or more.

## Which one to choose

- **The fewest steps:** a RICOH THETA. It joins the two lenses' pictures in the camera and saves each photo as a finished 360° JPEG, so you copy the files and upload them. Ricoh calls the THETA X suitable for real estate for its fast HDR rendering. [The THETA guide](https://www.panoramr.com/guides/how-to-make-a-virtual-tour-with-a-ricoh-theta) goes through it.
- **A tight budget:** the Insta360 X4, at £299 when we looked, takes the same 72 MP photo as the X5. Each photo needs an export or in-camera stitching: [the Insta360 guide](https://www.panoramr.com/guides/how-to-make-a-virtual-tour-with-an-insta360-camera) shows both.
- **The largest photos:** the Insta360 X6 and the DJI Osmo 360 II both take 120 MP photos, for rooms full of detail a visitor will zoom in on.
- **The most exposures in one shot:** the Kandao QooCam 3 Ultra brackets up to 15 shots and stitches in the camera, which helps with a bright window in a dark room.
- **Larger sensors, smaller photos:** the RICOH THETA Z1 has two 1-inch sensors but takes a 23 MP photo, and saves RAW beside the JPEG for people who edit their photos.

If you already own one of these cameras, it is good enough for a tour: how you take the photos matters more than which camera you have. [How to take 360° photos for a virtual tour](https://www.panoramr.com/guides/how-to-take-360-photos-for-a-virtual-tour) covers where to stand, the height of the camera and the light.

## What else you need

- **A tripod or a light stand**, so every photo is level and from the same height, and you can step out of the shot. Insta360 also sells an Invisible Selfie Stick that the camera removes from the photo.
- **The maker's phone app**, to fire the camera from another room and to export or copy the photos.
- **A tour maker** that links the photos, adds your notes and design, and puts the tour online. Panoramr runs in the browser and is free to try: [how to create a 360° virtual tour, step by step](https://www.panoramr.com/guides/how-to-make-a-360-virtual-tour).

## Questions

### Can I make a virtual tour with my phone?

Not with its panorama mode. A phone's panorama is a wide, flat strip, not a full sphere: it leaves out what is above and below you, and it is far more than twice as wide as it is tall. A tour needs a full 360° photo, from a 360° camera or an app that saves one. Drop a file into the free [photo checker](https://www.panoramr.com/tools/360-photo-checker) to see which it is.

### Do I need a Matterport camera for a virtual tour?

No, not for a tour of 360° photos. Matterport's cameras scan a space into a 3D model you can measure; a 360° camera takes the photos a photo tour is made of. [Panoramr vs Matterport](https://www.panoramr.com/compare/panoramr-vs-matterport) explains the difference.

### How many megapixels do I need?

Fewer than any camera here takes. Under 4,000 pixels wide a photo may look soft when a visitor zooms in, and most 360° cameras take 6,000 or more. Google Street View asks for at least 3,840 × 1,920 (7.5 MP) for a 360° photo ([Google's requirements](https://support.google.com/maps/answer/7012050)).

### Which 360° cameras work with Google Street View?

Google takes any 360° photo that meets its requirements: twice as wide as it is tall, at least 7.5 MP, no more than 75 MB and with no gaps or stitching errors at the horizon. Its own list of compatible cameras names the RICOH THETA X and the Insta360 X3 and ONE X2, among others ([Google's list](https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6281877)). Panoramr can send a tour's panoramas to Street View: [publish panoramas to Google Street View](https://www.panoramr.com/help/publishing-360-tours-to-google-street-view).