OpenStreetMap
Having both GoPro Hero11 and Max360, I was curious whether there would be any use from running both cameras at the same time. While Max 360 captures all around, would Hero 11 possibly have better resolution, which could be useful for streetview platforms like Mapillary and Panoramax, thus also providing additional detail for OSM mapping?
Here’s the same object - a surveillance camera - from both action cameras. Hero11 is even a little bit further away.
Max360:
Hero11:
As can be seen, Hero11 does offer notably better resolution, which could be crucial with signs and other objects - thus it does make sense to collect imagery with two cameras like that at the same time.
Discussion
Comment from vorpalblade on 15 April 2024 at 14:21
This is not too much of a surprise.
Specifications:
In short, the GoPro 11 is getting more pixels per degree of FoV. This is something like 4-5x pixels per degree of FoV. Of specific note, you can theoretically get a full panorama with 3 GoPro Hero 11’s (360/122 == 2.95). If you were to go for a 360 with GoPro Hero 11s, you would need 6 cameras for a “total” 162.78 MP (minus a bit due to overlap). That is almost 10x more pixels per degree as compared to the GoPro Max. Of course, that is also a lot more money ($350 * 6 = $2100 versus $500).
Comment from richlv on 15 April 2024 at 14:51
Yeah, that’s exactly why I decided to test it :)
Not just the initial purchase, rigging together multiple Hero’s would also require some custom stand, extra battery/charging care, some solution to merge all the images… I’m sure people are doing that, but probably not as pure hobbyist projects.