Although it’s possible just to use a smartphone for image capture, 360 images (photospheres) are the best way to take in the totality of a scene.
The GoPro Max is the current standard recommendation but it’s also quite pricey for the individual. Has anyone tried any alternatives? How did it go?
Might be better to ask this in a bigger group!
If you live in a large enough city with lots of active mappers, perhaps someone else in your local community would be willing to lend you theirs. Mapillary has also issued GoPros through their grant program, but I’m unsure whether they’re still doing that.
I haven’t tried any alternatives, so I can’t comment on that part of your question.
Good luck!
i used the xiaomi mijia 360 back when i was doing mapillary a few years ago. it was cheaper than the gopro as i remember.
it was a bit finicky to use overall but it got the job done at the same time. its not standalone camera like the gopro so you have to keep it connected to the app while youre using it. the app was very basic and whether they have kept it updated and working with the latest android is something you would want to check. the xiaomi desktop software that you use to convert the images to flat photos would crash after doing a few hundred so you have to manually restart the process a few times to get all of them converted.
heres an example of what the quality is like. this is on a monopod sticking out the back window of my car, with the 2 lenses pointing to the left and right side of the car
