You’ll need a fairly recent Samsung smartphone in the first place, though. It’s easy enough to change photo and video resolution, frame rate, white balance, timer delay and other handy settings, without having to dig down into the menus. That last one only saves a set amount of footage before writing over it, like a car dash cam. Tapping an icon switches shooting mode between single shot, video, time-lapse and looping video. Once you’ve paired them together, your phone becomes a remote viewfinder and controller – plus you can play back your clips or check your photos without having to head to a computer.

The companion app makes things a lot easier. Samsung’s desktop editing and playback apps are only built for Windows, so Mac users are out of luck. They’re not VR-ready if you pull them straight off the microSD card onto a PC – you’ve got to upload to a site that supports playing back 360° clips, or watched on a compatible device. Without a phone to hand, there’s also the problem of what to do with your files once you’ve recorded them.

The Gear 360 has a tiny display and a couple of hardware controls, but save yourself the hassle and don’t use them – they’re far too fiddly, and framing your footage takes too much guesswork.

Samsung 360 gear with insta 360 app