The most common question we get from teams buying or renting a Matterport camera is simple: Pro3 or Pro2? Both produce excellent walkable 3D tours. The difference is what happens beyond the tour.
What changed with the Pro3?
The Matterport Pro3 introduced LiDAR — Light Detection and Ranging, which measures distance with laser pulses to build a dense, accurate point cloud. That single change unlocks three things the Pro2 cannot do:
- Outdoor capture. The Pro3 works in direct sunlight with a 100-meter range. The Pro2 is indoor-only.
- Point-cloud export. The Pro3 produces
.e57files for engineering, BIM, and as-built workflows. - Faster, longer-range scans. Larger spaces capture in fewer sweeps.
When the Pro2 is still the right call
If you only shoot indoor marketing tours — hotels, retail, residential interiors — the Pro2 delivers a beautiful result at a lower rental rate ($125/day vs $175/day). Its 134MP capture produces crisp, color-accurate panoramas. For most hospitality and residential work, that's all you need.
How we choose
We match the camera to the deliverable:
- Marketing tour only, indoors? Pro2.
- Outdoor areas, large spaces, or point clouds? Pro3.
- Survey-grade accuracy for BIM? We add the Leica BLK360 G2.
If you're deciding for your own team, our camera comparison page lays out every spec side by side, and you can rent either camera to test before you commit.
