360 rumors

Kodak's highly anticipated Orbit360 camera has still not been released in the US.  However, it was released in Japan back in May , and predictably, resellers are now selling it on eBay . The retail price of the Orbit is 59,500 JPY ($532 USD), so the eBay prices have a little bit of a premium, which is not unexpected given eBay's fees. Meanwhile, a sample non-360 video from the Orbit360 has been posted.  One of the unique features of the Orbit360 is that it has asymmetric lenses that allow it to function as three types of cameras: an ultrawide 197-degree, an ultrawide 235-degree, or a fully spherical 360 degree camera.  Although other fully spherical 360 cameras can be cropped to achieve a similar effect,  their resolution will be significantly lower if cropped to the same field of view as an action camera. The Orbit360's ultrawide 197-degree lens, however, captures 4K video.  It can therefore offer the same 4K video resolution as GoPro   or other ...

You can take 65-megapixel 360 photos in RAW format with no parallax stitching error with the Pano5+1 Mark II, a panoramic head for GoPro Hero 5 (with an included adapter for Hero 3 and 4). The Pano5+1 Mark II is the new version of the original Pano5+1 .  The new version has several improvements including: - compatibility with GoPro Hero 3, 4, or 5 (natively compatible with Hero 5, and an included adapter for Hero 3 and 4) - fully spherical (the original version required manually holding the camera for a downshot). - transparent body casts less of a shadow - the Pano5+1 doubles as a case for the Hero 5. - includes a carrying case. By using a Hero5, it is possible to take photos in RAW for maximum image quality and then stitch the edited images together.  Please note the kit does not include stitching software.  I believe you should be able to use PanoramaStudio 3 . Here is the video Here is a sample 360 photo .  The photo is of a car interior, which is usually a diffi...

Here are hands-on impressions of the Moza WK , the world's first wearable 360 gimbal, and the most compact gimbal available for 360 cameras. The Moza WK is an accessory for the Moza Mini series of gimbals, which includes the Guru 360 gimbal for 360 cameras, the Mini-C gimbal for smartphones, and the Mini-G gimbal for GoPro cameras.  The Moza WK allows you to mount the head of any of the Moza Mini gimbals in a very compact and wearable base. The WK base has its own battery but can also be powered by USB.  It has a 1/4-20 tripod mount at the bottom, but the kit includes a 1/4-20 to GoPro adapter to use it with the many action mounts available. USING THE WK To use the WK, you simply unscrew the handle from your Moza gimbal and attach the head to the WK base.  No tools needed!  Using the WK is just as easy.  To turn on the WK, you simply hold down its power button.  That's all. By default, it will startup in all-lock mode which maintains the camera's direction ...

GoPro has posted sample 360 videos from their Fusion camera but now there are sample videos from press who got to try out the Fusion. Here are videos posted by Raymond Wong .  It's a playlist so you can select the video you want to see. Some observations: Stitching is generally excellent.  Subjects passed over the stitch line in several videos without a noticeable stitching even though they were somewhat close. Stabilization looks very effective and I didn't see any blur that you sometimes see from gyro-based stabilization.  I'm wondering if the videos were using software stabilization from Kolor Autopano Video (Kolor is now owned by GoPro). The video quality itself was sometimes not as detailed as I would have expected from a 5.2K video.  At times, it seemed to be less detailed than the video from the Xiaomi Mi Sphere . The GoPro Fusion looks interesting and I will definitely be on the lookout for more information about it.

image credit: AOL GoPro has finally revealed the Fusion.  Here are my observations and the 7 features that I predict for it.  (Image credit for all photos: AOL) GoPro announced the Fusion about two months ago.  It generated a lot of excitement because of its 5.2K resolution and the spectacular stitching in the sample videos.  GoPro said the Fusion will be available in a "limited commercial release" by then.  Here again is the sample video: However, since then, Garmin has announced the Virb 360 and retailers have already begun to ship them.  Perhaps feeling the heat, GoPro has now shown the Fusion. Based on its appearance, here are the features I predict for it. 1. OPTICAL FLOW STITCHING VIA DESKTOP The Fusion's body looks about as thick as the GoPro Hero cameras.  Among 360 cameras, that would be similar in thickness to the Yi 360 VR, and thinner than the Garmin Virb 360, two other high-resolution 360 video cameras that it is competing with.   For...

DroneVolt's Janus VR Bot is a 360 camera rig on a remote control dolly.  I don't know much about it except that it seems to use a Freedom 360 rig which uses six GoPro cameras for up to 8K resolution. B&H Photo has the Janus VR Bot listed at $14,350 without any specifications yet.  I'm not sure if the VR Bot includes the Freedom 360 rig and/or the GoPros for it. In the meantime, B&H also has the Janus 360 drone for two Freedom 360 rigs, for about the same price  (the price excludes the cost of the Freedom 360 rigs)  You can check out a sample video from the Janus 360  in this previous post .

Gearbest has a flash sale with discounts on a couple of VR headsets and some action cameras that can be used for 360 camera rigs. HIGH RESOLUTION VR HEADSET: PIMAX 4K Pimax's 4K VR headset is a desktop VR headset with a 4K (3840 x 1920) screen.  The per-eye resolution is 1920 x 1920, which is significantly higher than that of the HTC Vive or Rift (1080 x 1200).  Upload VR tried it and they said that it was crisper than anything they had seen .   Pimax 4K is on sale at GearBest for $375  with free shipping. HOMAGE TO GOOGLE DAYDREAM: MI PLAY 2 Xiaomi's Mi Play 2 is a Google Cardboard viewer based on the design of the Google Daydream headset (but I don't have anything to indicate that it is an actual Daydream headset with NFC codes etc.).  It fits phones with screens from 4.7 to 5.7 inches.  It looks like a comfortable Cardboard viewer.   It's on sale for $23.99  with free shipping to the US. 4K ACTION CAMERAS ON SALE There are several 4K action cam...

At NAB Show, Yi Technology launched the Halo, a 360 camera capable of shooting at 3D 360 video at 8K.  Check out the sample 360 video! Yi made several announcements at NAB Show 2017, but the two most significant were the announcement of the Yi 360 VR, a 5.7K 360 camera, and the Yi Halo, a Google Jump rig.  We've talked about the Yi 360 VR  and showed samples here .  In this post, we'll talk about the Yi Halo. Last year, at the 2016 Google IO conference, Google announced that Yi Technology was creating a version of the Google Jump rig.  Everyone in the industry assumed that Yi's Google Jump rig would be a lower-cost version of the first commercial Google Jump rig, the GoPro Odyssey.  Instead, the Yi Halo offers additional features for the same price as the Odyssey. Here are the key specifications, highlighting differences from the GoPro Odyssey: - video resolution: 8192 x 8192 @ 30fps or 5760 x 5760 @ 60 fps. - sixteen Yi 4K cameras plus one up-cam...

Google announced that there will be 20 new cameras in 2017 that will be certified for compatibility with Google Street View. Google announced a new Street View certification program, and also announced that there would be 20 cameras "released over the coming months" in 2017 that would be certified under the program. There are four different types of Street View certifications: 1. Mobile ready - can upload to Street View directly from their mobile app without needing a desktop. 2. Auto ready - can be used to take Street View photos from a car "with the highest accuracy." 3. VR ready - these cameras take not only photos but also "geometry" and can generate connected photos. 4. Workflow ready - tools (with or without cameras) that can publish to Street View. Among the interesting companies mentioned are: - Giroptic : mobile ready.  This is interesting because the iO does not meet the minimum resolution for GSV.  I don't know if this means the Giroptic 360...

I've posted a few times about the Panono, my favorite 360 camera for photography because of its hyper-detailed 108mp photos.  But the Panono costs $2,000.  Fortunately, you can capture high-resolution 360 photos with Panohero, a panoramic head for GoPro and Yi action cameras.  Not only will the photo have resolutions of 72 megapixels or higher, but there will also be no parallax stitching error. UPDATE : Panohero provided sample files shot on GoPro that you can use to try stitching yourself here . Before all-in-one 360 cameras were invented, photographers shot panoramas with traditional (non-360) cameras.  Today, panoramic photography is still the best way to capture 360 photos with detail that cannot be matched by existing 360 cameras. One problem with panoramic photography is that it's quite technical.  First, you need a suitable lens such as a fisheye lens, which are not always cheap.  Second, you'll need to shoot the panorama properly.  If you just...

Here is a 360 video comparison between five 360 cameras, by Aram Pan of plus720.com !  Here are the cameras Aram compared: - 2017 Samsung Gear 360 - Nikon Keymission 360 - Entaniya 280 on a GoPro Hero 4 Black - Giroptic 360Cam (their first camera, not the Giroptic iO) - Ricoh Theta SC Here is the video comparison: What do you think?  Let me know in the comments!  You can check out the cameras here: -  2017 Samsung Gear 360 -  Nikon Keymission 360 - Entaniya 280 on a  GoPro Hero 4 Black -  Giroptic 360Cam -  Ricoh Theta SC ABOUT ARAM PAN Aram Pan's YouTube channel is quite popular.  One of his past projects was a 360 video of North Korea (!).   Here is the story of his trip .  And here is his 360 video from North Korea  (captured with the Entaniya 280 + GoPro Hero 4 Black).  You can follow Aram's YouTube channel here .

For professional image quality 360 video, a rig is still the way to go.  The 360Heros 3DPro is a 3D 360 rig that can capture fully spherical 3D 360 video that is stereoscopic in all directions, even the zenith and nadir. The 3DPro converts to use either twelve or fourteen GoPro Hero 4 Black cameras.  With fourteen cameras, it has omnidirectional 3D.  With twelve cameras, the horizon is 3D in all directions, but the zenith and nadir are not stereoscopic. The 3DPro allows you to capture 3D 360 video at up to 8k resolution (8000 x 4000).  The minimum focus distance is 4 feet. To sync the cameras, the 3DPro relies on audio syncing.  It includes an audio sync clicker. The 3DPro is available for preorder from B&H for $999.95 with free expedited shipping.  It includes the following: (1) 3DPro 360 Plug-n-Play™ Holder (1) 360RIZE 1/4"-20 to 3/8" mounting accessory/ adapter (1) Audio sync clicker (1) 360RIZE screwdriver/ camera removal tool (1) Velvet holder ba...

We've seen the GoPro Odyssey , its 16-camera 3D 360 rig implementation of Google Jump.  We've also seen the GoPro Omni , its 6-camera 360 rig with 8k resolution.  GoPro has another 360 camera - one that is much more compact and unlike the GoPro rigs, does not require stitching, and is indeed capable of livestreaming in 360.  Hit the jump for the details. This is what the GoPro LiveVR camera looks like: The LiveVR system has two lenses and sensors, and is based on two HERO4 Black cameras and two HEROCast livestreaming transmitters. Although the LiveVR system is based on the HERO4 Black, its lenses aren't simply HERO4 Black retail units that are back to back, but instead appears to be an all-in-one unit. GoPro demo'd its LiveVR system at MotoGP on the motorcycle of Dakota Mamola, son of the famous Randy Mamola, who in 1985 was the first to carry an onboard camera that could broadcast the cockpit view live. Now history is repeating in 360 with the Live VR camera.  Here...

Here's a very good comparison of the video performance between four 360 degree cameras: - a GoPro Ball rig with 7 GoPro cameras - Kodak SP360 4k dual pro pack - Samsung Gear 360 - Ricoh Theta S The comparison is by Foundry45 , a business-oriented VR production company that produces VR videos for sales, marketing and recruitment.  Here are some of their conclusions: - The GoPro has the best image quality but takes a lot of time and effort to process.  - The Samsung Gear 360 image quality indoors is not as good as the Kodak SP360 4k dual pro, but it is easy to process because the image is automatically stitched. - They recommend the SP360 4k as the best compromise between image quality and processing time. - The Theta S has the best stitching because of the very small distance between the lenses.  The photo quality is great, and the video quality might be "good enough" for YouTube Facebook but not for viewing on a headset. - The GoPro and SP360 4k cameras are not perfectly ...