360 rumors

A photographer claims that he dove with his 2017 Samsung Gear 360 12 meters underwater without any kind of underwater case and was able to take photos.... The shooter uses the pseudonym  Aris Tocrate .  According to him, not only did the camera survive, but the photos look excellent, with seamless stitching notwithstanding the refraction of the water. Here's a crop showing the seamless stitching, notwithstanding the water's refraction. He posted two samples.  Here's a screenshot from his other post on the Samsung Gear 360 2017 group. I discussed it with one of my friends and my friend found another post by the same user, showing the exact same photo, but he posted it to the Nikon Keymission 360 Facebook group, also claiming he took the shot without a case: It therefore appears that this is just a prank (1 month and 22 days late I would say).  The truth is that the 2017 Samsung Gear 360 (available here) is water-resistant but NOT waterproof.  If you want to us...

Here are some videos that could be early samples from the Yi 360 VR, a 360 camera with 5.7K video from action camera company Yi Technology. The Yi 360 VR is probably the most significant announcement to come out of NAB, with game-changing 5.7K video (or 4K with in-camera stitching) and 2.5K live streaming at just $400.  To put that in context, each frame of the Yi 360 VR video has about the same resolution as a Ricoh Theta photo (!). Two readers independently spotted some videos that may be samples from the Yi 360 VR. First, Kate Crosby found these videos that were labeled as test live stream videos from the "Yi 360 camera," which seems to be a test from a Yi Technology employee.  The video resolution is only 720p, but that could be because of the limited internet speed in China (presumably). There are other similar videos from the video's author.  Despite the low 720p resolution, the video is actually quite detailed.  In this frame grab, you can see the individual ...

The highly anticipated Oculus Touch for the Oculus Rift may be coming as early as September. Although the Oculus Touch was announced with the  Oculus Rift (first impressions here) , the Touch was not included with the Rift at launch, which instead included the Oculus Remote and an Xbox One controller. The Touch is highly anticipated not only because it adds motion controls for greater immersiveness, but also because it includes an additional sensor, which can add room scale VR capability to the Rift (with just one sensor, it's possible but more difficult to do room scale due to occlusion). Oculus promised the Touch would be available in the second half of 2016.  Now it appears that window is being narrowed and the Touch may be available in September.  At one Best Buy store, Mike Cane found a mockup display of the Oculus Touch together with the Rift, indicating a release "around September." @360rumorsblog Yes, with a sign saying they were coming. Showed a pair. — Mike ...

Ricoh has released a new version of the Theta each year since 2013.  What we don't know is if it's an incremental upgrade like the m15 (which added video), or an overhaul like the Theta S. PentaxRumors says the new Theta, to be annonuced later this year (likely at Photokina), will have 4k video.  That would be a very welcome improvement that addresses the single biggest weakness of the Theta S.  One technical challenge could be overheating because of the Theta's densely-packed electronics. Check out PentaxRumors here .  For other possible features of the new Theta,  check here .