First look at Canon’s newest VR tools
Sep 18, 2023
Alex Baker
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
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Canon is leading the field in virtual reality (VR) cameras and systems. With their stereoscopic dual fisheye lens and hybrid mirrorless camera bodies, you can produce high-grade 8K RAW VR videos at a relatively low cost.
It’s all very impressive, but Canon isn’t stopping there. They are pushing the boundaries and offering customers more exciting VR180 cameras and systems for lower prices without skimping on quality. DIYP talked to Mark from Canon to find out more.
[Related reading: Shooting VR 180 videos series]
Dual fisheye with EOS R6II
The first major development is that the 5.2mm dual fisheye lens now works with the Canon EOS R6II body. That’s a major development because previously, the only camera bodies the lens worked with were the R5 and R5c, both costing around $4000. The R6II, however, costs just over half of that at $2499.
The biggest difference is that the R6 II doesn’t record 8K RAW. However, the footage is technically 4K but is sampled from 6K, and the quality is still very good, even when viewed through a headset. This move should open up the possibilities of shooting VR to even more Canon users. (If you want to learn more about shooting VR 180 video with the Canon system, check out our series here).
Livestreaming VR180
The next development is the ability to livestream VR180. Again, at the moment, it’s only available in 4K, and it’s still very early, this is merely a prototype. But that’s what being on the cutting edge really means. This has great potential for streaming sports and live music and is really very exciting. The speed at which this technology is moving, I give it six months, and we will be seeing this system being used.
New folding 180/360 camera
Thirdly, DIYP got to see the latest VR180 camera: the folding 360/180 camera that lets you choose between two points of view. It turns seamlessly from a monoscopic 360-degree view camera to a stereoscopic 180-degree view. This is a small compact camera, but it can still shoot at 8K 30fps which is quite incredible.
Clearly, exciting times are ahead in Canon’s VR development. Watch this space!
Alex Baker
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
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2 responses to “First look at Canon’s newest VR tools”
So the R6II can do 180 vr. What about the R8 that uses the same sensor and processor? Why not?
Why not? Because R8 camera is an old model and unfortunately Canon will not spend its resources to update the old equipment.
But you are not missing much. R6/R8 cameras have sensors with only 24 MP resolution. You don’t want to use the cameras with too low resolution to produce VR180 content. Such content will not look in VR headset sharp enough to be appreciated.
Believe me, even photographs taken with VR180 rig based on R5 body (with its 45 MP sensor) are at the end left with less than 12 MP per-eye effective resolution (because each fisheye image circle is cropped to about 3200×3200 pixels squares and then stretched during equirectangular projection). Those images look rather soft when watched through Quest3 lenses.