After a relatively vague announcement back in April, GoPro Fusion is now officially out. It’s a spherical camera able to capture 5.2K spherical videos at 30fps, as well as 3K at 60fps. You can playback the videos as VR, or share them as traditional videos.
Google Street View now lets you explore the International Space Station
Google Street View lets you see almost all corners of the world, but now you can even see the world from another angle – from space. They launched the latest novelty to the web app, which lets you explore the inside of the International Space Station (ISS). In addition, you can also see the images of the Earth taken from the observation cupola.
The ISS floats 250 miles above the Earth, and it’s a base for space exploration. And through Google Street View, now you can get some insight what it looks like for the astronauts who spend their time there.
How to create epic 360 bullet time videos with some wood and a caster
Recently, we stumbled upon a video that was too good not to share. Made by Luca Amhofer, the video shows a 360-degree rig he made himself for shooting videos. The rig enables a filmmaker to place the subject in the center and rotate the camera around it. And unlike most creations of this kind, this one is inexpensive, yet still efficient.
We got in touch with Luca, and he was kind enough to share some details of his build with us. There are also some BTS images and the video, where you can get acquainted with the process. There’s also the final result, so you get to see what he achieved using this simple and cheap DIY solution.
YI Technology jump into the 360° market with the new 5.7K YI 360 VR camera
We knew it was only a matter of time before YI Technology stepped into the world of 360° cameras. Hot on the heels of the GoPro Fusion, YI Technology have now announced their own, new YI 360 VR camera. Housing a pair of 12MP Sony CMOS IMX377 1/2.3″ sensors, each side has a 220° f/2.0 lens.
The YI 360 VR is capable of producing 5.7K (5760×2880) 360° footage at 30fps. Slightly higher resolution than the GoPro Fusion. If you want to speed it up to 60fps, you’ll have to drop down to 2.5K (2560×1280). Stills capture is also at 5760×2880. THiNK Media TV got a chance to check them out in person at NAB and posted a first look video.
DJI launches FPV goggles that give you first-person view from a drone
DJI has officially brought FPV goggles for to Mavic Pro, Phantom 4 and Inspire series of drones. They have launched DJI Goggles, which will bring you the first-person view of the world the from bird perspective.
It’s like you can fly where your drone flies and see the world below you – in full HD, of course. DJI Goggles have two 1920×1080 screens, providing more than twice the amount of pixels of a typical 2K single screen. In addition, they have some more cool features, so let’s take a look.
GoPro announces Fusion, spherical camera that captures 5.2K VR videos
Although GoPro had their difficulties, they don’t give up from staying in the market. They have announced Fusion, a new spherical camera that captures photos, regular video and VR video at 5.2K resolution. GoPro plans to put the camera in sales this fall, but you can already apply for their pilot program which they will introduce this summer. If you’re impatient to see what it provides, they have released the video to show off Fusion’s capabilities.
Vimeo finally adds support for 360° videos up to 8K and a marketplace to sell your content
Yes, that’s right. Vimeo now finally supports 360° videos. Although YouTube has supported 360° videos for a while, many have criticised the low quality and high compression often shown. Even when uploading 4K 360° video to YouTube, the already degraded image loses so much more as a result. Facebook’s 360° video suffers from even higher compression rates and lower resolutions.
Vimeo has always been the place to go for hosting video if quality is your highest concern. And that seems to also hold true of 360° video from what I’ve seen of the samples posted so far. That’s probably thanks to its two-pass transcoding, which is almost always going to result in increased quality, even at the same bitrates.
TwoEyes VR – the first 3D camera that imitates human eyesight
Our eyes work together to see the depth and enable us to get the feeling of space. TwoEyes VR is the first binocular 360° VR 4K Camera that mirrors human eyesight. It allows you to shoot stunning 3D, 360° or Virtual Reality content with two pairs of lenses that imitate what you see with your eyes.
Turn your DSLR into a 360 degree camera using only this special lens
creting 360° videos involves lots of complicated settings, multiple memory cards, and you can’t go without stitching software. But the Sphere Pro lens is about to change it. Thanks to this lens, if you want to shoot full-spherical video, all you need to do is attach the lens onto your camera and start shooting. And judging from the video, the results are quite awesome.
Want to get into VR but don’t know what rig to buy? Watch this video
Virtual and augmented reality has become a big deal in the last couple of years. There’s a lot of different options out there now for shooting and streaming 360° content. If you want to get into VR content, though, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Most of the currently available solutions are quite expensive. The ones that aren’t may be inadequate for your needs.
This video from Pixvana walks us through the basic options. It helps us make decisions based on our own requirements. If you just want to stream to Facebook, for example, you don’t need a rig costing tens of thousands of dollars. On the other hand, if you want to make super detailed high resolution immersive content, you’re probably not going to manage it with a Theta.
