Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
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.
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.
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.
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.
Creating 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.
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.
As 360° VR cameras go, the Ricoh Theta S has been up there amongst the most popular. In fact, it may be the single most popular 360° camera out there. It has a very loyal fanbase, and if you’re shooting stills it’s a great little camera. For me, though, it always seemed to fall over when it came to video. It’s what always put me off buying one.
Those, like myself, who were hoping for a meatier version with 4K video might feel a little disappointed at Ricoh’s announcement today for the new Theta SC. It isn’t so much of an upgrade as a slightly crippled version of the Theta S. It does cost $50 less, though, and the changes only really affect the video you’ll never record anyway.
Moving the camera is the single biggest way to add impact and production value to your video and timelapse sequences. In fact, camera movement has almost become expected these days. The Syrp Genie Mini is a fantastic tool which lets you do exactly that. You can check out our recent review here and see for yourself.
Now the Genie Mini has just got even better, especially for stills photographers. The latest software now allows you to easily shoot panoramic stills and 360 degree photos.
GoPro’s 360° VR rig, the Omni, has been hotly anticipated for a while now. The price tag, however, is a little more substantial than had been speculated. Coming in at $5,000 it’s not going to be replacing the Theta S in your pocket any time soon.
But, you do get quite a lot for your money. Inside the hard case, you get the Omni rig itself, 6 GoPro Hero4 Blacks with 32GB microSD cards and a whole bunch of other stuff. It also includes all the software you need to get up and running quickly.
360° video is taking off like crazy. Is it just a fad as some have suggested? Perhaps. But for now, it’s here and it probably will be for some time. The amount of 360° cameras is seems to be growing daily.
From consumer cameras like the Theta S and Gear 360 to expensive cinema solutions, VR has become accessible to all. Even Facebook has gotten in on the act. Somewhere in the middle, sit the action camera rigs. That’s exactly is how Jim Abernethy of Scuba Adventures created this awesome VR video.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
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