The 360-degree look for filmmaking has taken off this year in a big way. Facebook and YouTube opened up their platforms to the “360” videos, which offer viewpoints from left, right, above and below, for a more immersive look at the world.
Several consumer VR cameras are available from Ricoh, Kodak, Samsung and 360fly, but GoPro has yet to participate on this level. The company said in January it looked to release a consumer 360 camera “soon,” but has yet to reveal more. It plans to introduce a new update to its Hero line of tiny cameras in the fall.
(GoPro has a more extensive 16-camera rig, the $15,000 Jump Odyssey, but it’s not available to the general public, just “select industry professionals.”)
Meanwhile, while filmmakers waited for GoPro to finally release a VR camera, several workarounds became available, with rigs that put a bunch of GoPro cameras together for VR from companies like Izugur and Freedom 360.
However, they’ve been anything but easy to use, requiring lots of time syncing the multiple cameras and making sure all have sufficient battery. Read More…