We’ve seen that 360 video cameras are starting to get used in nearly every aspect of life including travel, real estate, car testing, etc. To guarantee that we make the best out of it and exploit the features of these cameras, we need to make sure that we get the decent quality ones.
Facebook Surround 360
Who doesn’t love surprises, right? Well, Facebook Surround 360 was a surprise announcement. The camera costs about $30,000 and 4 hours to assemble. It has 17 cameras and a fish eye camera pointing upwards. Facebook has announced to make both the hardware and software open source so that people can use the blueprint and make their own modifications.
Its flying saucer shaped camera is used to take 360 videos of high quality and resolution. Its fisheye camera points upwards and it has two cameras pointing downwards to get all round footage. It replaces the hand by an algorithm and can take unified panoramas with barely any hand intervention. Its stitching code reduces post-production time and it can export 4k, 6k and 8k videos for each eye.
It does what the basic camera does i.e. capture, process, and render but additionally, it is a lot more of a complicated design since it captures the depth of an image, computes left-right eye stereoscopic discrepancy, achieves global synchronization with all the cameras by making them capture 30 to 60 frames simultaneously, and accomplish sophisticated computational photography.
Jaunt One
It was the first professional 360 video camera released. That was designed mainly for high grade and high resolution 360 immersive, stereoscopic videos. It is only available for rent exclusively through Los Angeles -based rental stores. It has 24 cameras which are available in two configurations. The first being 24G which is used to capture low light and fast moving objects. The second is the 24R configuration which is used for outdoor and time lapse photography. It is not consumer friendly because of its size and weight but it can result in the quality virtual reality experience.
Google Jump Odyssey
This sophisticated 360 video camera was announced by Google I/O in partnership with GoPro. It costs about $15,000 and is available only to selected industry professionals who can get a hold of it by registering and filling out a form. Since it is a 3D camera it can be used with virtual reality devices and headsets. It can capture good content and make it look immersive. It is fitted with 16 HERO4 cameras, a panoramic rig, and 16 micro SD cards. It has a good power back up and is ideal for long, extended use. It has 16 rechargeable lithium batteries (with good electrode separators, it won’t explode). The Jump assembler that comes with the camera assembles all 16 cameras and makes it look like one. The cameras can render high-resolution images (i.e. up to 8192 x 8192) and create the perfect panoramas without borders and horizon edges. It gives a very pleasing experience with its whole ‘3D in every direction’ concept.
Nokia OZO
This camera is by far the most expensive one in the market but it promises to be worth every penny. It looks like something you would see in one of the Men In Black movies. All futuristic and urbane. It has already made a deal with Disney. It set its price at $60,000 but has of late slashed $15,000. So it now stands at $45,000. A good deal if you dwell into the whole package which includes its 8 cameras, each of them having a lens with 2k x 2k sensors, 8 microphones to sync the audio and video, about 500GB of storage and global shutters for more accurate representation of motion. It also has a digital cartridge which holds that significant amount of storage as well as the battery, and a docking station which acts as the charging point for the 360 video camera. Also, comes with it, an SDI thunderbolt cable which feeds into the Blackmagic Box ( a mini recorder) that allows real -time monitoring through an Nokia Ozo app that runs on a Mac Pro. The plus point about the Nokia Ozo is that it lets you live monitor the scene before you actually press record. It creates both monoscopic and stereoscopic videos. It can be imported to a number of editing software like Adobe and exported into MP4 images or maybe even DPX files.
Lytro Immerge
It is the first professional light field 360 video camera which can perceive depth from any point. Unlike other cameras, it does not require any stitching. Once an image or a video is captured, it can be played on any device. It can hold one hour of footage. It includes everything from camera to playback. It has a server for storage and processing, a light field editing software which has numerous visual effects and tools and also streaming server.
GoPro Omni
This is probably the least expensive high-end 360 video camera available in the market. They started selling in the month of August and were sold out in no time. It is a $5,000 design which includes the 6 cameras, the software, memory cards and cables. Although lightweight, it is compact and rugged. The aluminum casing of the camera alone costs about $1,500. The 6 camera array like the Google Jump Odyssey, are Hero4 black cameras with an 8k image capture but they can be upgraded with Omni features using a VR firmware that can be downloaded after purchasing the Rig Only package. Its software so far has no issues and doesn’t require a license either. It also allows adding 2D elements to 360 videos. Like other designs, the Omni doesn’t align all its 6 cameras right away. Instead, it connects these cameras to a central processing point and syncs them all at the pixel stage. This makes the stitching even better. It is basically a portable, 120 x 120 x 120 cube with specs that can create an engaging experience for the users and the viewers.
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