A new 3D 360 camera opens for pre-orders and GoPro’s 16-camera rig has finally shipped.
Even though we have been raving about the $400 Samsung Gear 360 camera in our latest tests, sometimes you might want a little more out of your footage – 3D. The Gear 360 is a fantastic option for shooting 360° video, especially for sharing on YouTube or Facebook, but it’s limited to just two-wide angle lens.
Enter the VUZE. Double the price of a Gear 360 at $799, but this portable camera sports eight cameras instead of two, positioned in pairs around the perimeter of its somewhat flatter shape.
Developed by Israeli imagining company HumanEyes, the camera is available for preorders starting today and will begin shipping this fall. The VUZE can capture both 4K 3D and 2D 360° video content, allowing you to toggle between the two outputs. The camera also comes with an app and software that let’s you preview the footage on the go and auto-stitch it all together, a necessary feature we are growing to expect from all 360° cameras. You can then relive the whole scene you just captured in a VR headset with any smartphone.
At the $800 price point, this can be a great option for hobbyists and professionals alike looking to capture 3D 360° footage, making 3D VR capabilities more accessible to everyone.
GoPro’s Odyssey Rig
When it comes to professional 3D 360° video camera rigs, one option that does come to mind is GoPro’s Odyssey.
According to The Verge, after months of delays, the 16-camera VR rig that is a collaboration between GoPro and Google, has finally shipped. Although GoPro did not reveal the exact number of rigs that have shipped to customers, the action camera company did name familiar names like WEVR, VRSE, Specular Theory, Surreal, and Two Bit Circus as some of the first to receive the rig.
The Odyssey rig is definitely a professional camera when compared to the VUZE, coming in at a price tag of $15,000 that includes 16 GoPro cameras positioned in a array around this disk like camera rig. The Odyssey also includes a microphone, all the necessary cables, a Pelican case, warranty, support and access to Google’s servers for rendering.
The camera rig was announced at last year’s Google I/O developer conference as part of Google’s announcement of Jump, an entire ecosystem for VR filmmaking. I am positive we can expect a slew of VR announcements at the Google I/O conference kicking off next week and hope to see more footage from this bad boy.
