The one downside of the higher resolution camera was that it eats batteries.
Tag: 360°
I found time for a very quick look, and everything looks good.
I posted the other day about my excitement over the new Ricoh Theta V 4K/360° camera that has recently been released, and then my disappointment on reading about some of the details. This ultimately led to me cancelling my pre-order for the camera.
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I’ve experimented a little with it, and am not yet sure if it is good enough for what I want to do with it. The picture is what it has always been – not brilliant, but ok; but on Live streaming, I’ve experienced some very poor sound; worse than when just uploading video, and irrespective of whether I use the camera’s microphone or external mikes.
The simplicity of this 3D printed device is wonderful – the camera fits into the housing, held in by the tripod screw; and a lever arrangement physically pushs the button on the pull of a string. Easy to rig, and simple to use. They even include a matching ring to put on the end of the string.
This is getting surreal. Checking on what was up on HugVR today, I found the Canadian chap I was talking to last night experimenting with another guy in England, attempting a two way VR hookup.
For this chap, it is his job – he has started a company producing and consulting in VR for sales, education and entertainment; I’d come across him chilling and playing with kit, but when he knew I had the same camera as the one he was using tonight, he was interested in my opinions on quality. Then when he found I was an amateur musician, he really got excited, and got his guitar out, and we spent time discussing how cool live streamed 360° could be for virtual house concerts.
But it also led me to play with Google Cardboard, which is a deliberately cheap design for a Virtual Reality headset. In particular, video taken with the Theta and uploaded to YouTube can be viewed using Google Cardboard, and as you move your head, the frame of view moves accordingly. It is an amazing immersive effect, even with the crudest resolution of video.
360° video not being supported is demonstratably false. Below is an embedded YouTube 360° video. Viewing it embedded in my blog page, it displays perfectly. However, if you click through to YouTube using the YouTube icon on the video, you will be told “360° video playback is not supported on this browser.”