While the 360 camera market has seen a lot of entries from established names like GoPro and Ricoh, as well as upstarts like Insta360 and Kandao, there's one industry giant that's been notably silent: DJI. That may about to change.
Another year, another Insta360 release. While that sounds like an anti-climactic statement about the new X5, it's not meant to be. While there may not be any headline-grabbing features like higher-resolution footage, there are a few improvements that make the camera just a bit more livable than the X4.
It’s a bold move to append the word “Ultra” to the end of your camera name, but in the case of the Kandao QooCam 3 Ultra, the name fits.
Meanwhile, in VR news, today, Canon announced a new addition to its lens lineup, the new RF-S 3.9mm f/3.5 STM Dual Fisheye lens.
I’ve often said there’s not a bad camera on the market today. At this point, that logic is starting to apply to 360 cameras as well. Though there are no bad cameras — and the PanoX V2 is included in that — there are also cameras that may be more worth your hard-earned money.
The Apple Vision Pro is, without a doubt, one of the most jaw-dropping pieces of technology I've ever tested. But, after the thrill wore off, I was left with an uncomfortable device that was just a little worse than my phone, laptop, and television.
360 cameras have become jacks of all trades, but there’s a specific reason that photojournalists might want to consider carrying one in the field: to replace a wide angle lens.
Kandao made quite a splash with the QooCam 3 earlier this year, undercutting its nearest competition by quite a few dollars to make a very good case on value versus performance. Kandao just announced that camera's bigger brother, the QooCam 3 Ultra, and it looks to take the same formula and amp it up.
Most of the time, it's hard to get excited about a bag. That's because bags are mostly like air: they exist. They're just there. But finding a good bag for 360 content creators is a little more difficult.
Without much fanfare, Canon showed off a prototype consumer 360/180 VR camera shortly after Apple's reveal of its Vision Pro VR headset in June. Now, we have a better idea of what's under the hood.
While 360 cameras haven’t quite entered the mainstream for most photographers, Kandao’s QooCam 3 makes a solid case why they should: Kandao’s third entry into its QooCam lineup is a solid 360 action camera at a bargain price.
Ever wonder about VR filmmaking, but aren’t sure how to get started? Here is a mini-primer using the Canon RF 5.2mm f/2.8 L Dual Fisheye 3D VR lens and the R5 C camera.
It's still a bit of the wild west for 360 video editors in 2023, but that said, many of the major brands and smaller competitors have made great strides in catching up with their software to cater to this specific niche. If that's you, you'll want to read about these four video editing tools.
Anybody of a certain age remembers the ViewMaster, a favorite childhood toy that read circular reels through a bright red stereoscopic viewfinder, rendering images from those reels in vivid, 3D detail. If nothing else, the color of Kandao’s new QooCam EGO viewfinder gives away that someone at that company has fond memories of the ViewMaster.
Shooting 360 video in low-light has never been easy, but larger sensors that are popping up in cameras like the Insta360 ONE RS 1-Inch 360 Edition Camera are increasing possibilities for night shooting. Here are a few tips to make the most of whatever 360 camera you've got for low light.
Insta360’s cameras have been using the same 360 sensor setup for about three years, and now, it’s getting a serious update. Will the quality make up for the bulk?
It's really a shame that quite possibly the world's most advanced all-in-one 360 camera shares a name with the world's most popular social media platform. It makes the new Meta Three camera really hard to find online. But YouTuber and 360 content creator Hugh Hou was able to get a hands-on look at one in the flesh, and what a look it is.
The new accessory will allow users to shoot 360-degree footage in the air.
360 video has opened up tons of new creative opportunities for filmmakers even when they're not shooting in 360 mode. The apps included with new cameras such as Insta360's ONE X2 can reframe and cut video into compelling 2D footage, and new modes that incorporate AI are creating possibilities that were previously unheard of.
There's no doubt that images have the power to shape history. That's even more true for war photos such as photojournalist Nick Ut's "Napalm Girl" photo or Eddie Adams' "Saigon Execution" photo, two images that really helped shape American views of the Vietnam conflict. In 2022, it's modern-day 360 images that will have the power to truly show the devastation of Ukraine.
It figures that right after I write about how quiet 2022 is so far for 360 cameras that less than a week later, Ricoh decides to shatter that notion. The new Ricoh Theta X brings a few things to the table to shake things up in the consumer 360 camera market.
It's the start of 2022, and once again the world has retreated into pandemic bubbles. If ever there was a use-case for 360 images and videos, it's now, when it's safer to experience things virtually than in-person. That's where 360 cameras come in, and here's a pretty comprehensive list of the best horse for both photo and video courses.
Canon released a unique, incredibly niche lens aimed at VR content creators in the latter half of last year, the RF 5.2mm f/2.8L Dual Fisheye 3D VR Lens. How does it stack up against the competition? Is there competition in this space?
Smartphone cameras and AI technology can produce beautiful results. Many of them can intelligently boost colors in an image, blur out a background to mimic larger optics, or even change how you look. The question is: how far is too far with smartphones and AI manipulation of images?
Canon's announcement of their newest RF lens has pricked up a lot of ears in curiosity. Is this new lens going to be brilliant, or is it too niche to succeed?
It looked like 2021 was going to be somewhat of a dry year for virtual reality content creators, and then out of nowhere, Canon drops the RF 5.2mm f/2.8 L Dual Fisheye lens aimed squarely at creators of 180 VR content. It's now possible to more easily shoot this kind of content in 8K, but beyond that, what other new features does it bring to the table? Expert VR content creator Hugh Hou explains.
For any landscape photographer who prioritizes getting the money shot over serendipitously stumbling on a picturesque scene, using apps to predict the weather and to visualize an image is a foundational aspect of their workflow. While there are some incredibly useful apps out there, there isn't much that could beat being able to virtually travel to a location and time.
The year’s been pretty quiet for 360 cameras, which is why the launch of the Kandao Obsidian Pro, a 12K 360 camera made up of 8 APS-C sized sensors, is pretty much an extinction-level event this year as far as 360 cameras are concerned. The specs put it easily above other all-in-one 360 solutions, but how does it stack up in the real world?
Capturing the world in 360 has been a thing for years. While companies such as Ricoh and Insta360 have made the process far easier than the days of specialized tripod heads and sophisticated software, it’s still not an easily understood process or format. Vecnos aims to change that with its new IQUI 360 camera.
With a global pandemic precluding many from physically visiting places, you’d think that 360 cameras would move beyond niche status into the mainstream, as the immersive aspect can somewhat create an effect of being somewhere in-person. While that hasn’t really happened, maybe capturing those spaces in 12K 360 video will change that. At least that’s what Kandao is hoping for its new Obsidian Pro 360 camera.
