We've recently been hearing a lot about systems that record 360-degree video, although they mostly appear to be either professional setups or offerings from relatively small startup companies. That changed yesterday, however, when JK Imaging announced the new Kodak PixPro SP360 actioncam.
As can be seen, the camera has a compact cube-shaped body, topped by a fixed dome lens. It can be remotely controlled via Wi-Fi using an iOS/Android mobile device or a Mac/PC computer, although it also has its own menu button and LCD status screen.
It can shoot in one of five viewing modes: front (212º), dome, 360º panorama, ring/sphere, and a top/bottom split-screen that simultaneously shows 180º front and rear views. Examples of these modes can be seen in the video at the bottom of the page.
Once the raw footage has been downloaded to a computer, users can pan left, right or up within shots, then save the shot – as seen from that vantage point – as a separate video file. This means that the final edited video can consist of shots seen from a variety of angles, and in a variety of viewing modes.
The 103-gram (3.6-oz) camera itself shoots video at 1080p/30fps, has a 16-megapixel MOS sensor, and records MP4 files on a user-supplied Micro SD or SDHC card. Power is provided by a lithium-ion battery, that allows users to shoot approximately 160 minutes of video per charge. The SP360 is also dustproof, water-resistant, shockproof to a drop height of 2 meters (6.6 ft) and freeze-proof down to -10º C (14º F).
Other features include a 10fps burst photo mode, time lapse, and a motion detector setting that only starts recording once the subject starts moving.
The PixPro 360 is available now, and is priced at US$349 for the basic package.
Source: Kodak