Boxfish Research has announced the launch of its new Boxfish 360, a 5K camera equipped with multiple Panasonic Micro Four Thirds sensors able to capture spherical photos and video. This model is designed for professional use and, according to the company, offers better clarity and colors than similar 360-degree rigs created using multiple action cameras. The camera made its debut at CES 2017.
Boxfish 360 features 185-degree circular fisheye lenses with an F1.8 maximum aperture, an internal battery offering up to 90 minutes of recording per charge and both 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch mounting threads. Though the cameras are secured within a fully waterproof housing, Boxfish Research says the battery and microSD cards (up to six supported) can be quickly accessed without using tools via a hatch.
Videos are recorded using the H.264 codec with a bit rate of 60Mbps, and still images are saved as JPGs and DNGs. Boxfish 360 offers up to a claimed 10 stops of dynamic range and records camera metrics such as water temperature, water depth and camera orientation during recording. Operators are given various elements of control, such as underwater start/stop and manual aperture control.
Boxfish released the camera for preorder last week and will begin shipping the next batch starting May 15. Interested buyers can pay a 50% balance of the $14,990 USD price tag to secure a unit, or buyers can pay outright ahead of the shipment date. A total of ten cameras are offered in the next batch, some of which are already reserved.
Nice and good with 4K and large sensors, but with a price tag 50 times higher then the Theta S, I will rather be patient and wait for a 4K 60p upgrade of the Theta.
This is the answer. Even 4K is not enough to make good quality 360 video. This looks pretty ok, much better than earlier attempts, but it is still some way from being actually good.
Actually people who are "wondering who needs 8K" refer to traditional video display. As in 8K normal video on a 8K screen.
360 video is a special case, and for comparable viewing experience you will need the content to be several times the resolution, so one view at a time - the actual image you view at one point on the screen should be high res enough.
A "4K 360" video, actually only display at one point 1360 pixels wide for 120 degree fov (or 1024 pixels for 90 degree fov). So you would need 6K-8K data for displaying only normal "FHD", which is 1920pixels wide.
Hm...still looks like VHS Footage, and thoose stitching lines that cut fish in half are not pretty either. I think this technology has to go a long way until really usable.
5K video oh man that sounds real fancy but I'm positive it has a horrible bitrate since all of these 360 degree and drone cameras have horrendously low bit rates.
Reads article. "Videos are recorded using the H.264 codec with a bit rate of 60Mbps,...".
Come on people. When will they know that high resolution doesn't matter if your bitrate is so low.
The real quality issue is stitch errors. This seems to do very well, with only one stitch error obvious to me in the sample video. The rule of thumb is no closer than 30X the difference in camera reference points, which here I'd guess means about 5-6 feet... so no 360-degree macros unless they are carefully aligned within one camera's view. It is kind of odd they don't support a larger battery/storage unit for longer runtimes and higher bitrates....
yes... but you have to buy a bag and seal it carefully to be able to take it underwater... too much of a hassle, rather pay the $15.000 they want for this toy.
For those who live in a bubble? I find the distortions in the demo video more than a little distracting. Aside from a possible scientific research tool or a novelty camera for those who have everything else and need the latest gadget, I see little application.
I agree... unless you're able to watch the videos with the aid of some kind of VR headset where the video pans as you turn your head or in a 360 degree theatre, I don't really see the point.
It's kind of the same idea to me as HDR or 3D in which there's supposed to be greater interest in images that have more information... that somehow a closer approximation of how we see is going to be more compelling. What interests me about photography is just the opposite idea; presenting a more singular, more limited view of reality... but then again, I like B&W photography...
The idea is to watch this with a vr headset. The oculus rift and other surround environments create the absolute need for this. This is where a normal camera completely fails. The point is not to watch it as a flat image. These cameras are made because people are watching and doing things with 360 degree viewable solutions. That's the whole point. You missed the entire point on this one. I am not saying $15k sounds like a good deal, I am saying that viewing a 360 image on a flat screen is weird. Why would you do that?
As BikeBen said, you can view this with your smartphone. The view changes as you move your phone around. A tablet with the necessary sensors (gyros, compass, etc?) should probably work too.
(Although you'll probably look silly waving your device around, if you do it in public.)
VR and its headsets are another gimmick that has far more sinister implications. It was bad enough when e-mail, Twitter, Facebook etc caused people to become more remote with one another. Another fallout of this trend toward remote existence is that it encouraged people to become less civil knowing it was unlikely that any blowback could cause personal harm. Now we have VR which, by bringing people to an imerssion in virtual reality at the same time transports them away from actual reality into a form of pointless self indulgence. I suppose this response will encourage all sorts of unreasonably angry responses from those VR fans, but try to stop for a minute and ask yourself, how does this extend my life's experience or make me or others a better person?
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