When we think of fusion we think of the word ‘nuclear’. Or Dragon Ball Z. But given how GoPro has lent its name to pretty much every action camera around, perhaps the company’s newly announced Fusion 360-degree camera will wind up claiming that word for them too.
But a plain-old 360-degree camera just isn’t going to cut it. Samsung has two on the market. Nokia makes a very expensive high-end rig. Even Facebook (Facebook, people!) has announced its own lineup of 360-degree cameras. So what will set this one apart? Besides being made by GoPro, that is?
For starters, it’ll record in 5.2K, which might seem an arbitrary number but it’s also larger than 4K so we’ll take it. 5.2K recording will be capped at 30fps, so we’re hoping for better performance at good old 4K. It’ll be designed for use in active situations, too, with compatibility with a whole mess of mounts. Not all of them, obviously. Who straps a 360-cam to their chest, honestly?
GoPro will also be offering users something called OverCapture, a feature that will let them choose the composition and angle of a video via post-processing. Long story short, you should be able to film a 360-degree run and create VR-ready video as well as 2D video that looks like it was shot with a conventional camera. You know, without looking all spherical. That’s a… great idea, especially since you can rarely reset and retry when filming with an action camera.
For a taste of what the Fusion can do, check out GoPro’s demo footage video below.
The Fusion is only going to be launching towards the end of this year but pricing and availability is supposed to be announced a little while before that happens. In the meantime, if you fancy yourself quite the camerasmith (or videographer, or whatever fancy title you got with your filming skills), you can apply to be one of the Fusion’s testers in GoPro’s pilot program. Oh, and give us a shout if you snag an early one.
Source: The Next Web