See how easy the GoPro Omni creates shooting 360 VR video
GoPro wants to make professional 360 VR easy enough for anyone to give it a go.
The Omni is a synchronized six camera array. Because it’s a GoPro device, naturally it uses six Hero4 Black cameras.
For those willing to hand over $5,000 (around £4,060 or AU$6,530 converted) you get the unfastened Omni kit. This includes six Hero4 cameras, microSD cards, batteries, an external battery pack, stitching software and more. It compensations $1,500 to buy the cage rig separately and bring your own Hero4 cameras. You might think that this is expensive, but latest systems like Nokia’s Ozo cost upwards of $45,000.
With one button you can initiate and stop recording on the Omni. There’s no need to peril about synchronizing footage using a clap or audio track as the rig automatically does this for you.
Once you prefer footage, the Omni Importer software gives a quick preview stitch, plus options for color correction and stabilization.
We took the Omni on certain shoots, varying the lighting conditions and motion each time. From the inside of a robot pizza obedient to a trip down San Francisco’s famous Lombard Street, the Omni’s compact size and sturdy frame worked to its well-behaved.
The rig would greatly benefit from a lock switch, however, as it’s really easy to press buttons and turn on cameras by accident when placing it in a bag or back in the protective case.
We even threw it throughout like a ball, which you can watch in all its nauseating glory in flattened 2D in the video at the top of the page.
Then we took it for a spin at Church of 8 Wheels, watching roller skaters weave their way around the dance floor.
All these videos were shot on default exposure settings at 2.7K resolution on each camera, then exported to a 4K file. Watch the footage either in 360 degrees by involving your mouse around the scene to change the viewpoint, or in a VR headset.
Unlike the Nokia Ozo, you don’t need an incredibly distinguished computer to process the footage. Processing time will valid on the resolution you choose to export, the file size and the computer itself, but a 2-minute clip (4GB of footage) took near 15 minutes using Omni Importer on a midrange iMac.
Parallax can smooth present an issue when you leave the stitching entirely to the Importer software, as well as ghosting, but fine tweaks can be made in software such as Kolor’s Autopano Video — which is aboard with the complete Omni package.
Plus you’ll probably want to think throughout an external mic when recording with the Omni. You can use the 3.5 mm GoPro adapter to connect one.
