Sphericam 2 4K 360-Degree Video Camera Kickstarter: Funded

By Kevin Carbotte
published

It really does feel like every day we hear about a new device that is being built with virtual reality in mind. Smartphone attachments, full head mounted displays, hand tracking technology, and cameras are popping up all the time. Sphericam 2, as you can likely guess from the name, is one of those intriguing cameras.  

Sphericam 2 is a portable 360-degree camera that can record video at up to 60 fps. Sphericam claimed that the camera can film in full 360-degrees without any blind spots, and without any visible stitching.

Sphericam 2 makes use of six individual cameras that are positioned around a small spherical housing that is roughly the size of a tennis ball. These six cameras are fully synchronized to maintain constant contrast and color settings. Sphericam claimed the small size allows for the lowest possible distance between sensors, which minimizes parallax and provides an artifact-free 360-degree view.

Despite the small size, the Sphericam 2 has eight tri-pod mounts, an on/off switch, a micro USB port, four microphones, six microSD card slots, and the six image sensors. It also has a 2800 mAh battery inside.

Sphericam 2 will record in three different file formats, each with a resolution of 4096 x 2048. Pro Quality will record 30/60 fps at 2.4 Gbps in12-bit color, Cinema DNG. High Quality records at up to 600 Mbps with 10-bit color in H.264 compression. Realtime Stitching mode records at 30 fps, in 10-bit color and also H.264 compression.

Sphericam 2 will have a number of accessories as well, such as the removable legs that the company said are invisible to the camera, or a backpack with a pole mount to record where you go on foot.

Currently, Sphericam 2 is in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign, and the company has surpassed its initial goal of $150,000. There are still 23 days left to achieve further funding and backers, but at this time the company does not have any stretch goals listed.

The Sphericam 2 will come in green, black and silver, and it's priced at $1,699.99, with a limited number of green and black ones available for $1,499.99 for early backers.

Follow Kevin Carbotte @pumcypuhoy. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Kevin Carbotte

 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years. 

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • MotherBrain
    "Sphericam claimed that the camera can film in full 360-degrees without any blind spots, and without any visible stitching. "

    "Sphericam 2 will have a number of accessories as well, such as the removable legs that the company said are invisible to the camera"

    I'll take this to mean invisible legs? LOL. anyway, it will be fun to see how this pans out
    Reply
  • alidan
    there is visible stitching in the video... it may be my computer, but the frame rate of that video was horrible too... also, it may be youtube's encoding, but wow was that a horrible looking video to boot. all for the price of 1500$ or 1700$... not a chance.
    Reply
  • hitman40
    So the resolution of each camera falls in between 720p and 1080p if the total is 4k? Hopefully, because currently, 360 degree videos on youtube fall under 360p
    Reply
  • kcarbotte
    "Sphericam claimed that the camera can film in full 360-degrees without any blind spots, and without any visible stitching. "

    "Sphericam 2 will have a number of accessories as well, such as the removable legs that the company said are invisible to the camera"

    I'll take this to mean invisible legs? LOL. anyway, it will be fun to see how this pans out

    It's not invisible legs. You can see the legs in one of the pictures, the black spike things.
    they are positioned and shaped so that the camera looks past them.


    there is visible stitching in the video... it may be my computer, but the frame rate of that video was horrible too... also, it may be youtube's encoding, but wow was that a horrible looking video to boot. all for the price of 1500$ or 1700$... not a chance.

    Really? I didn't see any stitching and it was running at 60fps for me. Did you run it at the highest resolution on Youtube?

    So the resolution of each camera falls in between 720p and 1080p if the total is 4k? Hopefully, because currently, 360 degree videos on youtube fall under 360p

    Each camera is 4k, and each visibile frame will be in 4K. The total resolution is significantly higher than 4K.
    Reply
  • MotherBrain
    16225395 said:
    "Sphericam claimed that the camera can film in full 360-degrees without any blind spots, and without any visible stitching. "

    "Sphericam 2 will have a number of accessories as well, such as the removable legs that the company said are invisible to the camera"

    I'll take this to mean invisible legs? LOL. anyway, it will be fun to see how this pans out

    It's not invisible legs. You can see the legs in one of the pictures, the black spike things.
    they are positioned and shaped so that the camera looks past them.


    I am humorously pointing out that you cannot have full 360deg view with no blind spots and have feet that are invisible to the camera at the same time. full 360 deg view in this case is because the view converges beyond the scope of the camera's feet, something the camera makers gloss over (perhaps rightfully so, I am not condemning/condoning, just chilling on tom's hardware)

    thanks for the info though ;)
    Reply
  • BulkZerker




    I am humorously pointing out that you cannot have full 360deg view with no blind spots and have feet that are invisible to the camera at the same time. full 360 deg view in this case is because the view converges beyond the scope of the camera's feet, something the camera makers gloss over (perhaps rightfully so, I am not condemning/condoning, just chilling on tom's hardware)

    thanks for the info though ;)
    The camera does have blind spots, yes, that size, at that range. Bear in mind the viewing angles on any standard camera sensor isn't 180*. So that in mind there are dead spots, at ranges no one would want to shoot video at.
    Reply