Essential Phone's 360 camera has 4K 360 video and 3D sound


Essential Phone was announced today.  Not just another Android phone, the Essential Phone has cutting edge features, including a unique 360 camera accessory.

Essential PH-1 is a new phone from Essential, a company founded by Andy Rubin, one of the founders of Android Inc.  It has unique features such as 2560 x 1312 screen that covers almost the entire front surface of the phone, a dual lens rear camera, the latest Snapdragon 835 processor, and a titanium body.

Of particular interest to us is that it has a 360 camera accessory that has magnetic connectors to attach to the phone.  Here are the key specifications of the camera:
- two 12mp sensors
- each lens has a 210-degree field of view
- video resolution is 3840 x 1920 @ 30fps.
- aperture: f/1.8
- four microphones for 3D ambisonic sound recording


I didn't see any mention of the photo resolution or the live streaming capability.  It seems as if it doesn't have image stabilization, because in one of their videos, they used a smartphone gimbal to stabilize the video.

Because the 360 camera has a larger than usual overlap (compared to typical 360 cameras with 190 degree field of view) and because of the short distance between lenses, the stitching looks quite smooth, as shown in the samples on their webpage.  As for the actual image quality, it's hard to tell from the samples on their webpage because they are shown at a small size, which makes nearly any 360 camera look good.  I'll withhold judgment until I see full size 360 video samples.

To me, what is most noteworthy about the 360 camera accessory is Essential's internal perception of it. First, Essential made their 360 camera proprietary (it can't be used with any other phone because of the magnetic connectors).  Second, Essential also offered a very good price for the camera: just $50 more than the phone by itself, at least for the introductory period.  These seem to imply that Essential thinks that a majority of their customers will get the 360 camera accessory.

So, what do you guys think of the Essential Phone's 360 camera?  Let me know in the comments!

Thank you very much to Tony Anastasi, Martin Smith (Roto Studios), and Oliver Pecha (Collect 360) for bringing this to my attention!

In the meantime, if you like the concept of a 360 camera accessory but don't plan to switch phones, check out the Insta360 Air for Android (Type C or Micro USB), Insta360 Nano for iPhone, or Giroptic iO (for iOS or Android).  These three 360 cameras have live streaming, and in addition, both Insta360 Air cameras have realtime stabilization.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Garmin Virb 360 vs. Xiaomi Mijia MI SPHERE - which is the best 360 camera for low light?

Image
I compared two of the best 360 cameras for consumers right now: Garmin Virb 360 and Xiaomi Mijia Mi Sphere for low light performance in typical indoor lighting conditions.  Here's the video: Both cameras did very well in this low light test.  As for which one is better, here are my thoughts: Without editing, the Garmin Virb 360 looks underexposed compared to the Xiaomi.  In Premiere, I added +1.0EV exposure, which made the Garmin exposure look more similar to that of the Xiaomi. Remarkably, the Virb video held up to the adjustment and did not show any noticeable increase noise. With the adjustment, the Virb and Xiaomi look very similar, but the Virb video is actually more detailed.  Here are closeup cropped portions of each video: Nonetheless, there is a huge $500+ difference between these two cameras, so you might say they are both winners in their own way.  In terms of absolute image quality, the Virb 360 edged out the Xiaomi, but the Xiaomi is so much more affordable that it is
Read more

EXCLUSIVE: How to stitch Panono images offline yourself and how to fix Panono stitching errors

Image
Panono is the highest resolution all-in-one 360 camera with 36 lenses and 108 megapixel resolution. Its only drawback is that the stitching is often not perfect and is tedious to correct.  In this post, I will discuss how you can stitch Panono photos yourself, or fix Panono stitching errors. Panono is my favorite 360 camera for photography.  Its images are very detailed, and the dynamic range is unequaled among 360 cameras.  Its colors look natural and images look fantastic with only minor editing.  Here is a sample: THE CATCH However, until now I could not recommend the Panono without qualifications because the stitching is usually not perfect, especially when there are subjects close to its minimum distance of around 1.5 meters.  When there are stitching errors, they are often glaring, and ruin an otherwise excellent shot.  Worse still, they are not easy to correct in post. When you have often unpredictable errors like this, it's hard to rely on it for professional shooting situa
Read more

"It can do that?!?" 17 remarkable undocumented features of the Insta360 Pro

Image
The Insta360 Pro is an amazing camera, and the marketing materials can't even capture all of its remarkable features (partly because Insta360 keeps adding new features!).  Here are 17 undocumented features of the Insta360 Pro.  Since there are so many of them, I tried to group them into Photo, Video and live streaming, and both Photo and Video. PHOTO 1. 60 second shutter speed .  It has full manual exposure and you can specify a shutter speed as slow as 60 seconds -- slow enough to capture night sky photos. 2.   Unlimited intervalometer .  The Insta360 Pro has an intervalometer (i.e., it will take a photo after every time interval), and the time interval is anywhere from 2 seconds to a practically unlimited time interval (I put in a crazy number like 200,000 seconds and it accepted that value).  Note: The intervalometer is in the video mode as "time lapse". 3.   The intervalometer / time lapse can be for 3D not just 2D . 4.   Stitched 360 Photos in Raw format .   The Inst
Read more