GoPro, the company made famous for its line of sports action cameras has announced that its “Omni” virtual reality rig will start selling on the 17th of August, which is also the day preorder units will start shipping. The cost of the Omni VR rig? $5,000.
While that may be out of the price range for a number of average users and consumers, it’s quite a steal for production crews who want to shoot a high-quality and immersive VR video. The $5,000 Omni features six Hero 4 Black cameras, the metal housing for the cameras, and all the hardware and software that is necessary to film and stitch the 360-degree footage that Omni captures. Furthermore, if you already own a bunch of Hero 4 Black cameras, GoPro will sell a package without the cameras for $1,500.
The Omni doesn’t just physically align the six cameras. Each of the cameras is connected to a central processor that syncs the cameras at the pixel level, which makes the stitching better than just about anything around this price point. Furthermore, the Omni also syncs the settings of each GoPro so that you only have to punch them in on the one main camera as opposed to all six.
However, you will still have to manually extract each of the six microSD cards out of the rig to transfer your files, but once you make that transfer to your computer, GoPro’s Importer tool syncs all the footage in a jiffy. You just open up the program and it renders a stitched-together preview of each clip that you’ve filmed. Furthermore, you also have the option to trim and make some basic edits such as stabilisation. Once you’re done, you can export it to YouTube or Facebook ready 2K, 4K and even 8K versions of the original footage.
And the Importer tool isn’t the only software packaged with the Omni. Customers also get access to Autopano Video, which is a program that allows for much more detailed stitching and overall optimization for 360-degree viewing. And for those more intensive editing sessions, GoPro will also provide plugins for Adobe Premiere and After Effects.
