Gadget to shoot 360° panoramic video on iPhone

The Kogeto DOT is a $49 gadget that lets iPhone users shoot 360° panoramic videos.

(Via Blame it on the Voices)

• [Cowicide]

  Parabolic mirror VR is notoriously bad for quality, but I guess this could be a fun tool for non-pros.  Unfortunately, a mirror that would be of high enough quality to get a great picture would cost a fortune to make (think large telescope mirror quality with precision grinding, etc.), so we always end up with this kind of quality instead.

  • [Rev.Veggie.Spam]

    I see what you mean but as there are 360° apps that can do the same thing by meshing together stills and can take about 1-3 minutes to get a single complete panorama IME and they generate artifacts galore. I’d be curious to see how a $49 gizmo fairs against a $2 app.

    The $49 price tag is an automatic giveaway it won’t be a replacement for speciality equipment that’s for sure.

    EDIT: I realize this a comparison of a video device with a photog app but I’m still curious as to how they compare IRL.

    • [Cowicide]

      they generate artifacts galore

      Not if you use the right equipment and use it properly (i.e., adjustment of the camera’s optical center, or nodal point, over the rotational center of the tripod head, etc.)

      I mean, if we’re talking about expense, this mirror is great, but if we’re talking about professional quality, not so much.

      • [cfuse]

         It connects to an iPhone, we are not talking about professional quality .

        • [Cowicide]

          Depends on the project and how many iPhones you use with lens attachments.  The iPhone can (and does) capture professional results depending on the operator and application.

    • [autark]

       plus stitchers only work on stills, this works with video, so…

      I’ve seen similar attachments like this for DSLR that run 10x as much.

  • [Florian Bösch]

    Actually you can get precision engineered DSLr camera prime lenses (using between 8 and 12 internal lens elements) for about $250 from nikon or canon. It would seem to me that a single precision ground mirror element wouldn’t cost more than 20$ or so to produce, mark it up some 300% and sell it for $60, I don’t see the problem.

    • [Cowicide]

      It would seem to me that a single precision ground mirror element wouldn’t cost more than 20$ or so to produce

      In order to remove enough aberrations in a mirror to get a sharp image, it’s an expensive process or it’s going to have blurring anywhere it’s imperfect. The other issue is different resolution from top to bottom and I’m not sure anything can be done about that, AFAIK.

      A parabolic mirror is a rather exotic shape compared to most lenses and getting tolerances tight enough to not screw (too much) with the wavelength of light ain’t easy, nor cheap.

      If you want to see examples of how crummy, cheap parabolic mirrors look, just take a look at the example panoramas from them. They are not sharp at all compared to panoramas composed with multiple shots from a wide angle camera lense.

      • [Florian Bösch]

        So you’re saying that grinding mirrors is Nx more expensive than grinding lenses? I don’t think I’ll buy into that. I believe the price of lenses is better because they’re produced in larger quantities and are partly subsidized by the camera bodies. Mirrors are expensive because there’s no default grinding setup at factories for them and they’re not produced in the billions.

        • [Cowicide]

          So you’re saying that grinding mirrors is Nx more expensive than grinding lenses?

          It’s not as simple as that, but yes. You also missed/omitted the key word parabolic mirror. Science and reality dictates it. They go into it here a little bit:

          http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/316/lectures/node136.html

          Once again, show me a high quality result from a parabolic mirror panorama anywhere on the Internet that compares to the results you get from a camera (or multiple cams) with wide angle lenses.

          You can’t, and there’s a reason for it. Making parabolic mirrors with tolerances tight enough to remove an acceptable amount of aberrations is expensive. But, now I’m just repeating myself.

• [francoisroux]

  “All you have to do to record is just tap that record button in the upper right hand corner…”

  And then he goes ahead and taps the upper left hand corner for the settings…lol

  • [penguinchris]

    I thought it was rather an odd review… it’s mostly pointing at and reading from the product’s box and the app’s app store listing, rather than actually showing the item itself.

• [robdobbs]

  The product kinda stinks and has a bad form factor. It’s hard to hold. 

  If this was any good I would expect that streaming newscasts would use this at protests and whatnot. But for 50$, go have some fun for an afternoon.

• [vonbobo]

  But can it Instagram?

• [jeffity]

  A friend of mine’s working on a similar project: http://www.bubblescope.com/

  Not sure which came first