Samsung announced its first 360-degree camera back at Mobile World Congress, and now we know it’s arriving very soon:
The camera will go on sale on April 29 in specific regions around the world, including Korea. As for the US, Samsung says it will have more information on pricing and availability soon.
The company made its announcement at its developer conference in San Francisco.
As a recap, the camera pairs two 15-megapixel sensors with ultra wide angle f/2.0 lenses and automatically stitches them fto create 360-degree photos and videos. Users can then share the content onto Facebook and YouTube.
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Though it’s meant to be used with VR headsets like Samsung’s own Gear VR, it’s worth making the distinction between 360-degree video and VR; the former lacks 3D.
In other words, while 360-degree video allows you to look all around a scene, it doesn’t have a depth element to simulate real life more accurately. In full-fledged VR, the image sent to each eye is slightly different, and that’s something you can’t quite imitate in 360 degrees with just two lenses.
As such it’s hard to say how much the camera offers over existing solutions like the Ricoh Theta S, but at least Samsung has a penchant for creating excellent cameras (mobile or professional), and the samples look pretty good.
This post previously suggested the April 29 launch was for the US. Samsung has since clarified that is the date for the global launch; US pricing and timing details are coming soon.
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