Movies

Next Insta360 camera could orbit around you

By JC Torres/

As fancy and entertaining as 360-cameras might be, they all suffer a flaw due to their very nature. They can capture the world around it but they can never capture what's at the center of that world. That is, they don't record the immediate area around where they stand. If Insta360's latest teaser has any hint of accuracy in it, the camera maker's next product might turn that limitation on its head. While the camera still can't see its own body, this time it is the one revolving around the center of the scene looking inside rather than watching the rest of the world move around it.

That seems to be the idea that Insta360 is putting into people's heads in a marketing campaign for an "Everything Epic in One" event later this month. The teaser image simply shows what looks like a regular 360-degree camera seen from the bottom and what is almost like an eclipse waiting to happen or just happened. Considering the event takes place a week after the solar eclipse, it's more of the latter.

More interesting, however, is the video clip that comes with those teasers. It shows a man and a woman standing in the middle with the camera rotating around them. The woman seems to be holding a canister producing pink smoke which the camera passes through, lending some weight on this "evidence".

Such a footage is impossible for ordinary 360-degree cameras and usually involves the use of a drone, especially one with stabilization flying at a precise circle around the subject matter. That said, in all the video clips teasing this next product, at least one person in the middle is holding his or her arm straight up, almost suggesting a sort of selfie stick that is perhaps automatically edited out in post-processing.

Whatever it is, Insta360 has marked 28th August for its reveal. It is not uncommon for some camera makers, like GoPro, to jump on to drones, but Insta360 hasn't exactly shown such inclination. And its teaser does show a more traditional 360-degree camera, hinting that this might be sleight of hand more than anything.

VIA: Engadget

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