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Samsung 360 Round professional 4K 3D 360 camera specifications and features; update: analysis of LENS CONFIGURATION

Samsung 360 Round 4K 3D 360 camera
Samsung 360 Round 4K 3D 360 camera

 

At Samsung Developer Conference, Samsung launched the 360 Round, which was previously codenamed Project: Beyond.  Here are the specifications and details.

10/25/17 update: additional notes about the rationale for the lens configuration 

10/21/17 update: Check out new photos of the Samsung 360 Round

About two months ago, there was a trademark registration for a new camera called the Samsung 360 Round.  At that time, I thought it was a retail version of a wearable prototype 360 camera called AroundMe.  It turns out I was completely wrong about it, and the 360 Round is actually the camera that was known as Project Beyond.  I’m wincing at the name 360 Round — Project Beyond sounds way cooler!  But it’s good to see another 3D 360 camera on the market.

 

Here are the specifications and features:

– 17 cameras with f/1.8 lenses
– uses 1/2.8-inch 2K sensors
– 6 internal microphones
– 2 external microphone input jacks
– Video resolution: 4096 x 4096 @ 30fps in 3D (4096 x 2048 per eye) or 4096 x 2048 @ 30fps in 2D.
– Live streaming: 4096 x 4096 @ 30fps in 3D (4096 x 2048 per eye) or 4096 x 2048 @ 30fps in 2D.
– uses SD cards or external SSD
– Connectivity: LAN or USB Type C
– gyrometer and accelerometer
– includes an app for controlling and streaming, and another app for viewing. Requirements: see below.
– IP65 dust and water resistance
– Dimensions: 205 x 205 x 76.8mm
– Weight: 1.93 kg
– available October 2017 in the USA
– Price: $10,500.

Samsung 360 Round Lens Configuration

Samsung 360 Round’s lenses seem to have unusual positions.  Here’s why.  One problem with 3D 360 cameras is parallax.  On one hand, for a sufficiently 3D effect, the lenses have to be further apart, ideally the same as the average distance between human eyes.  If the lenses are not sufficiently far apart, then the 3D effect will be less noticeable.  On the other hand, the farther apart the lenses are, the more noticeable the parallax stitching error will be (near objects will appear split in half).  Samsung 360 Round addresses both issues by pairing every fourth lens (instead of lenses next to each other).  This allows a wider distance between lenses (for a 3D effect), while also decreasing the distance between lenses for purposes of parallax stitching errors (represented by the fuschia line between the yellow “virtual” lenses.  Incidentally, this was the same solution used by LivePlanet for their 3D 360 camera which has 16 lenses.

Samsung 360 Round lens configuration
Samsung 360 Round lens configuration

Steep Requirements

The requirements for editing the 360 Round are quite steep.  Here are the requirements for editing the 360 videos:
– Windows 10 64bit
– 16GB RAM
– i7-6700K or above
– graphics card: GTX 1080 or better

For previewing and live streaming, the requirements are even steeper:
– i7-6950X or above
– 32GB RAM
two GTX 1080 Ti cards

Samsung 360 Round
Samsung 360 Round
Samsung 360 Round
Samsung 360 Round
Samsung 360 Round
Samsung 360 Round
Samsung 360 Round
Samsung 360 Round
Samsung 360 Round
Samsung 360 Round
Samsung 360 Round
Samsung 360 Round with Samsung Gear 360 2017 in the background

With seventeen lenses, the 360 Round is really much more similar to the Yi Halo than let’s say the Vuze, even though the latter is also 4K 3D 360.  I would therefore expect the price to be for professionals, perhaps $10,000.  But I’m just speculating and I’ve been known to be wrong on occasion. lol   In any case, I’m very curious about the image quality.  UPDATE: the price has been announced to be $10,500.  So my guess was off by 5% 🙂

What do you think of Samsung’s 360 Round?  Let me know in the comments!  Thank you very much to Etienne Leroy of V360 the free mobile 360 video editing app for iOS and Android for sharing photos of the 360 Round!

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Mic Ty

8 Comments

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    • Hi Adam. I was curious about that too because stabilization is not so straightforward to use for 3D 360. Insta360 Pro, for example, doesn’t allow the gyro stabilization to be used for 3D modes. We shall see.

      Best regards,
      Mic

  • I do not see this camera getting any traction even if Samsung uses its usual tactic of bundling other Samsung products with it (e.g. Free Gear VR with Galaxy Sales)

    Main reasons:

    – 3x the price of InstaPro 360
    – 20% less resolution in 3D/stereo (4k vs. 6k)
    – 30fps…for a camera being released in in Q4 2017.

    • Hi Jean. I’m wondering myself. Samsung won’t be able to rely on its mobile phone distribution network to sell these $10k cameras. We’ll have to see how Samsung sells these. On the plus side, they make the Insta360 Pro and Kandao Obsidian look like bargains. 🙂

      Best regards,
      Mic

  • I think these guys blew their mind up. 4K resolution, no 8K or 6K stereo, most likely no in camera stitching (even at 4K), almost twice the size and weight of the competition, more than twice the price of the competition….
    They could be a perfect Ozo competitor one year ago, they didn’t realised the world has changed since…

    • 4K is only an indication of pixels size. If you have an equivalent 8 megapixel stills image you can have a very large difference in sharpness, colour separation and contrast depending on wether it is a harshly compressed JPG or a uncompressed RAW file.

      Lens quality would also matter. The difference between a cheap mass-produced plastic lens and a manually produced high quality glass lens would would be significant.

      In the current market Samsung is the company that has the most complete lineup of VR and 360 oriented products. With the Gear VR series they have cameras, viewers, an app store and several generations of iterations worth of experience. I’d say, if any one company is serious about developing a high quality and commercially viable 360 camera it would be Samsung.

      But until I see some sample footage there is no final judgement to be made.

      • Thanks Andre. I agree we need to see actual footage before we can judge how good it is. I am also happy that Samsung is putting its resources into 360 and VR.
        Best regards,
        Mic

  • Price: $10,500? meh… didn’t have GPS; stabilization wasn’t mentioned, it’s just 4k so I’m guessing no direct upload to GSV

    Meh… too expensive for what it is… only MEGA CONS – IP65 dust and water resistance and I don’t mean because I’m thinking about taking pics/videos at rain, but living in the tropics, PRO cameras used on the exteriors needed to have a way to survive a light rain at least… which unfortunately (with many other feedback seen by actual users) isn’t present on Insta360 which price is way better…