360 Camera Reviews 3D Kandao

Kandao Obsidian R 8K 3D 360 camera: hands-on first impressions and tutorial

Kandao Obsidian R
Kandao Obsidian R. (c) 360 Rumors.

Over the weekend, I’ve been testing the powerful Kandao Obsidian R, a professional 3D 360 camera with 8K 3D 360 resolution and live streaming capability (no I don’t own it – yet 😉 – it’s just a loaner).  Here are my first impressions and a tutorial for using it.

This year, Kandao launched three professional 3D 360 cameras: the affordable Obsidian GO (4K 3D 360 video, $2,499), the high-speed Obsidian S (6K 3D 360 up to 50fps or 4K 3D at 120fps; $6,999) and the high-resolution Obsidian R with 8K 3D 360 ($6,999).  Kandao cameras and stitching software feature cutting edge 360 video technologies such as depth-aware stitching, Kandao is working on generating a depth map and even video with 6 degrees of freedom.

Here are its specifications:
– six lenses
– six 12mp Sony BSI CMOS sensors
– Aperture: f/2.2 (Obsidian S) or f/2.8 (Obsidian R)
– video resolution: 5760 x 5760 @ 50fps (Obsidian S) or 7680 x 7680 @ 30fps (Obsidian R)
– photo resolution: 5760 x 5760 (Obsidian S) or 7680 x 7680 (Obsidian R)
– live streaming: 4K3D or with servers, up to 6K3D or 8K3D
– audio: 6 microphones, has stereo input jack and supports synchronization with Zoom H2N for spatial audio
– ISO 100 to 3200
– Shutter speed: 1/6400 to 60 seconds
– Dynamic range: 10 stops for video or 12 stops for photo
– powered by a single Ethernet cable (for power and data), or adapter, or two Canon LPE6 batteries
– 14.5cm diameter x 9.3cm height
– 1.1 kg

Obsidian R is AFAIK the most affordable 8K 3D 360 camera on the market (by comparison, the Yi Halo with 8K 3D 360 is about $15,000, and the Z Cam V1 Pro with 7K 3D 360 is $40,000).  The Obsidian is sometimes compared with the Insta360 Pro, which can shoot 8K in 2D or 6K in 3D.  Obsidian’s proponents point, among other things, to its advanced stitching technology and its high image quality.  Originally, it was announced to be $10,000, which is beyond most photographers’ budgets, but the final price was set at $6,999, which put it just within reach of many professionals.

Kandao sent me a loaner Obsidian R for testing for a couple of weeks.  The Obsidian came in an aluminum hardcase with custom foam cutouts.

Kandao Obsidian case
Kandao Obsidian case

The case included:
– the Obsidian camera
– six 64GB Micro SD cards (if you want to use your own, U3 cards are recommended)
– USB 3.0 card reader
– sync control cable for Zoom H2N
– an ethernet cable
– lens pen and microfiber cloth
– an alternate cover with coldshoe
– a hotshoe to 1/4-20 adapter
– bubble level
– hardcase with shoulder strap
– dustbag for the hardcase
– optional: POE (power-over-ethernet) power adapter and power cord

The package does not include a battery. However, it uses two Canon LPE6 batteries for Canon DSLRs that many professionals already have.

Kandao Obsidian R
Kandao Obsidian R

The Obsidian is smaller than I expected, although actually it is almost the same diameter as the Insta360 Pro, which is not unexpected because they both have six lenses and the interpupillary distances are about 63.5 mm, the same as the average distance for people in order to make the 3D effect appear natural.

The Obsidian R’s body is polycarbonate with copper trim, and feels very solidly built, reminding me of the build quality of the Nikon D3 that I used to have.  There is a small copper plate below each lens identifying the lens number.  The Obsidian S is similar except that instead of copper trim, it has a striking red trim, and the lens plates are black.

Kandao Obsidian
Kandao Obsidian

The Obsidian uses six Micro SD cards, which are stored below each lens, secured by rubber covers.

Kandao Obsidian memory card slots
Kandao Obsidian memory card slot

The bottom of the Obsidian has several connectors: the Ethernet jack for data or power, a 12V DC adapter input jack, an audio sync jack, and two tripod holes with a third hole for the anti rotation pin on some tripods.

Kandao Obsidian R base
Kandao Obsidian R base

How to setup the Kandao Obsidian

There are three ways to power the Obsidian:
– 12V adapter
– Power Over Ethernet cable, or
– use two Canon LPE6 batteries.

For Power Over Ethernet, there is an optional POE power supply that looks like an AC adapter except that it has two ethernet jacks instead of a standard AC adapter cable.  Like a standard AC adapter, it has a power plug.  Then one ethernet jack goes to your network, while the other jack connects to the Obsidian, providing it with both data and power.

For Canon batteries, the battery compartment is on top of the camera, making it easy to access even when the Obsidian is mounted on a stand.  The battery compartment cover is easy to remove thanks to a couple of small springs that raise the cover slightly when unlocked.  There are small spring-loaded clips to hold the batteries in place. When you push the clip away, there’s another spring to make it easier to remove the battery.

Interestingly, there is a second battery compartment cover included that has a cold shoe on top.  There is an included hotshoe to 1/4-20 adapter designed to make it easy to mount a Zoom H2N securely over the Obsidian without being seen in the shot.  The cold shoe is a unique and very useful feature, and can also be used to attach the included bubble level or perhaps an LED light.

Kandao Obsidian's unique battery cover can hold accessories
Kandao Obsidian’s unique battery cover can hold accessories

The Obsidian can be attached to a tripod or light stand with 1/4-20 or 3/8 stud.

How to shoot with the Kandao Obsidian

After holding down the power button, the Obsidian starts up relatively quickly in about 10 seconds (that already includes the time you hold down the power button).

There are four ways to shoot with the Obsidian:
– on-camera buttons
– Wi-Fi
– Bluetooth
– desktop control (for live streaming).

On-camera buttons: to record a video, you can simply press the video button.  It starts recording after a couple of seconds. Press it again to stop recording.

The photo button works for both time lapses and for self-timer photos.  To take a photo, you press the button.  After a couple of seconds, it takes the first photo.  It will then keep taking additional photos every 10 seconds (this interval can be adjusted in the remote app – see below).  To stop shooting, you press the button again.

Kandao Obsidian on-camera buttons
Kandao Obsidian on-camera buttons

Wi-Fi: the Obsidian can be controlled remotely via Wi-Fi but it doesn’t have a built-in Wi-Fi antenna. Instead, you need to connect it via the Ethernet cable to a wireless router (I used a Huawei HiLink router powered by a portable powerbank).  Download the Obsidian app (Android or iOS), and connect your smartphone Wi-Fi to the wireless router’s network.  Launch the app and tap “Connect.”  In my case, it worked every time.

You will see a live preview of each individual lens. You can switch shooting modes from photo, video, to time lapse.

The Obsidian app has extensive controls including:
– standard, flat, or log mode
– auto, manual, ISO priority, Shutter priority. ISO range is 100 to 3200. Shutter speed 1/6400 up to 60 secs in manual mode.
– shutter angle (amount of motion blur based on ratio of shutter speed to the frame rate)
– exposure synchronization (whether to use the same exposure for all cameras).  This is the sun icon at the top.
– white balance synchronization (whether to use the same white balance for all cameras).  This is the half moon icon at the top.
– color temperature and tint
– video bitrate (up to 60mbps per lens for Obsidian R)
– video codec (H.264 or H.265)
– time lapse interval (from 4s to 60s)

Kandao Obsidian R
Kandao Obsidian R

Bluetooth: The Obsidian can be controlled wirelessly via Bluetooth, and it won’t require an external router.  It works just like Wi-Fi except that there’s no live preview.  To use this option, both the firmware and app must be updated.  Simply turn on the Obsidian, launch the app on your phone, and select “connect with Bluetooth.”  It will show the nearby Obsidians, and you tap on the one you want to connect with.  Within a few seconds, it will show you the main shooting screen, the same one as for Wi-Fi except that there is no preview shown.

Desktop control: You can control the Obsidian through the Kandao Studio app for Windows.  To use this option, the PC and the Obsidian both have to be connected to the same router.

How to stitch

Kandao Obsidian includes Kandao Studio, their stitching software for Windows (no Mac version available),  which is very easy to use but does require a powerful computer.  The requirements depend on your desired resolution and whether you are using fast stitching or high quality stitching, and can be as low as 8GB RAM and 2GB GPU memory (for 1920 x 1920 video with fast stitching) to 24GB RAM and 10GB GPU memory (7680 x 7680 with fast stitching and GPU accelerated stitching).  For high quality stitching, you’ll need 24GB RAM and a graphics card with 8GB memory, such as a GTX 1080.

Kandao Studio minimum PC requirements
Kandao Studio minimum PC requirements

Transferring files

There are several ways to transfer the files from the camera to the PC.  The easiest way is to connect an Ethernet cable from the Obsidian to the router used by your PC.  You then launch the Kandao Studio app, and go to Tools… Export to Camera, which will allow the Studio to copy the files from the camera to your hard drive.  As long as you don’t rename the files, they won’t get mixed up.

Studio will recognize related photos or videos and will only show you the primary name of the file and not the six files for each photo or video.  But if you choose to use a 3rd party stitcher it helps to know the file naming convention.  The file names for the photos and videos start out with a prefix 001, 002, etc. and the individual lens files for the same photo or video have the same prefix.  The suffix is 01 o 06 to help you identify which lens the file came from.

Stitching

Stitching with Kandao Studio is as easy as it gets.  You only have simple buttons, sliders, and checkboxes on the right side.  It can be literally a one-click process.  There is no need to identify control points or make manual adjustments. The interface for photos and videos are almost is the same, except that for videos, you have the option to trim the video by setting the in and out points.  The easy interface means that you’ll be able to focus on the creative aspect of creating videos instead of being stuck with tedious stitching.

I don’t have samples worthy of sharing yet but I will be shooting with the Obsidian over the weekend and will provide samples next week, together with a video tutorial and review.  If you have particular questions, please let me know in the comments.

About the author

Mic Ty

23 Comments

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    • Hi Petri. It can sync to a Zoom H2N recorder for 360 sound. Yes it has in-cam recording. Each of the six cameras has audio.

      Best regards,
      Mic

  • Hi Mic,

    You mentioned “Kandao cameras and stitching software feature cutting edge 360 video technologies such as depth-aware stitching, Kandao is working on generating a depth map and even video with 6 degrees of freedom.” Do you think this means it’ll be able to generate 3D models like the Matterport?

    Do you know what resolution photos it can shoot at?

    Thanks for the first impression post.

    • Hi Joao I just got back my footage but now I’m waiting for my new PC to stitch it at full 8K 3D resolution. I’ll try to post samples with Mistika for now (Mistika doesn’t need i7, 24GB ram, GTX 1080).
      Best regards,
      Mic

    • Hi Hugo. Yes I still plan to review it. Just going to take longer because I have to put together a new computer that’s powerful enough to stitch Obsidian at full resolution (needs i7 with 24GB ram and GTX 1080). I already have the new pc and graphics card and new psu. just need to put them together.
      Best regards,
      Mic

      • Awesome Mic, looking forward to reading some more.

        Great work your doing and sharing your knowledge to the world

        Keep up the great work

  • Hi …
    Question .. What media are you using with the Obsidian R? Are you using SanDisk Extreme 128?
    Just curious .. Also .. What kind of duration for say 64gig cards at 8K are you seeing?
    Thank you!
    mark

  • Hi, I’m using Obsidian R and the Issue with my camera is that the data for one lens is missing after capturing.
    while exporting files from camera it can’t download some files and gives error and after completion you can’t have all the data from 6 lenses here the data from one lens is missing.
    It happened to me several time and i was not able to deliver the project because it was not possible to cover that missing part with other lanses data or you can’t export a perfect file with 5 lens data.
    here is 1.2.3.4.5.6 lenses
    I have 1.2.3.4. – .6 lenses Data
    Missing the .5. lens Data is missing
    its random, some times it the lens 5 and sometimes its one of other lenses.

    *Please take a look at this scenario its very urgent and necessary for me.

  • Hey Ty,
    Thanks for all the useful info!
    I have tried to locate the samples from the obsidian but I found none. Did you ever put them together?

    Cheers

  • Hey Ty,
    tks for the great info.

    did you ever post the pictures and video? I could not find them on the website. I mainly looking for the pictures, as I am evaluating alternatives for shooting real estate.

    cheers

    • Hi Cesar. I didn’t upload them because i had problems stitching them. But i will try again.

      • Hi Mic,

        sounds that you never have seen real world samples from Kandao Obsidian R?

        Im on an Obsidian Go at the moment and thinking of Obsidian S or R for improved 360 3D Video resolution and Photo dynamic Range.

        This why a comparison between Insta 360 Pro 1 and 2 an the Obsidians whould be interesting.

        Usecase, private Clips of the Kids 😉

        Obsidian Go takes great 3D 360 8K Photos with not the best dynamic range.
        Depht mode stitching with Kandao Studio 2.7 after calibration delivers great Stereo results.
        Even single long blades of gras in 1meter distance will be in good 3D.
        Ok, soemtimes there are some issues left stiching over head is not the best, branches of trees for example)

        Video has good Stereo but 4k is somewhat lowres 😉

        Testing Topas Video AI at the moment but 5-16s per Frame on an OC 1080Ti is so slow.

        greetings from Germany

        Jarno

        • Actually, I had an Obsidian R for a short while for testing purposes. I think using Obsidians for family videos is overkill tbh.

          • Hello Mic,

            thank you for the reply.

            Yes to bee honest, the most versatile cam is my Insta360 EVO, and the Image quality is quite awesome for such a small device.

            But the question is, if we are so lucky, that in the years of growing of our kids there are 3D 360 6k 8k cams available!, will we regret it in the future that we not captured and saved some precious moments?

            Ok it’s a luxury problem, but we live in a point of technical history, this is possible, right now without “costing a fortune”.

            Difficult question 😉