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Former iPhone camera engineers create 360-degree video camera

CENTR, a startup created by a group of former iPhone camera engineers, has developed a video camera that creates 360-degree views, allowing viewers to pan around the image during playback.

CENTR allows you to capture your experiences and share them in a whole new way. Capture 360° video in real-time on a camera that fits in the palm of your hand. With decades of experience working on cameras at Apple, the CENTR team knows what it takes to bring beautiful design and groundbreaking technology together in one product …

The technology to do this isn’t new, but usually requires expensive and clunky kit, like the version the company previously created for commercial and military applications. What CENTR has achieved is to create a small, lightweight device intended to retail at $400 – with a limited number of Kickstarter pre-orders available for $299.

The CENTRcamera is compatible with GoPro mounts, which is likely to make it popular with those into action sports.

It’s not certain the camera will make it into production, but with $130k of a $900k goal raised on day 1 of 30, things are looking hopeful. You can back the project on the company’s Kickstarter page.

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Comments

  1. My instant thought for this camera was for insurance companies to have fitted to cars. These Russian dash cams are ruining my life.

    • PMZanetti - 10 years ago

      My instant thought on that is we don’t need corporations using cameras to record every moment of our lives to save $500 on a deductible somewhere along the line.

  2. William Robinson - 10 years ago

    I wonder how one would edit video produced by this camera. I assume that one would crop to a standard HDTV format, since a long horizontal would be limiting. And what kind of file size are we talking about? So much more data per field suggests big files.

    • Ben Lovejoy - 10 years ago

      I’m guessing you’ll need their software, and yes, file sizes will be large. But storage is cheap these days.

      • Bill Banta (@billbanta) - 10 years ago

        Hi William, you can use standard editing tools to cut videos. We wanted to make sure CENTR users could easily create amazing movies. We’ve cut all the movies on our website and Kickstarter page using Adobe Premier and Final Cut. You can also easily crop standard aspect ratio HD videos from CENTR footage using Premier or Final Cut as well as iMovie.

        The file sizes are larger than standard because we are capturing so much more HD content. If you add a 64GB SD Card to your CENTR Camera, you’ll have up to 13 hours of record time using the 720p setting.

        I hope this helps!

      • Ben Lovejoy - 10 years ago

        Thanks for clarifying. Sign me up for a review unit when you have them available. :-)

  3. Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 10 years ago

    Cool idea. I came close to backing it on Kickstarter, but the price is very high relative to it’s MSRP, which is again kind of high relative to other, similar cameras and (IMO of course) kind of un-suportable. Not many folks are going to buy this thing at over $400 retail. It’s also kind of ugly and looks like it might be difficult to use.

    There is a better implementation of this sort of thing that has already been to kickstarter and should be available in retail before this thing even gets funded.

  4. John Robinson - 10 years ago

    That’s a pretty elegant package, there. Completely disagree with the commentor who found it “ugly”. Not sure that I have a use (or the money) for it, but it looks like they’re doing it right!

    • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 10 years ago

      Perhaps “ugly” is an overstatement of sorts, and it’s certainly better looking with each prototype they made as shown in the video, but come on …

      … it looks like a roll of damn sticky tape.

      It’s not “attractive” or “cool” looking in any way and as others have pointed out, there are questions as to how you would use or mount it.

      The reality of Kickstarter is that most folks are there just to get an early copy of the thing, not to support the business possibilities. I think it’s a mistake to go to Kickstarter and not have a video that clearly explains why the end user would want the thing, and how they would actually use the thing.

  5. david0296 - 10 years ago

    How do you even hold it without blocking one of the lenses? You clearly have to mount it to something… a long stick… or a helmet? Which probably explains why they never show how the camera is being used.

    But, basically, if you aren’t skiing down a mountain, or doing the rapids on the Colorado river, this camera is kind of limited in its usability. I doubt if I’d mount this camera on top of my head when I go to the family BBQ.

    • Bill Banta (@billbanta) - 10 years ago

      Hi David, you make a good point. We spent a lot of time working on a design that would be easy to hold and mount without blocking any of the lenses. CENTR comes with a mount that fits into the device and is compatible with both tripods and GoPro mounts. You can see it here: http://youtu.be/-kSY3lRCQZ8 This means you can easily mount it while skiing or shooting the rapids.

      If you want to see how the camera is used without blocking a lens, you can check out some of the videos on our kickstarter page here: http://kck.st/1iAqtj2

  6. Jordan Navarro - 10 years ago

    This and the Oculus Rift. THINK ABOUT IT.

  7. Benjamin Banks - 10 years ago

    I just want to throw it into the air, and see it spiral all over the place, then play it back in slow motion.

  8. Mark Granger - 10 years ago

    At NAB, several companies were showing “balls” of GoPro cameras that record spherical videos for use with the Oculus Rift and future VR gear. They worked pretty well thanks to the super wide field of view of the GoPros.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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