Lytro has unveiled a ferociously complex camera for virtual reality moviemaking. Called the Lytro Immerge, this borderline sci-fi camera rig was designed specially for virtual reality from the ground up.
It seems like Lytro wants to be ahead of GoPro and even take an ambitious leap to be known as a leader in the VR industry. A tough goal to accomplish considering that GoPro and Microsoft are in the ring, boasting their muscles at anyone that dares threaten their alliance. What can a start-up like Lytro do?
It can do more damage than you can possibly think.
You see, the alien ball-shaped camera has hundreds of tiny image sensors and lenses built-in. With the help of Lytro’s signature optical tech, called light field, it can record the colour and intensity of light along with the direction it’s travelling.
That’s just fantastic – not only does it offer much needed capabilities for VR filmmaking, but it’s one of the most innovative camera we’ve seen this decade.
However, don’t think of the Lytro Immerge as just a camera. It comes packed with a plethora of VR production goodies such as – editing tools, the possibility of streaming straight from the cloud, consumer dedicated apps for VR headsets and a server.
Lytro CEO Jason Rosenthal has told Mashable that this is the very first light-field-powered system that can create cinematic high-quality live action VR-ready footage – that was a mouthful. Nobody has thought this through, he says, from end to end – starting with how a camera should function, to storage, how you can edit footage in post production and even playback.
There are no competitors to the Lytro Immerge – at the moment, there’s no camera on the market capable of doing what the Immerge does. Google Jump might prove to be a competing platform, but a) it hasn’t been released yet, and b) it blends a plethora of existing cameras.
Even though we are inclined to think that users that wish to use the Lytro Immerge should definitely own a ten thousand dollar PC rig, the camera is more than capable to streamline its controls to an iPad.
The server, which is comprised of several terabytes, can hold only about an hour of footage.
And here, you can see the Lytro Immerge in its own habitat, pondering on whether to film the world or destroy it…
Given its huge capabilities, it’s going to sport an astronomical price tag. Lytro has noted that it will be available starting with January of 2016 and the Immerge will retail at hundreds of thousands of dollars. Clearly, it’s aimed at VR studious and companies, and not your average VR enthusiast.
Yet, Rosenthal has noted that there will be a sort of leasing program in place, considering how expensive it is to buy the Immerge. Companies will the possibility to rent the camera for a much lower cost.
