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Rylo’s 360-degree camera lets you decide what shots you want later
There are quite a few 360-degree cameras on the market now and they cover a range of needs. For professionals and major VR buffs, there's the Samsung 360 Round and for more casual videographers there are a slew of options from companies like Ricoh Theta, Garmin and Samsung. But there's now a growing market for those wanting to shoot high quality 360-degree video and decide later on during editing what images to focus on and what to cut out, minimizing how much effort is required during the actual video-capturing process. For that, there's the GoPro Fusion, the Insta360 and, as of today, the Rylo.
Take your own Street View images with Ricoh’s latest camera
Ricoh Theta's newest 360-degree single-shot camera model comes with a bunch of cool new features, including 4K video capture, spatial audio recording and live streaming. The Theta V, which is the first Street View mobile-ready camera to be certified by Google, also uses high-spec photography technology originally developed for top-of-the-range Pentax DSLRs, which means you can expect eye-wateringly high-quality images. And you can get them where they need to be quickly, too, as the camera's new high-speed data transfer is 2.5 times faster than previous Theta models. The camera can be connected to and controlled by any Android or iOS-based device using the Theta S app.
Periscope opens 360-degree broadcasts to everyone
When Periscope debuted live 360-degree broadcasting late last year, it was only available to a handful of users. That changes now. A tweet from the company announced that as of today anyone who's broadcasting either from the iOS app (with an attached Insta360 Nano) or via the Producer software can be part of the spherical zeitgeist. Periscope says that you'll need the Producer app specifically if you want to do a 360 broadcast from an Android phone, in addition to a Ricoh Theta S or Orah 4i.
Ricoh Theta enables 360-degree photo uploads to Google+ and Maps
Folks who shelled out $400 for Ricoh's quirky Theta camera can now show off their 360-degree masterpieces to a larger audience. Circle-loving shutterbugs just got the option to upload their images to Google+ and Google Maps via the camera's companion apps for Android, iOS, Windows 7/8 and Mac. While users have been able to upload to Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook for quite some time, it's only now that the firm has made the apps compatible with Photo Sphere. As a nice plus, dedicated sphere photographers can string multiple 360-degree pictures together to create Street Views, though they'd probably look too trippy to help out a lost tourist.
Ricoh Theta WiFi camera shoots 360-degree photos for $399 (hands-on)
It's a big week for LCD-less WiFi point-and-shoots, but today's offering is a bit more unusual than Sony's lens-camera duo. What would you pay for a 360-degree camera that's compact, easy to use and compatible with an iOS app? $100? Maybe a buck fifty? Ricoh's betting big on a figure far higher -- a "consumer-friendly" $399. And we're not sold. Sure, the Theta is a unique device, but 360-degree images have limited appeal, and the fact that you (and your friends) will need to download a dedicated app just to view them without distortion doesn't help to seal the deal. Still, we're always up for trying out something new, and we're guessing you might be a bit curious, too. Click past the break as we go full circle with Theta. Follow all of our IFA 2013 coverage by heading to our event hub!
