GoPro teased the release of its much anticipated followup to the Hero5 Black back in April but waited until today to follow up with more concrete details about their first 360° camera. GoPro chose The Mountain Games in Vail (an event which they sponsor) to release more information about The Fusion which is scheduled the retail shelves in the fall.
While the full capabilities of the camera are still not yet known, there is a pilot program you can sign up for to try it out yourself. What is known is the camera will feature a both a front and rear facing camera which will both capture unobstructed 180° views that will be geared towards a VR experience (intended to be viewed through an Oculus type headset) but can be cropped into traditional videos with 1080p resolution.
Can’t wait to see the creativity these new capabilities will spawn in the world of action sports cinematography. Here’s a sneak peak from someone at The Mountain Games:
Here is the official press release from GoPro Senior Product Manager of Spherical Solutions Jess Foley:
“I am so proud to introduce Fusion, the new GoPro that packs a huge punch. Fusion is the ultimate capture device for fully immersive virtual reality content, non-VR video, and even photos. It captures stunning 5.2K30 video and breathtaking photos in full spherical—but that’s not all.
Imagine never having to worry about framing your subject…ever. Yes, cameras do the heavy lifting already, but it still takes the eye to compose a shot, right? Well, thanks to Fusion, our users will be able to record their moments in all directions and then go back and choose the composition they want. This is referred to as OverCapture or reframing. It’s like having a camera team with you when you shoot capturing your primary and b-roll footage. From there, you have the flexibility in post-production to pick and share all sides of your story in conventional HD.
As the Senior Product Manager for Fusion, I have been looking forward to this day for some time. We have a pilot program starting soon, and I cannot wait to see how innovative content creators will use Fusion to help them tell their stories. The goal of Fusion is to distill the best of GoPro—quality, mountability and durability—into a pocketable product that will wow our professional customers.
True to its name, Fusion has been a multi-team effort, and it has been amazing to work alongside incredibly talented teams to dream up a product that we feel will both address pain points as well as unlock the creativity of GoPro’s vast network of professional content creators, partners and enthusiasts.
Today, we officially let the cat out of the bag with a press release to the public. Have a read below. I hope you are as excited as I am about Fusion. It’s been a labor of love, and we hope you all have as much fun using it and experiencing its content as we did designing it.”
Here is footage from the Fusion
[images from gopro.com & mountaingames.com]
