GoPro’s Fusion 360 camera costs $699 and ships in November

GoPro announces that the new 360-degree camera “Fusion” will appear in November and will cost $699. GoPro is priced above the level of other handy 360-degree cameras such as Samsung’s Gear 360 or the Ricoh Theta models.

In addition to 5.2K videos at 30 FPS, the Fusion supports 3K videos at 60 FPS. It can take 18-megapixel spherical photos, and capture 360-degree sound. It’s waterproof up to 16 feet out of the box, and is compatible with “most” GoPro mounts, according to the company.

The photo resolution of 18 megapixels is roughly at the level of the current Gear 360 and Ricoh. The first model of Samsung’s Gear 360 is still at a clear distance in the photo quality, thanks to two 15-megapixel sensors, although it is currently available as an extremely low-cost model.

The new GoPro Fusion is intended to provide a simpler solution to produce 360 video with a resolution of up to 5.2K at 30 frames per second. The name Fusion results from the claim that the hardware should offer the same performance as six individual GoPros, which are brought together at a special camera age. Conventional pictures with the typical GoPro wide-angle optics also dominates the device.

The film material of the fusion will only be evaluated and edited afterwards. GoPro describes this strategy as “OverCapture” or “Reframing”. Camera users should capture a 360-degree scene and select the optimal settings in post-production – or publish the video as a 360 version.

The good news is that GoPro’s been working on building up that part of the company for a while now. The bad news is these software features are apparently not coming to the mobile app until 2018, so until then, users will have to stick to desktop editing.

Fusion’s Overcapture feature is coming to mobile in 2018, but will be available on desktop at launch.

Source: GoPro