Insta360’s One X might be a fine 360-degree camera for shooting immersive holiday videos, but now the Chinese company has released something a little more Hollywood at CES 2019 – an 11K VR camera called the Titan.
Calling the Titan a ‘camera’ is underselling it a little – this beast is effectively eight (yes, eight) Micro Four Thirds cameras woven together in one body. That means each sensor can capture the kind of dynamic range and image quality seen in cameras like the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, a big boost over most of the standalone VR cameras we’ve seen so far.
It also means the Titan can record 11K monoscopic video (or 10K 3D video) at 30fps, along with 11K 360-degree photos. Interestingly, you can also shoot 5.3K 360-degree video at 120fps, which opens up the possibility of high-quality slow motion in VR videos.
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Pros who are looking to dabble in VR might be attracted by a couple of other features too. It comes with a Farsight live monitoring system, which connects to a phone or tablet to let filmmakers preview and control shots without having to quickly scamper out of frame. The Titan also shoots 10-bit colour and uses Insta360’s FlowState tech, which is electronic image stabilisation (EIS) that Insta360 claims gives it gimbal-like, 9-axis EIS.
Of course, not many of us own computers with the grunt required to play 11K video, so Insta360 has made a proprietary playback tech called CrystalView which renders in real-time only the section of the video that the viewer is watching, rather than the whole thing. This means you can apparently play back full-quality Titan video on some of today’s smartphones, although there’s still the issue that most of us don’t have a VR headset for watching 360-degree movies in their full immersive glory.
As you’d expect, the Titan doesn’t come cheap either, with a $14,999 (£11,773) price tag that puts it slightly out of Christmas stocking territory. Still, it’s good to see such pro-level camera built for VR movies, and hopefully we’ll get to watch results with an equally massive bag of popcorn soon after it ships in April 2019.
What do you think, are you looking forward to watching or shooting movies in VR? Drop us a line on @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
