GoPro has a new 360 VR camera that you can't have
The spherical camera, called Fusion, is small and wearable, but a lot of other details are a mystery.
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GoPro's Fusion spherical camera can be used for VR and traditional video capture.
GoPro's been deep into developing commercial VR capture systems for a couple years now. First, there was the large Google Jump-optimized Odyssey, then the significantly smaller Omni and now, the wearable Fusion.
Unlike the Omni with its synchronized array of six GoPro Hero4 Black cameras and the Odyssey with its 16 cameras, the Fusion is a single 5.2K-resolution spherical camera that will be small enough to use with GoPro mounts and accessories. (In fact, this is the first non-Hero camera GoPro has made.) Also, it's designed for capturing both VR and non-VR content.
Much like 4K-resolution video can be used for digitally cropping in on a subject while still maintaining an HD-quality video, the Fusion will have a feature called OverCapture allowing you to capture HD-quality conventional video from the 5.2K-resolution spherical video. Presumably, you'll also be able to create a conventional video with digital panning and tilting from the single stationary camera.
The Fusion is considerably smaller than GoPro's other spherical video solutions.
But before you get too excited, the Fusion is meant for commercial use like its other two systems, and you'll have to apply to participate in a pilot program which is expected to start up this summer. A limited commercial release of Fusion isn't expected to happen until the end of 2017 and GoPro gave no details on pricing or other capabilities and specs.
More details on the Fusion pilot program can be found on GoPro's site.