Vuze Camera for stereoscopic images
The Vuze camera is advertised as the first mobile 3D 360° virtual reality (VR) camera. It is designed to give even non-experts access to the creation of VR content thanks to its simple operation. We put the camera through its paces. We were particularly interested in the possibility of recording so-called 3D videos. 3 dimensional in the sense that the recordings are filmed stereoscopically and can therefore give the viewer a spatial feeling. The focus was always on the promised simplicity of operation.
The end result is impressive. The hardware creates high-quality recordings in 4K resolution, stereoscopic and 360° and is indeed very easy to use. As a layman, it takes about an hour from recording to the finished 3D video. To watch it on YouTube in Cardboard mode, however, you have to inject certain metadata into the video. Google provides an extremely good tutorial for this(Google VR Video Upload Tutorial).
The stitching of the videos is more or less good depending on the subject. The best basis for a seamless video is provided by shots taken outdoors or with a diffuse light source. The more direct the light, the better the seams of the videos will be visible. The supplied software for automatic stitching is easy to use but still somewhat immature – the same applies to the supplied app for operating the camera.
Our conclusion: The software is still in its infancy, but the hardware is of high quality.
Tip for professionals: If you want to do the stitching manually with professional software(Kolor Autopano Video Pro), you clearly need expertise in dealing with video editors, batch files and ffmpeg. The effort involved will clearly be greater, but it is definitely worth it.
