Samsung unveiled its Gear 360 VR camera during the MWC 2016 earlier this year. The company announced on June 21 that the Gear 360 device would be made available in the USA for a price of $349 (around Rs. 24,000).
While the company has not revealed a date for the public release of its VR camera, it said it would be available to purchase later this year. For now, a limited number of Gear 360 VR cameras will be put up for sale for the attendees at the VidCon 2016 between June 23 and 25. The conference takes pace every year and attracts online video makers and enthusiasts from around the World.
According to reports, Samsung will be renaming Milk VR, its previous 360-degree content sharing platform, and turning it into Samsung VR, a new site altogether. The new platform will enable any user to view and share 360-degree content, unlike the Milk VR platform that allowed only a closed group of users to use its services.
The new initiative will pit Samsung against other VR sharing platforms like Facebook and YouTube, who also recently launched support for VR content. Like its competitors, Samsung is also looking to rope in famous personalities, film developers and enthusiasts so as to reach a wider user-base with its new service. For e.g. the Samsung VR website currently hosts a banner of the newly released movie ‘Conjuring 2’ to tell users that they can experience the spine-chilling movie in VR too.
Samsung’s Gear 360 allows users to shoot panoramic videos and photo’s with two high-resolution 15MP fish-eye lenses. When used in tandem, they provide 30MP stills and 360-degree wide angle videos. If you decide to shoot with one lens of the spherical device, you could expect 15MP footage with an 180-degree wide angle shot.
In order to use the Gear 360 device, users will need to download an application from the Google Play Store or Galaxy App Store. The Gear 360 app is available free of cost and will allow you remotely control the recording on Gear 360 devices.