I’ve long been excited of the possibility of 4k video in a planetarium dome. And so I was captivated with the recent introduction of a 360° video camera rig with 8192×4096 resolution. (Which translates to 4k domemaster resolution.) It also meant that I could increase the fisheye FOV from 180° to 220° and see the immediate ground surrounding the camera. In my opinion this makes for a heightened immersion experience. So I have spent the last two months experimenting and learning directly about the intricacies of shooting 360° video.
The 360Rize PRO10HD is a 3D printed object. Meaning it’s one solid piece of plastic that is precisely engineered to fit 10 GoPro cameras into the smallest possible space. It’s printed using aircraft grade plastic, so it’s durable and has been through a strenuous bend test to prove it’s strength over time.
Currently the 360° video community is tiny and little documentation is available. So I was on my own to figure out the potential problems, shooting subtleties, and overall workflow. This can be a tedious and nerve-wracking process. After all, with 10 GoPro cameras shooting in unison, something is bound to go wrong at some point. So alas, plan within plans within plans, theorize contingencies, and take notes of your experience. And now for you brave souls remaining, below are my own findings, tips, and thoughts.
Update: December 13, 2015 – Recently I have been contributing to the Making360 open source book. It’s a collection of solutions and illustrations of common problems in producing immersive video experiences. So if you find this blog post helpful, then Making360 will give you a comprehensive understanding.
Hardware Rundown
Camera & Memory
— PRO10HD Rig
— 360Rize Aluminium Mount
— GoPro HERO3+ Camera – Black Edition (x10)
— Lexar 32GB microSDHC 600x [LSDMI32GBSBNA600R] (x10)
— Manfrotto 496RC2 Ball Head with Quick Release
— ALZO Ball Head Camera Tripod (the included ball head isn’t great, hence the Manfrotto ball head above)
— Manfrotto 200PL-38 RC2 Plate
Extra Batteries & Charging
— Wasabi Power Battery [2-Pack] and Charger (x10)
— PowerSquid D080B-008K (x2)
— 7-Port USB Charger (x2)
Transport
— Pelican 1550 Case with Foam
— Fotodiox GT-H3Lens-Cap GoTough (x10)
Stitching & Rendering
— Autopano Giga & Autopano Video Pro [known as AVP in this blog post]
— GeForce GTX 770 4GB
— 360Rize File Data Manager
Big Picture Workflow
There are different mindsets and considerations depending of what action you are performing. So I’ve split up up this information into 4 main sections.
Setup the Rig
- Remove lens caps
- Check lens for dust
- Put camera’s into rig (matching camera # to rig #)
- Press wifi-button on each camera
- Check that each camera’s recording settings are correct: Example Display
It’s a bit of a trick to get all the GoPro cameras installed without touching the lenses. But having the plastic rig locked onto a tripod helps. I chose to permanently install the aluminium mount so that 7 of the GoPros are looking at the horizon. Since I shoot for a dome, this can ease stitching pains later on since often the objects of interest are in these camera zones. This leaves 1 camera pointing straight up and 2 pointing down at the tripod. Interestingly, if a camera fails then I can trade it out for 9 or 10 and still not lose any essential zones. So there is some redundancy there. I could also remove 9 & 10 altogether and still capture 280° of footage.
Also, removing the cameras from the rig is difficult due to the tightness of the plastic camera clamps. But this isn’t a complaint, it’s actually a good sign that everything is snug and won’t wobble during shooting. So to remove the cameras you must use a small flathead screwdriver (included with 360Rize rig) to softly wedge the plastic tab up from its locked position.
It’s important to number each of the cameras and the memory cards with a sharpie. If a camera begins to act strangely then I can easily trace it back to the source. It also allows me to understand exactly where a camera is within the rig, which can be helpful for when the automatic stitching doesn’t work. This is rare, but can happen if the video frame is of a pure blue sky with no overlapping content to match up.
The first time you setup the cameras, you will need to setup the default video recording settings for each camera by hand. From that point forward the cameras will remember those settings. (unless you remove the battery overnight, then the settings will reset to default!) It is absolutely vital that each camera has the exact same settings.
Camera Settings for Best Resolution (with the PRO10HD Rig)
— Protune: On
— Resolution: 2704×1524
— Aspect Ratio: 16:9
— FPS: 30
— Low Light: Off
— White Balance: Cam RAW
Shooting Workflow
- Power ON the cameras with the wifi remote
- Check each camera for corrupt symbol (rare occurrence)
- Press Record on wifi remote
- Quickly check each camera for red blinking recording lights
- Motion sync the cameras. Twist tripod stem quickly. VERY IMPORTANT!
Whats the need for motion sync? Well the wifi remote doesn’t trigger all the cameras at the same moment. So instead AVP must sync each of the video clips itself, otherwise your footage could be offset on the timeline and look terrible. There are two options: audio sync or motion sync; but motion sync is more precise. All you have to do is quickly spin the whole rig back and forth to provide the necessary data calibration for AVP to use later. The audio sync needs a sharp fast snap to sync to, like a dog training clicker.
A wonderful aspect of using GoPro cameras is that one wifi remote can trigger all 10 cameras. So they can be remotely powered ON/OFF and record start/stop. The remote indicates how many cameras are connected.
Because each of the camera lenses are not at the same nodal point, you’re undoubtedly going to see parallax errors when stitched. There are some techniques to address this in AVP, but it’ll take time and hand polishing. But to combat this upfront, it’s wise to constantly be thinking about parallax when planning a shot. My suggestion is to keep the camera rig at least 10 feet away from everything. That can be tricky and not always an option, but it’s the guideline I try my best to follow. Know that the larger the environment that you shoot, the easier your stitch job will be.
The most difficult aspect of shooting for a dome is keeping the camera movement buttery smooth. Any subtle bumps in the footage will be greatly amplified on the dome. I tested a wheelchair and the motion was smooth but not perfectly parallel when moving forward. I also tested a motorized wheelchair and that produced satisfying results when used at the slowest setting. But the real perfection is with the use of a tracked dolly. Yet then you run into the issue of seeing the track within the 360° shot. So I used the Singleman Indie-Dolly with 12 feet of track and that was just short enough to not show within 240°-ish of the footage. It’s incredibly smooth and the smallest movement forward looks stunning in the dome.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect are the GoPro cameras themselves. GoPro’s are not exactly known for their dependability. Some things to watch out for:
- Camera battery life leaves me wishing for more. 1h 30m of shooting time is pretty good, but I haven’t timed it when continually turning ON/OFF the whole rig. So I have a total of 30 batteries charged and ready. I definitely turn off the cameras when not recording, as they eat battery life when in stand-by mode. I’ve heard that changing the settings from the default 3 red blinking recording lights and instead seeing only one red blinking recording light can help to save some battery life too. Leaving on the wifi overnight (blue blinking lights) will drain a battery life in 24 hours.
- Be sure to use microSD cards that are recommended by GoPro. Some of the other brands don’t write as fast as they advertise and this can lead to the camera stopping recording randomly due to a full buffer. I’ve had good results with the Lexar 32GB microSDHC 600x and the footage files have a constant data stream of 45mbits/sec, with no skipped frames. But in the future I’d suggest the 64GB version. Recording with 2.7k settings will allow you to record 1h 30m of footage. So using a 64GB card would double that. Dumping footage takes about 1h 30m of diligent work, so if you’re in the middle of a big shoot, the last thing you want to do is be interrupted. I’ve had absolutely no problems with the microSD cards. But if you have an “SD error” on the GoPro, accidentally deleted footage, or the microSD card is unreadable, then check out Test Disk.
- Occasionally a video file will corrupt. You’ll know because the camera display will show the corrupt symbol and you must push a button to continue. So this is something that I’ve added into the shooting workflow. It’s not entirely clear what causes this, other than the fact that these high resolutions have a high data rate and sometimes the header doesn’t get written to file. Luckily the video data can be repaired when transferred to a computer. I’ve yet to have a case where the video data is lost.
- The cameras are not up to par when it comes to long duration shots. A continuous shot of 30 minutes would make me nervous. I had one occasion where a camera froze; meaning the firmware froze up and the battery had to be removed to reset it. And you’ll know it’s frozen, as no buttons will function. Either it won’t power on, won’t begin recording, or stops recording mid-shot. So as a precaution, I am always checking for the red blinking recording lights at the beginning and ending of a shot. Upon freezing, the red recording lights stop blinking and then it is no longer recording video. But any footage prior to the freeze is retained (though it might be corrupted).
- If the footage count on the front camera display isn’t identical between all of the camera’s, then that camera wasn’t recording during the shot and so that channel will be missing for stitching. Either one camera didn’t trigger via the wifi remote or the camera firmware has froze. So again, always check for the red blinking recording lights at the beginning and ending of a shot. It’s obviously wise to keep notes in your shot log of these mishaps.
- Even with all that said, they perform pretty well. For example, out of 57 total shots: 4 shots had corrupted files which were all later repaired in full. 1 essential camera had a battery die and lost half the shot. Twice a camera wouldn’t sync with the remote, but it was a non-essential camera facing the tripod and recorded fine without it (it needed a battery reset). And once an essential camera froze up after I had started recording and the shot is unusable. So obviously, get multiple takes of each shot!
Shooting for a dome means that I don’t actually need the complete 360° of footage. So I use a tripod to increase stabilization. Some people use a monopod that has tiny tripod legs. That is useful to capture as much FOV as possible and actually opens up the possibility of complete 360° with some trickery in post-production to hide the monopod itself. But in moving shots, a tripod is required.
Keep a shot log while shooting on location! It will be invaluable since you will undoubtedly forget the shot locations, problems, noted bumps/wobbles, bad takes, reminders, and such. Be diligent about this, as having a shot log will make your importing process much smoother.
Each of the cameras are locked to auto-expose. And I mean permanently locked off from user control. It’s just the way GoPros have always been. But luckily AVP is extremely powerful in its exposure/color correction. Yet it can be difficult to deal with when you’re very close to a bright light source and only one camera has a wildly different exposure value. Even still, AVP can correct between pretty serious exposure differences since the GoPro cameras have excellent latitude.
An exciting option is to shoot in slow motion at 240 FPS. Using this FPS will reduce your end output to 1k fisheye (2x1k spherical). Or shoot at 120 FPS and output to 2k fisheye (4x2k spherical).
The bottom of the 360Rize aluminum mount has an 3/8″ screw hole. (Contrary to the typical 1/4″.) So you will need to get a special quick release plate to put it on any tripod.
Battery Runtime Test
— Official battery, using wifi remote, recorded 2.7k footage for 1h 32m
— Wasabi battery, using wifi remote, recorded 2.7k footage for 1h 19m
Import & Check the Footage
Wherever you shoot, you’re going to need a laptop and external hard drive to dump the video data. For each hour of video taken, you will need about 340GB of free space.
Using an external USB 3 microSD memory card reader is an absolute requirement. Since each card can hold 32GB, you’ll want to be able to dump the data quickly. So dumping the files straight from the GoPro cameras isn’t an option since the USB 2 speeds are too slow. Even with USB 3 speeds, it still takes about 1h 30m to dump all the micoSD cards to disk.
Since each camera creates footage with similar filenames, it’s imperative that the you rename the videos files as they are copied to your computer. Otherwise the possibility of overwriting data is quite possible. But renaming by hand isn’t needed if you use the 360Rize File Data Manager to easily dump the video files for you. I underestimated the usefulness of this command line tool. It automates the process of appending the camera number and project name to the video filename, and then it dumps the footage into a folder. Here are the quick instructions of its use. Don’t worry, although it doesn’t have a GUI, all you need to know is how to CD via the command line prompt.
Since writing this article, there is now software which automates the process of copying the video files from multiple SD cards and organizing them into folders for each take: Action Cam Importer & 360CamMan
Finally it’s time to see how the footage actually turned out. Hopefully you have kept a shot log to help inform this process. But I always create a spreadsheet and keep track of the following per shot:
- Concatenate needed? Due to the FAT32 memory card format, any shot that reaches 3.8GB will be automatically split into separate video files. This tool makes it MUCH easier: iFFmpeg (Mac), myFFmpeg (Windows)
- Corrupted video file? Infrequently a video file will corrupt; meaning the header won’t write to file. Luckily the video footage can be repaired.
- Missing channels? Rarely a GoPro camera will freeze up. Either it won’t start recording or freeze up during a shot. Hence the need to check for the blinking record light in the beginning and ending of a shot.
- Shot length match between cameras? If a camera battery dies in the middle of a shot, then you’ll still get the footage up to a certain point for that camera. But obviously the rest of the cameras will continue recording.
- Shots organized? Each collection of 10 related video files will need to be placed into its own file folder to best keep individual shots organized for stitching. So from the huge list of dumped files you must figure out which cameras are related to one particular shot. This is definitely tedious and especially confusing with files that need to be concatenated. My shortcut is to organize the files by Date Modified and have the Length attribute visible.
Stitch & Render
Finally you have all your shots organized and ready to stitch in AVP. What’s amazing is that you don’t need a AVP template for the specific camera rig layout. Just drop all the videos into into AVP, synchronize, and stitch. It uses the overlapping content between each video to automatically create a 360° projection. It’s not always perfect, but it’s damn good most of the time.
Here are a few sources that were helpful in learning Autopano Video.
— Autopano Video Wiki Documentation
— Autopano Video 101
— Autopano Video Forums
— 360Rize FAQ
Final Render Resolution
AVP can render whatever type of projection you need to a frame sequence. Full resolution examples below. (These are not polished renders, just the initial automatic AVP stitch.)
— Spherical: 8192x4096px
— Fisheye (FOV 180°): 4096x4096px
— Fisheye (FOV 220°): 5000x5000px
I was happily surprised with the fact that upon increasing the FOV to 220°, then the final render resolution increases to 5k. This is possible because more footage is viewable at a higher FOV, and so you are effectively “squishing” more pixels into the fisheye image. So when I project it onto the dome at 4k, then I have the added benefit of increased sharpness since the video has been downscaled.
I render using the spherical projection because often I want to add slow movement to the virtual camera in After Effects with the Navegar Fulldome Plugin.
The only difference between Autopano Video and Autopano Video Pro is the GPU render option. Which makes a huge difference in render times. When rendering at these high resolutions, you need a graphics card that has lots of memory. So the GeForce GTX 770 4GB has a decent amount of cores, lots of RAM, and at a good price point.
Final Render Statistics at Full Resolution (Spherical)
— CPU: 0.05 render fps – takes 12 hours to render 1m 30s of video.
— GPU: 1.5 render fps – takes 1 hour to render 1m 30s of video. (GeForce GTX 770)
Right when you get the footage, you’ll just want to see a 1k preview quickly. The good news is that fisheye rendering at 1k in AVP is quite fast at 10fps on the GPU.
As of AVP 1.6, they have implemented a stabilization algorithm to help smooth out bumps. It definitely reduces any bumps by 50% and I read that will be improved in the next few versions. They are also adding a timeline which can keyframe cameras and color; which means that you can interpolate between stitches. That is powerful when trying to fix parallax on a moving dolly shot. It’s also very helpful when trying to fix an unruly camera whose exposure is way off from the others (such as a camera pointing at the ceiling).
When using GoPro cameras, the stitching can be optimized since the camera sensors aren’t perfectly aligned/centered with the lens and therefore each have their own lens distortion model. So you can pass AVP this information in the the Lens Distortion Correction settings. As of version 1.6 the settings have been moved and updated.
The video and render examples showcased in this blog post do not yet have their stitches hand polished in AVP. They only use the initial automatic stitch because I just wanted to see the results quickly. So any obvious seams and parallax errors you see could be fixed with some hand polishing. I’m still learning how to best use the software. But you need to run alot of experiments to get polished results and possibly even composite multiple AVP renders in After Effects to get the most seamless results.
The GoPro cameras do a great job of capturing color and have excellent exposure latitude. But a photo filter in After Effects is often needed to color correct for tungsten lights or daylight. Then the colors need a big saturation boost to look optimal in the dome. And the use of curves can enhance dark colors instead of using contrast. And maybe a slight touch of sharpening.
This AVP explanation could easily be a whole write-up of its own. Perhaps in the future I’ll share my experience once I’ve learned more. I’m currently in the process of stitching 57 shots (900GB total unprocessed) taken at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. It was an intense 3 day shoot and we got some amazing 360° shots that I can’t wait for you to see in our upcoming planetarium show production.
Lastly, if you’re shooting with the stereoscopic 360Rize rig, then you will have a slightly different workflow in AVP. I don’t even want to fathom the bizarre difficulties with 3D 360 video.
Both the normal and stereoscopic 360 videos can easily be experienced on the Oculus Rift (using Kolor Eyes, which is free).
And that’s the Gist of it
As you can see it’s not the faint of heart, as it demands a pretty wide range of technical knowledge. But the results can be simply stunning. This is a newborn medium and there is alot of room to grow. But it’s an exciting time for fulldome show producers, hyperdome possibilities, and the Oculus Rift community. 4k video in the dome has long been a dream and I think this is an bold step into a fascinating frontier.
Scuba Diving with a 360 Video Rig
Update: January 19, 2016
I’ve recently been working with Allan Adams (Associate Professor of Physics at MIT) and Keith Ellenbogen (Acclaimed Underwater Photographer) to create a planetarium experience of their underwater scuba dives. They have been using 360 video as a way to immersive audiences in these majestic underwater worlds. So we had been discussing some of the problems they experienced while during a test dive inside the Giant Ocean Tank of the New England Aquarium. There were two main problems: triggering the cameras to record and then the cameras overheating. So I did some testing and came up with a specific shooting workflow for scuba diving with the 360Rize 360Abyss rig. These tips are probably specific to the older plastic core housing version, not the recently released v4 redesign which has an aluminum core housing.
Triggering the Cameras to Record
Preparing the rig for a shoot is not to be rushed. It takes about 20 minutes to install the cameras, screw in the dome doors on the rig, and be ready to go. And since the scuba rig has many small screws, delicate domes, and electronic cameras… Well once you get in the boat, the last thing you really want to do is open up the scuba rig. Just imagine the rocking of the boat, cramp space, busy people, weather and mist and splashing water. So that really limits how you can trigger recording the cameras themselves.
Built into the 360Abyss rig there are physical buttons which allow you press the power button and turn on the cameras even while underwater. And on the GoPro cameras there is the useful ‘QuikCapture’ feature that allows for one-press-of-a-button to power on the camera and automatically start recording. And with the GoPro Hero 3+ you could hit the power button and it would power on the camera and automatically start recording. But with the GoPro Hero 4, the feature was changed to only function by hitting the record button, not the power button. So if you’re using the GoPro Hero 4 then you must completely rely on the wifi remote (since the scuba rig only allows us access to the power button). Luckily the wifi remote is rather reliable, even when the cameras are installed within the scuba rig. Through even if the wifi remote was in a special housing, I doubt that its signal would be powerful enough underwater. So we are really left with one style of shooting: hit record on the boat and then jump in the water.
But first I did a specific test. I started the 6 cameras recording with the wifi remote. Then walked across the building with just the remote, until it was no longer linked through wifi. The cameras continued recording even though the wifi link had broken. So this confirms that you can safely power on the cameras when you reach the diving point, hit record, jump in the water, and you can leave the wifi remote on the boat without worrying.
Overheating Cameras
In the test dives, the cameras were overheating prematurely to the batteries dying. Which makes sense, as the cameras are shooting at very high resolutions (2.7k 4:3, 30fps) and so they generate lots of heat. And seeing as how the GoPro cameras mainly rely on air movement to cool down, well when you put the camera in a small enclosed space… it’ll overheat and shut down. And I wasn’t thrilled of the idea of going down to a smaller resolution because of this issue.
So I investigated the two options of doors that are included with the 360Abyss: plastic and metal doors. I’m guessing that the door selection affects what kind of buoyancy you desire, since the metal doors are clearly heavier. But in reality the metal doors are absolutely vital. In my tests the plastic door definitely acts as an insulator and traps heat in. And the metal door acts as a radiator since the front face of the camera presses up against the metal door and is helping to move heat away. While testing I would periodically touch the door face and the metal door was superior in radiating heat. And underwater the heat from the doors would be cooled much more efficiently. But even without being underwater, and using the metal doors, I could record until the batteries died. Yet if I used the plastic doors then the cameras would overheat.
Scuba Shooting Workflow: Preparing for the Dive
1. On dry land: quickly check that all cameras have matching settings. Install the cameras into the scuba rig. Make absolutely sure that the wifi is on (the blinking blue light). Screw in the glass domes.
2. Jump on the boat and travel to your location on the water.
3. When fully suited up and ready to dive, then use the wifi remote to power on the cameras. It may take 1 or 2 minutes for the remote to report all 6 cameras. When ready, hit the record button. Visually confirm that each camera has the red recording lights blinking. Give the camera rig a few quick twists (for post-production syncing). Leave the remote on the boat.
4. Go scuba diving!
Addendum
Update: June 5, 2016 – I just stumbled across some excellent documentation of Camera Settings for GoPro 360 VR Rigs. It includes excellent examples of different camera settings and some solid tips.
Update: January 23, 2016 – I recently updated the firmware on each of my GoPro Hero 3+ cameras (x10). And during the process one of the cameras failed and it has since been unusable. It’s officially bricked (not stuck). Upon powering on the camera, the both red LED’s illuminate solid (no flashing) and the display remains blank. From that moment onward no buttons function and the only way to shut it down is by pulling out the battery.
I should note that this specific camera hadn’t been completely reliable when shooting on location. Sometimes it would ignore the wifi remote or it would freeze rarely. It was a camera that we would particularly keep an eye on since threw problems more often than any other. So it seems there were some early warning signs. But it’s still surprising for it to be usable one day and the next utterly unresponsive.
I’ve tried all sorts of tips of how to un-brick a GoPro camera. Suggestions from forums, tutorials, and even GoPro customer service acknowledges that the camera is dead. And it’s past the on year warranty, so I’m out of luck. So I’m sharing this for others to be aware that updating your firmware can be a potentially scary process.
Update: January 12, 2016 – After much 360 shooting and traveling, our PRO10HD rig is starting to get weathered. Recently one of the weak points on the arm clamp has snapped. Yet the clamp is still functional and is able to maintain a secure hold on the camera. But seeing as how we have many more plans for 360 video, we decided to upgrade to the new version of the PRO10HD.
The upgraded PRO10HD features include:
— 3/8″ solid brass threaded inserts (the prior version just had straight 3D printed plastic that could easily be stripped)
— New stronger 3D printed material (hopefully this solves the broken arm clamp issue)
— Stronger holder arms for securing cameras (seems like the arm clamps are now slightly thicker)
— Larger GoPro port access to access the HDMI and USB ports (will be useful for extracting the microSD cards)
— Unit now compatible with HDMI cabling (not useful for me, but essential for those wanting to do live streaming)
— For the two cameras facing down (#9 and #10), they have been given an added tilt. This can easily be seen within the PRO10HD comparison. This makes sense as the cameras now have more coverage and less unnecessary overlap. I have always wondered about this and am happy to see this change implemented.
— Lets say the worst happens and you have a camera completely die while shooting on location. Well the upgraded PRO10HD rig has an added tripod mount that allows you to instead shoot partial 360 video (coverage reduced 360×120° instead of full 360×180°) and only be missing the tripod area. This is possible by removing camera #1 and then using the revealed mount that is typically hidden by that camera. This been a great fail-safe solution to have, just in case. And I’ve even had to fall back on this option once.
Update: December 1, 2015 – Recently I have been contributing to the Making360 open source book. It’s a collection of solutions and illustrations of common problems in producing immersive video experiences. So if you find this blog post helpful, then Making360 will give you a comprehensive understanding.
Update: November 17, 2015 – It’s fascinating to see all the different approaches to 360° video. So I surveyed the current 360° video rigs being offered and then organized every serious option into an epic listing: Collection of 360° Video Rigs. The results are telling…
Update: October 3, 2015 – Disney Research Zurich has been doing some very interesting experiments into optimized stitching of 360 video. (Or read the full paper.) Though I would really like to see their algorithm perform against 360 video with some major parallax errors, including objects within 6 feet of the rig WHILE having the rig moving. Even still, it’s pretty impressive results. Hopefully we can see this implemented into commercial software soon.
Update: June 17, 2015 – Some interesting news! GoPro has acquired Kolor. So 360 video is definitely maturing into something interesting. Perhaps GoPro will eventually release their own 360 video equipment, but that’s my own pure speculation.
Update: March 27, 2015 – Kolor has created a video explaining the complete 360 video workflow. It covers everything from camera setup, shooting, stitching, and rendering. It is an introduction to much of the necessary knowledge for creating 360 videos.
Update: February 19, 2015 – MewPro is an Arduino Pro Mini board which can reprogram/control almost all of the GoPro3+ functionalities. The Orangkucing Lab has been experimenting with an interesting solution for automatically syncing GoPro cameras. By hooking the MewPro to Gopro Dual Hero System, you can genlock multiple cameras. (Genlocking is a technique where the video output of one source is used to synchronize other video sources together.) So the jello effect might soon be a thing of the past. The jello effect happens when there is a sudden bump or vibration and since the GoPro cameras aren’t strictly hardware synced then each camera is recording a slightly different moment in time. So to simplify it, the FPS isn’t globally locked. And when you later stitch it all together you will see briefly see the seams between the video sources during the moments of bumps/vibration. Hence each of the video sources look like jello. And up till now this hasn’t been addressable.
Update: November 20, 2014 – Here is an interesting roundup of 4k video cameras in the marketplace. So it seems that 360 video is still the best option for creating 4k domemasters, especially since 4k video cameras still don’t have sensors with at least a 4k vertical. So we are still a number of years away from 8k video cameras being mainstream. Yet it’s quite interesting to see 4k become a standard within video camera equipment.
Update: October 30, 2014 – If you are wondering about the new GoPro Hero4 camera… Having each camera shoot at 4k 30fps is amazing, but it comes at a cost. Results from the 360 video community suggest that you can only shoot for 30 minutes before needing to cool down the cameras. And sometimes the Hero4 camera will forcefully shut down due to overheating.
Update: March 12, 2014 – The GoPro cameras have a firmware update available that allows you to shift the automatic exposure through the iPhone app. I’m curious to experiment, though I’m cautious of the added workflow of getting the optimal exposure and updating ALL cameras settings for each shot. Also, while it’s too crazy for me (since it voids your warranty), there are ways to hack a GoPro camera to truly lock down the exposure (AutoexecHack scripts).
The Fulldome Blog 
