Slashdot Mirror
This 360-Degree, 4K Video Camera isn't Getting Kickstarted (Video)
This is something that caught Tim Lord's eye as he cruised the 2014 Bay Area Maker Faire: A 360 4K-resolution video camera. It's not out yet for retail sale, but if you look at the Centrcam website you can see a number of videos their cameras have shot, including some high-motion ones that they say, truthfully, are excellent to watch full-screen. The people who came up with this aren't college students who have never done any professional design work. Rather, they're "the same team that engineered and built the Apple iPhone cameras." So it's no wonder they have made something pretty cool that has already been used to make videos for Fox Sports, National Geographic, and the U.S. Army, among others. Their Kickstarter blurb is pretty cool, too. It is one of the most detailed ones we've ever seen. It's sad that they only got $607,628 of their $900,000 funding goal, considering all the work they've put into their product, along with the great presentation. They didn't know this would happen at the time this video was shot at the Maker Faire; their Kickstarter time window didn't close until four days ago. But there are other ways to fund a startup, and we hope they manage find one -- because we would eventually like to get our hands on one of their cameras and test it for ourselves, possibly with a little help from some of the Bradenton Riverwalk Skatepark regulars. (Alternate Video Link)
Good work, now we can be disappointed, too.
If you're going to post stories about a Kickstarter, do it BEFORE THEY END. It's pointless to post after the Kickstarter has ended. Given the way the Editorial cycle works on Slashdot, you should probably post at least a week before they end, so the story shows up at least a couple of days before it's too late to do anything about it. I had never heard of this Kickstarter until this story, and I suspect I'm not the only person in this boat.
I read the internet for the articles.
Am I missing an obvious need for full 360 panorama cameras? Maybe some small businesses or tourist destinations would want one to stream a panorama of their location on a website or something. But what would the general populous do with it that justifies a $250 price tag? Maybe use it as a home security cam?
Also, why is it a bad thing that a Kickstarter like this failed? The team invested a relatively small sum of money to find out if there was a wider market for their product and as it turns out, there isn't. That's far better than the other option of paying (most likely more than what Kickstarter cost them) for market studies and then still having to find investors (or lenders) to front the costs of a full production run.
Knowledge Brings Fear