CatsandVR

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So I pre-ordered a Vuze Camera...now what?

Yesterday I received an email that got me both excited and nervous about the potential future of CatsAndVR.com

Though I am super excited for VR, I am a filmmaker first and foremost. I can write about every thing from Oculus games to adult content on cardboard but eventually I am going to have to make some Cat VR videos. The site is called CatsAndVR.com at the end of the day.

I spend most of my available cash being a loving husband and a good cat dad so my budget is currently very limited and VR is a very expensive hobby. 

Currently there are several options available for a VR filmmaker but the best HD video camera for the average consumer is priced too high for the average consumer. The realm of professional grade setups, like the Nokia OZO or the Freedom360 GoPro Mount with six GoPros is out of my range. I also am not in the financial bracket to build a $30,000 Surround 360 camera, but I do give Facebook credit for making it open source.

Perhaps getting something lower end would work and I thought about a Ricoh Theta but at $350 it seems steep for something that may be obsolete at the end of the year.

Where does that leave me? Enter the Vuze Camera.

Vuze Camera, the world's first consumer 3D 360 VR camera by HumanEyes Technologies. Easy to use, light weight, awesome design and comes with a complete kit which is all you need to be able to relive your moments. 

When I first discovered Vuze Camera I turned to twitter. The social media manager was very engaging and provided some great information. I followed up with my own research and found out that people had some concerns about the product. Engadget ran a story on Vuze and to my surprise Anton the VP R&D of Vuze tried to quell those concerns in the comments of that story.

I am really putting my trust on Anton on this one as I said I already pre-ordered one.

So getting into that pre-order, since I signed up for pre-order information I was offered the launch price as well as a promo code that with the headset, tripod, and software package looked to be a really good deal. In comparison to the Ricoh Theta the price seemed pretty good. I am hoping I made the right choice. 

One thing of note on preordering, when I first tried to order my card was declined. When I asked the card company why they said I was making an international order and they wanted to verify it first. This is probably something the company should be aware of and any one who preorders should be aware of this possibility, but hey I could be an edge case.

I was able to get the pre order processed but now I have to wait until October. That is quite a bit away for someone who wants to go out and create some VR Cat videos right now. The only thing I can do now is hope that HumanEyes Technology does deliver on their promises as well as expected delivery time. I just put my VR filmmaking hopes as well as cash on a product I have yet to try. I hope my cat like intuition is steering me in the right direction.

I personally took the plunge to pre-order but go check out the product and do the research to see for your self.  http://vuze.camera/

For me the VUZE camera has the potential to do for VR filmmaking what the Panasonic DVX100a did for independent digital filmmaking. 

 

Cats And VR

 

 

 

Google Introduces VR View to allow you to embed immersive content into your apps and websites!

Move around using a mouse on a desktop or using your phone. 

SO EASY EVEN A CAT CAN EMBED A VR VIDEO! Also it is super mobile friendly. I tested on an old iPhone 4s and it views and loads great! This will allow for some really good Cardboard acceptance from the blogging community. 

Excerpt from Google Developers Blog

VR views take 360 VR images or videos and transform them into interactive experiences that users can view on their phone, with a Cardboard viewer, or on their desktop computer. For native apps, you can embed a VR view by grabbing the latest Cardboard SDK for Android or iOS* and adding a few lines of code. On the web, embedding a VR view is as simple as adding an iframe on your site. We’re open-sourcing the HTML and JavaScript for web developers on github, so you can self-host and modify it to match your needs.

From travel and real estate to news and entertainment, we hope embeddable VR views make it quick and easy to share your story and build immersive and engaging visual experiences your users will love. We're excited to see what you create.

*Yes, you read that right! Starting today, there’ll be a native Cardboard SDK for iOS. Provided in idiomatic Objective C, and packaged as a single, easy-to-use CocoaPod, this new SDK includes all of the features already available in the Cardboard SDK for Android.

Read More of this fantastic post by Google Product Manager-Nathan Martz

  

Cats and VR

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