It was only last year that Facebook and RED Digital Cinema revealed that they were working together towards creating a volumetric video camera alongside Facebook’s Surround 360 technology. Now, it appears that their efforts were successful because they have given us a first glimpse at the camera, which has been dubbed Manifold.
Today, we’re excited to reveal a first-look at the Manifold camera. RED and Facebook worked closely to build this first studio-ready camera system for immersive 6DoF storytelling, aiming to connect creative professionals with audiences in a bold new way.
– Facebook, on a blog post from facebook360.fb.com
According to Facebook, the camera is capable of capturing a multitude of angles simultaneously from within a given volume. This enables the device to capture scenes volumetrically and hence preserve depth information, which, in turn, offers a more immersive view from within a VR headset.
The depth estimation technology captures the information in 3D from the recorded scene – things like props and backgrounds or even characters, allowing the users to experience it all in a positional tracked headset, such as the Rift.
The camera can record in RAW format from 16 cameras all running at 60fps in 8K and it has custom Schneider 8mm, F4.0, 180 degree fish eye lenses.
As far as accessories go, all we know of so far is that it will have front of lens ND filters available as well as quick release handles to aid maneuvering and setup.
It seems like the companies are aiming the product towards the professional market, so we expect to see the price set quite high. So far, there is no information about the cost or availability, but we’re definitely curious to see how the camera will perform.
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