Blurring the lines between beginning and end, Kaiser Baas are complimenting their VR-X Headset with a new 360-degree camera. Called the X360, it’s a dual lens device designed to take photos and videos for you to explore. Unfortunately, the versatility and confidence embodied by its design ends up being a little let down by the results of the camera itself.A compact black box with a small black-and-white LED screen on top,
the X360 is made of a spongy rubber-like material but it feels solid
enough when gripped. It’s notable that despite the $399 pricetag, it
feels far from fragile.
Fitted with dual lenses, it uses two 4MP cameras to take panoramic
video footage at a resolution of 1920?960 pixels and photos at almost
double that. It also arrives with a pair of nifty accessories: the first
being a carry-bag for the device and the second being a flexible
tripod.
While the initial assembly of the tripod proved somewhat unintuitive,
once assembled the construction proved one of strongest aspects of the
X360 package. It’s lightweight, easy to adjust and provides
all-around-great support for the camera itself.
You can even configure the tripod with alternate cameras, using they
have a compatible nook in their design. Frustratingly, there’s no way to
attach or fit the tripod in the carry case so you’ll have to work out
some other place to store it when not in use.
Once you’ve snapped it all together, controlling the camera X360 is
relatively straightforward – maybe even a little rudimentary. There are
three buttons on roof of the device that you can use to control it, as
well as a flap that can be unfurled to reveal a power port and slot for a
memory card.
The X360’s 1500mAh Li-Battery will get you around eighty-minutes of
footage, assuming you own a big enough MicroSD card (the camera supports
cards of up to 32GB).
The X360 itself is integrated into the Kaiser Baas app (available on
PC, iOS and Android platforms). It’s easy enough to connect to the
camera and stream footage to your phone but there’s not a lot of room
for customisation. You can’t really mess with the settings of the camera
– it’s locked at 30FPS for video and the two preset resolutions.
The only feature you can really play with is white balance, which can
be toggled between auto, daylight, cloudy, fluorescent and incandescent
modes. In short: it never feels like you are working in harmony with
the camera, only finding ways to make it work to your needs.
In terms of the results, the X360’s low megapixel count more or less
speaks for itself. There’s a sharp drop in detail for anything further
away than a meter or so. Video content looks slightly better than
stills, but not hugely. Even then, the low framerate and mediocore audio
quality left us unimpressed.
Still, the app provides plenty of useful toggles for rewatching or
viewing 360-degree content. Even if, unlike other X360 cameras, there’s
no built-in functions you can use to post your footage online to
Facebook or Youtube. It’ll have to be uploaded manually.
In addition, even small distances can mess with your smartphones’
connection to the camera. Multiple times during testing we received an
error message about SD card space, only for the issue to be a lost
connection. Suffice to say, you have to stick close to get the most out
of the camera.
Conclusion
The price and picture quality being what it is, I find it hard to
recommend the X360 too strongly. Though the camera’s cubic design and
obsidian aesthetic definitely lends it a strong first impression and the
pair of accessories it comes with are a nice addition, when it comes to
actual photographic results, it fails to deliver.
Even if you’re looking for a cheap and dirty entry point into the
world of 360-degree photography, there are better entry points than
this.
The Kaiser Baas X360 Dual Lens VR Camera retails from $399 and will be available in stores from July 27th.
