Giroptic’s Kickstarter-funded small 360-degree camera raised an additional $4.5 million in a seed round of investment. The company, which has offices in France and San Francisco, started fundraising for the tiny 360Cam on Kickstarter in May 2014 and got $1.4 million over 45 days.
The startup planned to ship its first cameras in November 2014 but, in a Kickstarter update paired with the investment announcement, Giroptic now expects its first units to ship in January 2016. 360Cam is touted as being waterproof and rugged, sort of like a GoPro for shooting panoramic footage, and is being offered for pre-order at around $500. The device promises a ton of very tempting features including easy uploads to Facebook and Youtube’s 360-degree players, but I haven’t seen the technology first-hand yet and some backers are frustrated by the lengthy delays.
Here are some of the promised features:
[The camera] can record videos and take photos, both live and in time-lapse, with no additional editing required for the output. 360Cam can provide an element of home security through its video streaming feature, connect offices during transcontinental meetings, or be used in any number of situations. Equipped with goggles, to prevent damaging light diffraction while under water, and the ability to screw into a light socket, effectively powering the device.
The $4.5 million investment was led by Partech Ventures and the camera will be at CES so we’ll plan on meeting with the company to take a closer look at the technology. In the meantime, here are some of the promised specifications to check out:
- Waterproof (IPX 8)
- Magnesium alloy and rubber body
- Colored LED display
- Micro SD recording | Class 10 up to 128GB
- Micro USB (Charging / File transfer)
- Wi-Fi | 2.4GHz / 802.11 b/g/n
- GPS Geo-tagging
- Remote controlling over Wi-Fi
- 3 x 185° ultra wideangle optics
- 6 elements glass lens
- Fixed f/2.8 apeture
- Total FOV 360° x 300°
- Video (25/30 fps)
- Photo (self-timer / HDR)
- Burst (up to 3 fps)
- Timelapse (5 to 60sec)
- Live (over built-in Wi-Fi or POE base)
- Battery base
- Micro USB port
- Rechargeable and removable lithium-ion battery (1180mAH, 3,7V)
- Regular ¼” tripod and accessories mount
- 3 microphones for 3D audio
- Gyroscope + accelerometer for image stabilization
- Live stitching technology
- Video: 2k @ 30fps / h.264 – mp4
- Photo: 4k / jpeg
- Ethernet adaptor
- Powered Over Ethernet only compatible base
- Mini jack audio input
