The CENTR is probably one of the smallest panoramic cameras

May 9, 2014 12:13 GMT  ·  By

Video professionals have been benefiting from light and easy¬-to-use technology like the CENTR Camera for a while now, but soon consumers will be able to do the same. The CENTR looks like a UFO shuttle that fits into one hand and capable of capturing 360-degree HD footage, giving you an accurate view of the world.

The CENTR is the love child of a team that includes former Apple engineers. The camera is not exactly the first device to be able to capture full 360-degree moving images, but it’s certainly the smallest and simplest that has every graced us with its presence.

The camera works by using Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi to pair itself with a smartphone or tablet. It bundles an outward facing HD 5 Megapixel (MP) image sensor. To deliver the wide capture (a max of 1,080 x 6,900 pixel count) the CENTR will use footage from four cameras.

“When shooting video, we pull either 720p or 1080p RAW video data from each camera, When each camera is shooting at 1080p resolution, we are processing 4K of panoramic video data in each frame.”

There’s also three microphones embedded in the camera body, to be used for recording audio. But the most important feature of the CENTR is its ability to record panoramic HD videos with 4K resolution (up to 2 hours).

Users can also shoot up to 5 hours of 20MP time-laps panoramic photos. The camera includes a single-sensor, so you’ll be able to switch and shoot in traditional mode, as well.

The footage resulted can be then viewed in real-time using CENTR’s own interactive player on a Wi-Fi connected desktop, tablet or smartphone. If at first it seems like the typical video, users will be able to spin it around and get the wrap around desired effect.

CENTR round camera is up on Kickstarter
CENTR round camera is up on Kickstarter
The camera bundles 8GB of internal flash storage and comes with microSD expansion. The battery should amount users up to two hours of use and can be quickly swapped out.

The CENTR team has been developing the camera for the past three years and now they are ready to bring their product into the big world. With this goal in mind, they have set up a Kickstarter page, hoping to gather enough funds to send the device into mass production.

Those of you who are interested, should know that you can secure your CENTR for $299 / €216 (in retail it will cost $399 / €288). The start-up hopes to gather up to $900,000 / $650,523 and if everything goes well, production will kick-start February 2015.

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CENTR can shoot 360-degree video
CENTR round camera is up on Kickstarter
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