22
NIKON
KEYMISSION
ACTIONCAMS
22
ON TRIAL
Welcome to the slightly weird world of
360-degree video and the creation of
immersive ‘Virtual Reality’ footage.
IN THE ROUND
actioncam from Nikon called the
KeyMission 360. It’s a curious-
looking thing with a 180-degree
fi sh-eye lens at the front and one
at the back which, of course, gives
you the 360-degree coverage after
the camera has stitched together
the two images. Imagine two
halves of a sphere being glued
together and you’ll get the idea.
As the viewer, you’re positioned
right in the middle of the sphere so
wherever you look – up, down, left
or right – you’ll see the scene as
you would in real life.
Each of the KM 360’s lenses- which have a focal length of
1.6mm, equivalent to 8.2mm in the
35mm format – obviously has its
own sensor which is a 1/2.3-inch
CMOS with an effective pixels
count of 21.14 million.
With its front and back
taken up with lenses (which
sit behind protective domes),
there’s nowhere for a monitor
screen and very little room for
controls, especially as one side
of the camera is occupied by the
compartment for its battery and
memory card. You can operate the
KM 360 from the camera – well,
with 360-degree coverage you
don’t need to worry about framing,
do you? – but you’re limited
to video start/stop or shutter
release for stills (as with the KM
170, there are separate buttons).
Consequently, to delve any deeper
into the camera’s capabilities
you need a smartphone or tablet
running Nikon’s SnapBridge
360/170 app. You don’t really have
any choice in the matter because
it’s the only way to get to the
menus which, incidentally, are
essentially the same as those
of the KM 170. It’s not the most
straightforward of processes as
the camera needs to be connected
via Bluetooth for basic fi le transfer,
but then also via WiFi for the
remote control operations and for
viewfi nding. However, as far as the
latter is concerned, live view is only
available prior to recording and the
feed stops immediately you press
the start button.
IN THE DEEP END
Not surprisingly, focus is actually
fi xed – this time from 30 cm
to infi nity – with programmed
exposure control and automatic
white balance correction. The
overrides are, respectively, +/-2.0
EV of compensation and four WBovie-makers have been trying to
recreate reality in a convincing
way right from the early days of
cinematography, fi rst by adding
sound, then colour, then the third
dimension and even wacky ideas such as Smell-O-
Vision (subsequently listed in the ‘Top 100 Worst
Ideas of All Time’ compiled by Time magazine). Nowwe have ‘Virtual Reality’ (VR) which is designed to
replicate actual reality without any of the potentially
nasty side-effects.
A key component of VR is 360-degree video
which, up until recently, has required a fairly
complicated and expensive multi-camera rig in
order to cover all the angles. Now you can create
360-degree footage with a little pocket-sized videoM
CamMayJune17_018-025 NikonActionCams.indd 22 13/04/2017 9:56 AM