Here at B&H, we are pleased to announce that we now offer the new S1 6K Professional VR Camera from Z CAM. The S1 shoots high-quality spherical VR video at 6K/30 or 4K/60 fps, spherical video being a 360˚ panoramic view extending 90˚ up and down for a 360 x 180˚ field of view. Using a single small camera body and employing four Sony CMOS image sensors to capture your footage saves you the time normally spend building a rig and powering multiple cameras. Four SD card slots, one for each sensor, allow you to record your footage, to be stitched together later, in post. However, you can stream live from this camera because it incorporates a gigabit Ethernet port that offers 4K/60 fps equirectangular streaming using the PC-based Z CAM WonderLive software, which enables streaming to Facebook, YouTube, and Weibo.
What this all means is that the S1 is ready now to shoot 4K spherical video at up to 60 fps and, when you need or want to move up to 6K, the S1 will have you covered. So, you can shoot your spherical video, record it, and do your fine-detail color correction in post, but you can also live-stream while shooting and, because all four lenses and sensors are integrated into this one unit, you don't have to massage your footage for stitching errors or color correction. You stream your footage using the Equirectangular format to provide panoramic images with consistent exposure and minimal stitching artifacts and optical distortion. Stream live while you shoot, no waiting to stitch or color correct.
Each of the camera's four fisheye lenses is constructed with 10-layer, professional-grade optics, minimizing distortion and flare. The S1's four integrated sensors provide coordinated auto-exposure and white balance functions, simplifying the shooting and post-production path, unlike multiple-camera and rig-based VR systems that require additional time to balance the color and exposures of your footage. The built-in Z CAM Sync Hardware ensures synchronized recording, sparing you the headache of trying to sync up multiple individual cameras in post, and the Z-Log gamma recording enables image fine-tuning and color grading.
The S1's compact, cylindrical body measures approximately 9.5" high when used with its detachable battery unit, offering a maximum 2-hour run time. If you have stable power, you can easily disengage the battery unit and use the included AC adapter, which brings the height of the S1 to less than 6". While its small size belies the professional quality of its images, it is also less distracting to the people you are filming. With its wide-angle lenses, the camera can be placed 2.6' or closer to subjects, allowing for intimate shots that add impact to your videos. In addition to its four lenses, the camera incorporates four individual directional microphones. It features a manual ISO range of 100 to 6400, which makes it suitable for use in bright exteriors, as well as dim interiors or even night shoots. Z CAM recommends recording to SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC cards, and the camera supports cards up to 128GB, which provides approximately 4 hours of record time.
Check out the S1 6K Professional VR camera at B&H Photo.com.
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