Nokia Trims $15,000 From Its OZO VR Camera, Still Costs More Than A BMW 3-Series
Here's a bit of good news for budding filmmakers who want to create virtual reality experiences. Nokia just slashed $15,000 off the price of its funky looking Ozo, the first VR camera system specifically designed for professional production. Now brace yourself for the bad news—the price cut brings the cost down to $45,000, which is still a hefty chunk of change.
Hey, that's $5,000 less than it costs to spend just a single night at the Ty Warner Penthouse at the top of Manhattan's Four Season's Hotel (no joke). And if you want a 2016 Tesla Model S P90D, you'll have to come up with more than twice as much cash, though admittedly you could hop in a BMW Series 3 Gran Turismo for slightly less.
"We see tremendous potential for OZO in China, an exciting market with immense growth opportunities for VR and OZO. There's a genuine hunger among consumers for more immersive, high quality and professionally produced entertainment," said Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia Technologies. "As a single-body camera giving content professionals a simple way to produce compelling content for their audiences, OZO is tailor made to fill a very important gap."
Silliness about the cost aside, the aggressive price cut comes less than a year after the Ozo's been on the market. According to Nokia, it's received positive feedback, both from professional customers and their own customers as well.
While the hardware appears expensive from a consumer standpoint, the purpose-built device is designed to significantly reduce the time, complexity, and overall costs associated with VR production. To that end, it sports eight 2K by 2K video sensors, each one synchronized. It can capture a full spherical 360 x 180 degrees of video, with each lens offering an angle view of 195 degrees.
The Ozo also boasts eight integrated microphones to record spatial audio and integrated software so that content creators can view their 3D recordings in real-time, negating the need to pre-assemble a panoramic image.
Hey, that's $5,000 less than it costs to spend just a single night at the Ty Warner Penthouse at the top of Manhattan's Four Season's Hotel (no joke). And if you want a 2016 Tesla Model S P90D, you'll have to come up with more than twice as much cash, though admittedly you could hop in a BMW Series 3 Gran Turismo for slightly less.
Have we put the price in perspective? Good, let's move on. The Ozo's price cut coincides with Nokia launching the camera in China where it's partnered up with LeVR, the VR division of LeEco, one of the largest online video companies in China. LeVR has agreed to distribute Ozo content and plans to deploy Ozo VR solutions on its platform.
"We see tremendous potential for OZO in China, an exciting market with immense growth opportunities for VR and OZO. There's a genuine hunger among consumers for more immersive, high quality and professionally produced entertainment," said Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia Technologies. "As a single-body camera giving content professionals a simple way to produce compelling content for their audiences, OZO is tailor made to fill a very important gap."
Silliness about the cost aside, the aggressive price cut comes less than a year after the Ozo's been on the market. According to Nokia, it's received positive feedback, both from professional customers and their own customers as well.
While the hardware appears expensive from a consumer standpoint, the purpose-built device is designed to significantly reduce the time, complexity, and overall costs associated with VR production. To that end, it sports eight 2K by 2K video sensors, each one synchronized. It can capture a full spherical 360 x 180 degrees of video, with each lens offering an angle view of 195 degrees.
The Ozo also boasts eight integrated microphones to record spatial audio and integrated software so that content creators can view their 3D recordings in real-time, negating the need to pre-assemble a panoramic image.
