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Olympus creates 360° camera lens

I see you

Wet Wet Wet sang that "love is all around”, but Olympus thinks that photography should be too. That’s because the firm claims to have developed the world’s first camera able to snap full 360° images.

Olympus_360_lens

Olympus' lens can see all around

While the unique shooter has a horizontal snapping angle of 360°, it also has a vertical 'viewing angle' of 180°. The lens is defined as an “axisymmetric free curved lens” with a thickness of about 3cm. Until now, Olympus had only managed a top vertical angle of 45°.

The camera was developed by the Institute for the Future of Creativity over at Olympus in Japan. It’s described by the firm as an omni-directional video capture lens equipped with CCD camera prototype development.

Olympus_360_lens_pic

An image snapped by the lens

Judging by the images Olympus has already released of shots taken using the lens, Register Hardware is left wondering quite what the point of such a lens is – other than for surrealist photography to hang in the Tate Modern.

However, Olympus claims the lens could have uses in the security field, so Big Brother really will be watching you from every angle.

No plans to release the lens have been announced.

Click to see more images taken by Olympus' 360° camera

Next page: Picture Gallery

Latest Comments

360 camera

This has been done before but not with an integral camera. Usually, the camera points at the 360 mirror from below. The image is "corrected" using software. There is always a single point where there is no image.

See also http://www.0-360.com/

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Not new

There's a few manufacturers in the CCTV and IP Surveillance field with similar (better) products and software to de-warp the image for easier viewing. Been around for quite some time...

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It's not new

I have one of these in the loft designed for SLR cameras. It was at least 10 years old when I bought it a decade ago...

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Why not get a real 360 camera

how about a D3 from roundshot 470megpix or move

http://www.roundshot.ch/xml_1/internet/de/application/d438/d925/f933.cfm

You Just need £20k+

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The point is obvious...

No where is the software to make it a 360* whatsit?

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