GoPro just unveiled a super high-resolution camera for virtual reality
GoPro (NASDAQ: GPRO) just unveiled the Fusion, a new camera that's capable of recording really sharp spherical images for all sorts of use cases, including virtual reality.
The Fusion isn't going to be like GoPro's other cameras, though. You won't find it sitting on a shelf at your local sports store or in the hands of some surfer, at least not yet.
Instead, GoPro will give the camera to "professional content creators" early this summer before it becomes available to the general public. This seems like a bizarre move, as GoPro has struggled to sell cameras — and yet decided to introduce a new model that its customer base can't buy.
GoPro said the Fusion is very advanced, though, and provides the same sort of content you'd get if you molded six traditional GoPro cameras into a single unit, CEO Nicholas Woodman explained in a press release.
"Whether filming for VR or traditional fixed-perspective content, Fusion represents the state-of-the-art in versatile spherical capture," he added.
The Fusion should help provide sharper VR content. It's difficult to capture really high resolution spherical video, which is why we're only now starting to see companies like Facebook and GoPro introduce cameras with these capabilities. Facebook introduced two new models on Wednesday, for example.
If you put on a VR headset and watch a video now, chances are it looks relatively blurry compared to something you'd see on a 4K TV. With introductions like Fusion, however, that should change relatively quickly.
GoPro didn't announce pricing for the Fusion and said it only plans a limited commercial release by the end of this year.
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