Today, Canon finally released their news on their VR180 camera - the RF 5.2mm F2.8 L-series
Dual Fisheye lens and their flagship 8K mirrorless camera Canon R5.
Here is Canon's official 8K VR180 sample footage in left and right eye format.
If you want to see what it looks like in the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset, I provide the sample
footage download link in the description down below.
You can sideload on your VR headset and check it out.
If you listen to my advices, hold on buying a professional VR180 camera, this is the consumer
and prosumer VR180 setup I was talking about almost 8 months ago.
Now the secret is out, I can finally talk about it.
Disclaimer, I did not get the chance to shoot with the official unit yet.
But I did play with the beta lens on a R5 body in a private briefing with Canon.
Let me tell you, it is one of the best VR180 I saw in VR headset.
After reading the news, I immediately ordered a Canon R5 and getting ready to pre-order
the VR180 lens whenever it is available to pre-order.
As you know, CreatorUp is the one stop shop for anything virtual reality filmmaking.
So I will create an in-depth review of this setup, compare it with Z Cam K2Pro, FM DUO,
and any other VR180 camera releasing this the upcoming future.
Yes, there will be more.
Can't tell you yet tho.
So what is so special about this setup - using a single dual fisheye lens on 1 single camera
body?
Well, Canon has been doing R&D in the past 2 years for a perfect VR camera.
They saw the K1Pro, K2Pro, the RED Komodo setup I did, and other Insta360 solutions.
The problem of any professional VR180 setup before Canon is that the left and right eyes
images are stored in different image sensors.
This approach creates syncing issues, which lead to very bad 3D.
Even those manufacturers state that TWO sensors are genlocked.
If you do a lazer test on rolling shutter sensors, you see drift in a long recording.
Another obvious reason is post-production.
If you following the tutorials on this channel and have Mistika VR subscription, then post-production
is easy for you.
But for the majority of creators out there, 3D calibration of TWO different sensors inside
Mistika VR is still very difficult.
Simple mistakes like flipping the left and right eye are very common.
That is the fastest way to make your audience hate VR videos.
Canon VR180 solution eliminates that all together by capturing left and right eyes in 1 single
8K sensor on the R5 body.
So it is 4K per eye - which is the highest resolution VR180 camera except for the FM
DUO, which I just reviewed in my last video.
Therefore, you already have perfectly synced dual fisheye footage with a correct 3D out
of your SD Card.
Very important, correct 3D with no vertical parallax and a correct IPD distance - which
is 60mm.
I have shot lots of VR180 videos in the past 3 years with hundreds of thousands of views
on YouTube VR and Oculus TV.
I can tell you the worst thing that can happen to a 3D video is vertical parallax.
Look at this footage captured by the Insta360 Titan 10K 3D VR camera - there is a vertical
disparity - and this is what makes your views sick in a VR headset.
It is all in a subscouious level.
They can't tell you why they hate VR video.
They just hate it after seeing it in a VR headset.
Because of vertical parallax.
The Canon Dual Fisheye lens is perfectly calibrated to remove vertical parallax.
In a traditional VR180 production workflow, you have these steps.
With Canon VR180 system, you can skip 5 steps.
As a producer, think about how much production and post-production money you can save!
Canon will have their software and Adobe Premiere plugin to convert RAW fisheye videos into
VR180 format for Oculus TV and YouTube VR.
But it is a subscription-based solution that is not FREE.
If you know Mistika VR, this is also going to be very easy with even more stereo control.
I will provide my Mistika VR template, STMap for Davinci Resolve Fusion or ReVision relens
preset when I have the camera to create it.
So you can save some money on a subscription no matter what editing software you use, Premiere
or Resolve or Nuke.
What about the full system cost?
The lens itself is $1999 US dollars.
Canon R5 body cost $3899.
So it is just under $6000 - make it still a good prosumer price range.
Considering the FM DUO, which cost $20,000, this is still very affordable for everyday
content creators.
Can it work with R6 body or other Canon cameras?
In theory, yes.
But if you are thinking about shooting VR180, R5 is what I will recommand.
Having 8K, 4K per eye, is future-proofing your content, especially when Oculus rolls
out their Quest 3 with even high video spec.
Is it Canon R5 the best camera for this lens?
I actually don't think so.
The reason why Canon decided to design a lens instead of a full system like FM DUO is that
they want the lens to work on their future camera system.
R5 can only do 8K in 30fps.
We will need a system to capture 8K in 60fps.
The new R3 with 6K 60fps is almost there.
But I am sure next year, Canon will roll out an 8K 60fps camera that will work with this
lens.
Another noticeable feature is RAW capture.
Canon R series can capture video in RAW - which make colorist and VFX artist happy in designing
Metaverse inside Unreal Engine.
More on that in a future tutorial.
You can see the official specs on the Canon website or this video description down below.
But I want to point out several features that are important for professional VR180 content
creators that are not emphasized on their release video.
First, close-focuisng disances of 20 centermeter.
This makes close up VR180 possible.
Think about a makeup tutorial in VR180.
Or virtual dating, if that is something you are into.
Close-up 3D 180 really opens the world of possibility.
Changable aperture range from F2.8 to F16 with a 7-blade aperture control.
Build-n Gelatin Filter Holder - allows you to add ND gel filters or creative gel filters.
This is actually one of the features I really recommand Canon to have and I am glad to see
they make it happen.
This allows us to control motion blur in outdoor VR shooting - which is NO VR180 camera has
it.
Canon is the first one!
Lens flare is a common issue in any VR camera.
Canon has a special coating on the front lens elements.
Not only make the lens dust and water resistant, but also remove lens flare.
So you can shoot anytime of the day without worrying the sun and the flare.
As I said, I will have the system very soon and dive into a deep review for you guys.
So don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell.
Comment below and tell me what you want to know more, and I will collect all your comments
and concerns to create a better review video and tutorials for you.
I will see you next time!