Tech

Disney plans to create new VR experiences with this $60,000 camera — here's how it works

Dave Smith

2016-04-25T21:09:00Z

Disney on Monday announced a multi-year deal with Nokia to use its one-of-a-kind virtual reality camera, called the Ozo, to produce "VR experiences to complement Disney's theatrical releases."

Most recently, Disney used Nokia's Ozo camera to create two 360-degree videos from the April premiere of its new movie, "The Jungle Book."

"Specially-created VR content is one more way we can transport people even further into the worlds our filmmakers create," Walt Disney Studios CTO Jamie Voris said in a press release.

The $60,000 Nokia Ozo camera was unveiled last November. It was designed to help pioneering filmmakers create new content for virtual reality headsets, but it was also designed to be relatively small, light, and inexpensive compared to most film-style cameras.

Take a look.

This isn’t your dad’s camcorder. The $60,000 Nokia Ozo is meant for amateur and professional filmmakers that are serious about making virtual reality content.

The camera itself is sleek, and it only weighs 9.3 pounds.

Aside from filming, you can also continuously stream from the Ozo for live broadcasts in virtual reality.

Audio plays a key role in making immersive VR experiences. Nokia's Ozo offers 3D audio support that perfectly syncs with the 360º video so the images and sound feel real.

All the video and audio data from the Ozo is stored in a single video file, with only one output cable.

Thanks to a single cartridge for power and memory, the Ozo can film and stream wirelessly anywhere — even from a drone.

Typical VR cameras film all the images separately and editing software digitally stitches everything together afterwards. In other words, filmmakers don’t know how the VR experience will look until they stop shooting.

Nokia’s Ozo overcomes this filming issue with “dynamic rendering,” which lets filmmakers wear a VR headset and watch what the Ozo is capturing in real-time, with a full 360-degree field of view.

Despite its new deal with Disney, Nokia says it wants to make Ozo accessible to non-filmmakers as well. It’s considering the idea of letting people rent basic Ozo cameras for quick shoots.

By the end of this year, there will plenty of ways to enjoy VR content thanks to new products from Google, Samsung, Oculus, and Sony. Nokia aims to partner with every company and offer Ozo support for every platform and device.

You can purchase a Nokia Ozo <a href="https://ozo.nokia.com/ozo_en/ozo-vr-capture-device/"target="_blank">right here</a>.

Virtual reality