Yesterday we told you about the strange ProTruly Darling smartphone which has a built-in 360-degree camera onboard. This feature makes the phone look more particularly weird, but what if you could turn your Android into a 360-degree camera without having to transform it into a bizarrely elongated gizmo?
Now you can with the Insta360 Air camera. The device attaches itself to your Android smartphone via a microUSB or USB Type-C port in order to bestow 360-degree VR camera options to your device.
The Insta360 Air can capture 3K photos (3008 x 1504 resolution) and 2.5K video (2,560 x 1,289 resolution) at 30fps thanks to its dual fisheye lenses. Via a dedicated app, the camera uses the smartphone display as a viewfinder to capture 360-degree content.
The camera also offers real-time image stitching and allows users to live-streaming directly to YouTube and similar platforms. Content can also be shared directly from the companion app to social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and more.
The Insta360 Air is a lightweight device at only 26.5 grams, so it won’t make your smartphone a lot heavier.
You should know that the Insta360 Air is not limited to mobile. The camera can be used as a webcam on Skype so it can connect to a PC via USB 2.0 or USB 3.0.
The company behind the InstaAir 360 promises that a real-time image stabilization feature will become available in the near future via a “firmware update”.
The camera is currently available to purchase for $129 a pop from all retailers in the US.
