Don't Have A 360-Degree Camera? Just Buy 12 Xperia Z5 Compact

With the imminent surge of virtual reality headsets in the next few months, the need for creating VR-compatible content grows even greater. And with that the need for proper equipment to record those videos. 360-degree VR cameras, however, are still few and not mention expensive. So what's a regular Joe to do? Fear not, Sony has a solution! Why not strap 12 Xperia Z5 Compacts together in a circle and control each one simultaneously. Et voila! A DIY 360-degree camera. And you get to use 12 smartphones to boot!

Of course, the very idea is absurd and is obviously a marketing stunt. Sony Isn't exactly telling the masses to buy a dozen of its smartphones just for that purpose, but it probably won't complain if they do. Instead, it's simply trying to think of a way to make the Xperia Z5 Compact sound special in relation to its bigger siblings. After all, the Xperia Z5 was crowned king of smartphone cameras and the Xperia Z5 Premium has a 4K screen.

Combining 12 Xperia Z5 Compact smartphones into a 360-degree VR camera is, of course, no easy task. You'd have to mount them on a rig, similar to the 3D printed one that Sony made. And you'd have to be able to control them all simultaneously and stitch together the 12 different videos into one whole. Definitely not something off the shelf software can do.

Sony doesn't seem to be keen on handing out the blueprint for that rig nor to share how exactly it combined the video. So this is pretty much a "the Xperia Z5 Compact has a nice camera" message than anything else. It might also be an invitation for other insane stunts to be made but you'd be on your own. For now, just enjoy this 360-degree footage, best viewed with a VR headset, of course.

SOURCE: Sony