3DR's Made for Solo program does 360-degree video on a budget
Products from Kodak and Fiilex will make the diminutive drone more useful.
When 3DR announced its Made for Solo program last October, we knew it was working with Kodak to bring 360-degree video to its Solo drone. Today at CES, 3DR is showing off a prototype model of that integration, which adds a hyper-wide-angle lens to both the top and bottom of the drone, along with some early footage captured with the kit.
Viewed on a Samsung Gear VR headset, the footage was high-quality, but had quite a few tears caused by bad stitching. Kodak's working on solving that issue right now, and once it does, the combination of its kit and a 3DR Solo will make for an extremely cheap 360-degree video drone. The kit is based on Kodak's SP360 action cam, which can be picked up for $250 nowadays, suggesting this rig will cost a fair amount less than current VR video setups. 3DR doesn't know exactly when Kodak will be done, but it's hoping the device will be ready by the end of the year.
Coming up much sooner is an attachment from pro lighting company Fiilex. This one's a little simpler: it's just a bright LED light that attaches to the drone. As you'd expect, you'll be able to adjust both the color temperature and intensity of the light remotely through an app. The use-cases for a light are pretty much endless, but expect this to be used for spotlighting in video and events. Again, it's not 3DR's decision when it's released, but it's likely to arrive much earlier than Kodak's attachment (and without that nasty exposed wire, we're told).
