A new 360 camera accessory for smartphones has just hit the market–and it only costs $39.99.
The accessory, called NoMatterWhat, snaps onto iPhone 7 and 7 Plus smartphones and can capture 6K 360 still images. It’s also going to add support for 360 video and live streaming by the end of the year.
The 30-gram 360 camera accessory doesn’t actually contain any electrical components. Instead, the two ultra-wide lenses align with the phones’ front and rear cameras. The NoMatterWhat app is used to capture and sync images from both cameras into a single 360 photo.
Because of the device’s design, that means half of the image will be at a higher resolutionThe number of pixels in an image, typically presented as a ratio of the total pixels on x axis to the total pixels on th... More than the other half–the main camera on both the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus is 12MP and the front camera, 7MP–which also makes the stitchline more visible. You can see the difference in the sample below (look at the grass):
Sample little planet photo from the NoMatterWhat 360 camera accessory
There’s also less detail and more noiseUndesirable variations of brightness and/or color in an image that typically occur when recording at high ISOs in digita... More in shadowed areas than higher caliber cameras. So, NoMatterWhat isn’t a pro-grade device. However, the accessory is only $39.99. That makes it the first truly stocking-stuffable 360 camera accessory available (at least by my family’s standards). And that might mean we’ll see more social 360 content (wide angleA lens or focal length that shows more in the frame than a typical human field of view. (As opposed to a telephoto lens ... More stills, little planets, etc.) making 360 a little less niche and a bit more normal.
The accessory is available for pre-order until September 22, and the estimated delivery schedule is 3 to 6 weeks.
The device was developed by Spincle Inc., which launched the Spincle app in 2016. Spincle is a free camera app with nearly 200,000 users that captures 360 mini videos.
For more information on the NoMatterWhat accessory, visit the NoMatterWhat website.
