Nokia OZO: Preorders open for the $60K VR camera

Nokia OZO pre-order

The Nokia OZO, aimed at high-end VR production, is accepting pre-orders for anyone with a spare $5K.

Virtual reality has become a hot topic at RedShark as we gauge its steadily-growing impact on the film and video industries. For those who still scoff that VR is years away or destined to flop, news of the consumer version of Samsung Gear VR, priced at just $99 and currently sold-out at online retailers like Amazon and Best Buy, might change a few perspectives.

Of course, next year will bring the consumer Oculus Rift, Sony Playstation VR, HTC Vive and others to the market. While games may dominate content offerings, there's still a space for live action VR (or at least, integration of live action VR elements in non-traditional content).

To satisfy the need for live action VR production, companies are developing solutions for all tiers of production, from affordable Kickstarter-darlings, like the Sphericam 2, to 360 camera arrays from GoPro, to high-end systems in development from Jaunt and Nokia.

OZO for high-end?

Nokia's entrant, the OZO, features eight synchronised 2K x 2K sensors, each with a 195 degree angle of view, outputting video in an MOV wrapper with 8 channel video and audio. Of course, there are limitations to be considered: it has a 500GB SSD for about 45 minutes of recording, only captures at 30 fps and advertises 10 stops of dynamic range. As a RedShark reader, you probably know to take dynamic range info with a grain of salt, but we can safely assume that the OZO's dynamic range won't be more than stated. (For the full specs, go HERE.)

For those interested in the OZO, the camera will run you about $60K when it arrives. For those still interested, Nokia has begun accepting pre-orders for the OZO for $5K that can be placed HERE.