The Bite Magazine - issue 16

I f you haven’t yet discovered it, there is a fun way of capturing pictures that will have you throwing it into the air like a regular ball. Berlin-based electron- ics company, Panono, high resolution developer of the single-shot 360˚ camera is planning to leverage its advantage in image quality to shift its market focus towards professional 360˚ applications for prosumers and business customers. “The feature that captured the most attention when we introduced Panono in 2013 was that you could throw it in the air to trigger its 36 cameras,” said Jonas Pfeil, Panono founder and CEO. “Today, the thing that sets Panono apart from other 360˚ cameras is the incredible quality of the images it takes.The cool factor is now in the quality of the images.” With 108 MP, the total resolution of the Panono Camera exceeds that of competing camera models by a factor of five. Six months after the release of its Panono Explorer Edition, Panono reported an average of 2,000 new pan- orama pictures being uploaded to its cloud service each week, a number that is rapidly increasing. More than 90 percent of the images were being taken with a tripod and remote trigger, or with the Panono stick.This along with the growing demand for the Panono 360° Camera from the B2B sector was the factor behind the com- pany’s decision to shift its focus to the prosumer and business markets. “We have customers in a number of different fields,” said Pfeil. “More and more, the use cases for our camera are going beyond traditional mar- keting activities. For instance, construction companies are using their Panono to plan and document projects. Insurance companies are using it to document damages. We will be focusing on this already existing demand.” With the introduction of the HDR function (High Dynamic Range) in the camera, Panono took the first step into the market for professionals. The feature allows high quality shots in high-contrast environments. “Especially in 360° photography, HDR is an extremely important feature, as very bright or very dark areas can’t just be left out,” Pfeil explained.This year, Panono is planning to release a next-generation model of its first camera that will include all the hardware and software optimisations realised since the launch of the Explorer Edition. This means that the company is moving away from its original plan to release a low- er-cost consumer version of the Panono Camera. “Panono is currently the only camera for high-quality 360° photography on the market, and we want to focus right now on this advantage.” The ball-shaped Panono 360° Camera is equipped with 36 individual cameras and captures 360° high-resolu- tion panoramas with both horizontal and vertical fields of view once thrown in the air. Once the images have been fully captured, firstly download the 36 single images from the camera to your mobile device, then upload the single images to the Panono Cloud for auto- matic stitching, and finally view, send, share or embed your panoramas from the Panono Cloud. www.panono.com PANONO 360˚ CAMERA bite gadgets