Kandao Qoocam EGO Review

[@joetunon]

It's refreshing to have a 3D camera that you can immediately share content with. I took the camera/viewer to my job last night and the staff were lining up to see the pics again and again. I agree with the other feedback regarding the terrible battery life, the heat, and the hardness of the buttons. Nevertheless, it's incredibly fun, and for me it's even better than the W3 (which is still great after 10 years). I love the EGO's native jpeg side by side format and the slightly narrower IPD. This was a game changer for me as the single biggest obstacle to me enjoying 3D in the past was the time needed to edit, align, crop, convert, and otherwise edit the pictures for maximal viewing on my viewer. All of that is now a thing of the past. I take pics, transfer the jpg's to my main viewer (or clip on the included viewer) and I'm done! Instant 3D fun. Great review here.

[@Lets-Take-Pictures]

Kandao has always struck me as a company that experiments and tries new things with their cameras, making new technologies accessible like when they were one of the first to bring out a consumer 8K 360 camera. This definitely carries on that spirit. The integrated 3D viewer is a great idea since for a lot of people, when you first buy a 3D camera you probably don’t have a good way to play back the footage and would have to buy that separately. I have to admit, my only stereoscopic camera is a whole lot lower tech: it’s a David White Company “Stereo Realist,” a nice little 35mm stereoscopic film camera produced between 1947-1971 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in North America. Having a solution to shoot, view, and edit 3D photos and videos in one tiny package seems like a really cool idea, and I wish Kandao well with this new product. Thanks for another great review Richard, I’ll have to see if I can find a way to watch the test footage because now I’m definitely curious. Gotta love those Viewmaster vibes!

[@TheRealRichardWong]

Yes agree with you that people new to 3D camera probably don't have a good way to watch the 3D footage. "Stereo Realist"? I have never heard of it before but i just google it and it's interesting! I have to say i didn't know too much about Kandao until this review, but now I really quite like this company as they seem to not afraid of trying out new ideas and some pretty risky things which the market lacks. For some reason, KZbin flag your comment as a spam and hide it, i don't really know why :/ I've remove it from the spam folder now. Thanks for watching!

[@KandaoVR]

It is such a detailed， comprehensive, and fair introduction. Thank you so much for your hard work, Richard.❤

[@TheRealRichardWong]

Thanks @KanDao for creating such a unique and fun camera! Looking forward to see what you guys will bring out in the future

[@nicolacasali8304]

Great review. I just got this camera. The left and right images don't align vertically, the same with your camera. The latest firmware doesn't fix that. I guess this is a hardware issue with the lens angle being off slightly between the two.

[@kbqvist]

It is nice that somebody is actually doing a stereo camera. Having said that, there are tons of design decision that does not make much sense to me. An update of something like the Fuji Real 3D to current day specs would be much more useful to me.

[@TheRealRichardWong]

I would love to see a new version of Fuji Real 3D!

[@kbqvist]

@@TheRealRichardWong Richard, for me the best thing about the EGO is the image quality (when you get the focus right). Here is it of course much better than the Fuji Real 3D, as one would expect for a camera that is 10+ years older. But regarding ergonomics I prefer Fuji’s design approach in almost every way, although it is far from perfect. And ergonomic matter if you tend to think of a camera as a tool, rather than a toy. Autofocus and zoom are big advantages with the Fuji camera. Its auto-stereoscopic display makes much more sense to me than EGO’s detachable viewer. Partly because of the space it takes up, partly because you cannot use the on-screen controls, including shutter, with the viewer attached. I do not know whether touch-screen and auto-stereoscopic display are compatible ideas, but if not, I would definitely go for the latter rather than the former.

[@RamonLinares]

I was lucky to be one of the early kickstarter backers. I love the camera with all its quirks. The things that annoy me are the small rubber buttons, the startup time and the battery life. But for the rest, it is a very fun camera with impressive results.

[@TheRealRichardWong]

hey Ramón, Good to hear we have very similar experiences with the camera. Definitely not a flawless camera but somehow it's still a lot of fun! Enjoy!

[@halimrahman]

Nice review. The output video is only in 1080 (full hd) quality, not in 4K?

[@trentonjennings9105]

This was a very good review. I"ve taken many 3D images with a regular camera over the years, but obviously only on still scenes by moving the camera slightly right for the second shot. This camera would allow me to take action shots. I've trained my eyesight to view 3D images if they aren't too far apart, so I was able to view all the 3D images and video in your review - no software needed. thanks

[@TheRealRichardWong]

oh you can see 3D images with just your eyes? that's very cool!

[@tigerjiang4170]

Nice 3D Camera！Thanks for the introduction.

[@TheRealRichardWong]

thank you Tiger!

[@barryobrien1890]

Thanks Richard. Interesting camera. Reminds me of the canon stereoscopic lens. Looks like there is a new gadget for the metaverse

[@TheRealRichardWong]

hi Barry, yes!! I haven't got a chance to try out that Canon lens but I'm sure the Canon would be better quality and that's also 180 degree which is very cool! But then the Canon is a lot more expensive even just the lens itself. And definitely not pocketable :)

[@danpete2325]

Interesting little camera! Just checked their website, wonder why i haven't heard of them before. Maybe they are the next Insta360! Thanks for the review Richard

[@TheRealRichardWong]

Thanks for watching Dan! yes Kandao also do 360 cameras too

[@vtevdo]

This design of viewer is implemented in order to show images in landscape mode. Optics need to rotate the image to do that. Without such a design, there will be very small horizontal field of view.

[@loneprimate]

Excellent and thorough review. Thank you, sir! :)

[@TheRealRichardWong]

Thanks for watching

[@slackerpope]

Excellent review, great details, highly informative!

[@TheRealRichardWong]

Thanks for watching Bob!

[@oculusgounlocked]

I was very disappointed when the Qookam 8K stopped being sold. I would like to get one of these when I can

[@TheRealRichardWong]

It seems there is a new QooCam 360 camera coming in a few months time! I will see if i can review that.

[@oculusgounlocked]

@@TheRealRichardWong I'm actually most interested in their volumetric system and wish it had got more coverage at CES, because I was not able to go this year

[@TheRealRichardWong]

oh you got some link about their volumetric system you mentioned? You got me curious now.

[@oculusgounlocked]

@@TheRealRichardWong it's very briefly mentioned in this video, but hugh didn't seem to be very interested in it, unfortunately. I think the kandao guy said it's called freeview kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqW8k5JrfbN1pMU

[@vfxsensei]

Thanks for the review. Does this camera create two separate files - one for the left eye and one for the right eye? or are the two eyes combined into one file?

[@TheRealRichardWong]

Combined into one for both photo and video.

[@vfxsensei]

@@TheRealRichardWong Thank you for the reply - I would prefer it if it was two separate files and if it also recorded actual depth data, but I guess if I really want those features I'd have to spend a lot more.

[@MrSonofsonof]

@@TheRealRichardWong That's a shame. I would like to be able to tweak the two files and print them out and view them with an Owl viewer.

[@fhussain44]

Have you tried using an advanced VR headset like the Quest 2? I wonder if it offers superior viewing to the built-in qoocam device? I can watch on my phone via a cheap VR headset and the quality is ok. But one can see the pixels or something. I don't see pixels with the built-in headset. But the picture is rather small and it's a bit uncomfortable to stare into..

[@TheRealRichardWong]

Yes i did! It works quite good, but i do find my eyes feel a bit stressed. Maybe the 3D effect is a bit too much?

[@fhussain44]

@@TheRealRichardWong Interesting to hear. Was the video noticeably sharper/detailed compared to the qoocam viewer? And did you watch via youtube or the actual raw files?

[@fhussain44]

after you copy the files to a computer, or upload to KZbin, Is it possible to view the photos and videos through old-school 3D glasses? Or do you have to use a VR headset.

[@TheRealRichardWong]

You could, checkout this video I uploaded: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r56odqN-mrySps0 KZbin provides difference viewing option

[@BobThresher]

Copying pictures from the camera, always save in 2d. Is there a setting I'm missing?

[@phillymurf]

Great review. Thank you!

[@TheRealRichardWong]

thanks for watching Patrick

[@evilutionltd]

I can control my eyes separately so I can cross both images over and see 3D directly from this video. It was really strange to see.

[@TheRealRichardWong]

that must be really cool to be able to view 3D directly with naked eyes!

[@janedoe5229]

Me too. :)

[@loneprimate]

Yeah, i can cross my eyes and see the photos and videos in 3D too. I thought everyone could do that. :)

[@jaumedurgell]

Thank you very much, Sir!

[@TheRealRichardWong]

Thank you for watching

[@3dyoutube3d2d8]

購入して一週間たちました。 設定画面でWI-FI検知しません。 私のルーターが古いためでしょうか？ ※検出されたWI-FI無しと出ました。 　困りました。

[@TheRealRichardWong]

Are you connecting QooCam EGO to your phone? It should support both 2.4G and 5G Wifi.

[@3dyoutube3d2d8]

@@TheRealRichardWong

[@3dyoutube3d2d8]

@@TheRealRichardWong

[@3dyoutube3d2d8]

返信ありがとうございます。 明日JRウオーキングが多治見市、瀬戸市周辺であります。 KanDao QooCam Ego を持ち出してWI-FIアクセツポイントが 表示されるか確認したいと思います。 名鉄電車を使います。 ※豊田市(42万2330人) 名古屋市(232万人) 瀬戸市(128,122人) 多治見市(106,325人) 大都市を通過しますのでKanDao QooCam Egoが不良品でない限り WI-FIアクセツポイントが表示される事を祈ります。

[@Htbaa]

How does it compare to the Vuze XR photo/video quality wise? The resolution of the Vuze XR is a lot bigger. What about perspective? Do objects etc. look like their real size?

[@TheRealRichardWong]

sorry no experience with the Vuze XR so i can't compare

[@PeterKoperdan]

Vuze XR is VR180. That means when viewing Vuze image in VR, you feel like you are right there in the scene (of which you can see one 180 hemisphere). QooCam EGO has roughly 26mm equiv. lenses that produce images like old school stereograms or movies similar to the standard 3D cinema format. That means that you don't feel present in the scene, but rather looking through a "window" into a 3D world.

[@Htbaa]

To report back: I got the camera this week. It’s such a fun little camera! They also just released a firmware update which adds post processing to the camera so you can apply stabilization without the camera app. Be sure to backup the files on your MicroSD though as for some reason it formatted mine during the upgrade.

[@PeterKoperdan]

@@Htbaa Does your camera have the lens alignment issue that many report?

[@Htbaa]

@@PeterKoperdan not that I noticed. Also not entirely sure how to check for that.

[@RXQ79]

please tell me how to on pc I can convert the full sbs into half sbs - I was unable to do it in the app on the phone - I do not know how I can there open video editor and add files. On pc I downloaded some editor but when I tried to add some file - there was written some error.

[@bruno_DAYs]

照片為jpeg档?可用於quest2觀看?

[@TheRealRichardWong]

照片是jpg.但我沒试用quest2看

[@MacielDario]

do you have the file to QooCam EGO's KZbin Metadata Injector ? Could you upload it somewhere? there is no button to download it on their site

[@TheRealRichardWong]

hi there, i've checked with Kandao, they told me KZbin have made some changes on their system recently so the injector doesn't work 100% now. They are working on another solution right now but it's not available yet.

[@chunkytoads4509]

Seems like Kandao removed the ability to transfer QooCam Ego pics/vids to pc via usb... Anyone have any success in transferring files (not to the app) but to the pc?

[@ansonchew_sg]

Can the camera be used when charging?

[@TheRealRichardWong]

Sorry i don't have the camera with me right now and don't think i've tested that. Maybe someone else can answer your question

[@AdamFourney]

How does it compare to something like the Lenovo Mirage camera?

[@TheRealRichardWong]

Hey Adam, I haven't got experience with the Lenovo, but from what I know the Lenovo camera doesn't have 3d viewer/display is that correct?

[@Stonemonkie1]

The ego is a 3D camera, the video and photos can be viewed on a 3D TV or projector, and can be viewed in VR headsets where it is viewed as a virtual 3D screen in front of you. When uploaded to KZbin with the 3D metadata it can also be watched on non 3D devices as anaglyph with just red/blue glasses The mirage is a 180VR camera which you watch in VR and can look around in the photo or video as it's playing. Because the mirage covers a much wider angle the image is quite pixelated, the ego gives a much better looking image. I have both and I'll make use of both but I much prefer the ego despite the flaws talked about in this video (battery life is quite poor) and the thing I would really like to see in a firmware update is something like exposure lock or some scene modes, as it is the exposure changes automatically while recording video.

[@TheRealRichardWong]

@@Stonemonkie1 thanks for sharing your experience :)

[@jean-lucadant1593]

mmmm avec mon projet avec " Unity 3d " sa va être immense… il me la faut ... merci

[@Localtraveler2376]

Did you get to keep this sample unit for free? If so your review should be marked as sponsored as per KZbins policies. I doubt someone who paid well over $500 US for this camera and all the accesories you mention would not enjoy it as much as someone who got it for free.

[@Engineer_Filippov]

Like N 200! :))