The New Calf Visinse Sucks but There's Hope

[@Glennysworld]

Nice explainer for the current situation for this camera, I have all the same issues, waiting for an update that brings the camera somewhere near a finished camera, right now its behaving like a prototype.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

Hey, thanks for watching my video! And well said. I get the feeling that the discounted early-bird buying period was basically a chance to use the customers as quality control and to see what we would complain about vs what we would accept. Hopefully we'll get some good updates.

[@christiankoller80]

I have doubts that there will be much improvements coming up so that I'll be happy with the results. Let's see.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

Hopefully, if the update is underwhelming, enough of us will push back until Calf truly makes it right or realizes they will take a huge hit to their credibility.

[@WarrenBHall]

Also I should’ve started my last comment with: THANK YOU, this was a solid, honest review. (I liked AND subscribed). I wanted to ask how are you viewing the pics and videos in the Quest because the native “meta tv” player makes the pictures look horribly pixelated for some reason. Viewing in Skybox and or Pigasus they look measurably better. Time of day is important as well. Recording at the brightest time of the day gave me better photos/videos (but wants to shoot at high noon everyday??) We need exposure control or better dynamic range like the GoPro /Insta360 cams or atleast a better flat color profile. Thanks again. I appreciate your insight.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

Thank you for the kind feedback, my friend. Very much appreciated. I just responded to your other comment without realizing you had made this one as well. But yes, definitely check out DeoVR. It is like KZbin but you can also view your locally saved files as well. Plus there is a lot of control over how the videos / photos are displayed and it performs faster and smoother than Meta TV. I put a link to my latest video in my other comment response. I talk about DeoVR there and also go over my (admittedly lengthy but effective) workflow for getting the most out of the Calf-Visinse... until they correct some of the problems with this camera.

[@Mox2077]

Excellent video with lots of useful info... Can I suggest when you do the intro, not to have your laptop so close to the mic? We can hear the fan on the laptop churning away and it adds a lot of background noise

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

Great advice, thanks!

[@kingjames1866]

Thanks for the video. I got mine a few days ago, login seems fine just waiting for update for better quality image and video.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

Hey! Thanks for watching my video. I'm glad you are able to register without issue... I'm going to try a different email with mine and see if that helps since the email I already tried with before (when it failed) might be jamming it up. Hopefully, we'll get that update at the end of this month that Calf is promising.

[@kingjames1866]

@@WildWonderfulWeekends I wasn’t asked for a email, I just put in a username and password to login.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

@@kingjames1866 wow... so maybe I'm doing this wrong... so without a previous account with Calf, you just entered a username that you chose and a password and it accepted it?

[@kingjames1866]

@@WildWonderfulWeekends yeah.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

@@kingjames1866 Thanks!

[@sohailzafar4340]

great review. Can you suggest better 3d vr camera under 1K.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

Thanks for watching and for the kind feedback! I wish I could, unfortunately this is my first dive into 3D / VR180 video. BUT, I used this camera at a cosplay event last weekend and I have developed a work flow that allows me to overcome a lot of this camera's shortcomings and to edit / post VR 180 videos without needing expensive software. I'm working on a video to share that workflow with my viewers and I'm uploading a VR180 video to give a real-world example of the results. I hope you stick around to check it out. It should be up in a couple of days. I'll also be keeping viewers posted as soon as there is a firmware update and what it gives us. Take care!

[@sohailzafar4340]

@@WildWonderfulWeekends definately sticking around :) will be waiting for it, and also wait for reviews of some other VR cameras. continu the great work in this new kind of camera as there are not much availabe on internet abouth VR cameras.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

@@sohailzafar4340 Thanks so much! I have almost finished my workflow video, I should have it posted tomorrow. I hope it's useful to you. Take care!

[@francoispierretremblay4784]

I dont have most of those issues. my register was fine after the update. what kind of micro sd card are you using? to record at 50 mbs or 100 mbs only one work on the market. u neeed a v90 uhsII.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

I'm using a SanDisk Extreme Plus with a write speed of 90 mb/s and read speed of 170 mb/s. I use those with my drones and my 360 camera as well... I think it should be good.

[@francoispierretremblay4784]

@@WildWonderfulWeekends no good not fast enough. SanDisk Extreme Plus have a max speed 90 mbs and it is a v30 ush-I. v30 mean minimum 30 mbs for video. the max speed is total bulls**t! 90 mbs that is for data not video! The only micro sd that fit the 100 mbs spec for this 8k vr 180 camera is the delkin v90 uhs-II. That is what i have and absolutely no problem with people moving on the screen. maybe getting some info before saying that cam sucks! the only complain that i have is about the color saturation and the brightness and contrast. they will fix that and the next firmware adding 4 new modes for different scenarios like inside and outside etc... and self ajustement. I think you review title is way too agressive and the review itself show that you didnt do you homework. Sad that your bashing that cam. It is not the best way to have new products on the market for vr with comments like that! We all knew we were buying something new that need improvements and we all know those improvements are coming soon with the new firmware at the end of octobre and end of november. The earlybird deal was exactly about that! The first firmware corrected the language and registering issue just fine. there was 2 options in that firmware. for me the second worked perfectly! You cannot register with an email. you have to write a pseudo. you should ask people who know more than you before doing a review!

[@WarrenBHall]

Wow, Hugh has given us YEARS of great info, reviews and tutorials and people turned on him so quick (not you). The first words out of his mouth were “this isn’t a review”. And it was HUGH who FIRST told us this camera is 7.2k even though the box said 8. People heard what they wanted to hear. Me included. A vr cam at a great price that does in camera stitching… Hugh listed the negatives and we saw the footage…and we still bought. (And for the record I bought TWO of these cameras so I hope and pray they do what they said they would.)

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

Very good points! It seems volatility is high these days, especially when it comes to this camera. I think you're spot on about people hearing what they wanted to, me included. I was really excited about a VR180 cam in my price range. A couple things I've learned over the last couple weeks with this camera though... DeoVR is way better at hosting immersive content than KZbin. AND you can edit, and export, VR180 footage using Insta360 Studio. This is super helpful if for nothing more than adjusting white balance (which the Calf-Visinse is terrible at getting right). If you would like to see my workflow for this, here's a link to a video I posted just last night. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZCkXmSMobdqodE

[@WarrenBHall]

@@WildWonderfulWeekends I just watched the workflow vid (I’m a premier pro guy but you still managed to teach and inform me of some great and useful tips!) Thank you.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

@@WarrenBHall Thanks! Hey, I subscribed to your channel, btw. World vs Warren, that's a cool concept for videos. I look forward to seeing more.

[@SugizoYoshikiX]

my biggest problem with it is the blue fringing from the video samples I seen. And the sides of the lens are pretty blurry. I might just pay the regular price or hopefully holiday sale price when the true potential of this camera is reached (a vr180 8k30 camra kickstarter by tarsier that got suspended). Another comment mentioned 2 gopros. Footages of 2 gopro 11 looks a lot better. Much better dynamic range & looks very sharp (although a more extensive workflow). I might go with that original plan after i damaged my insta360 evo. Insta360 evo + topaz ai 8k upscale can actually look decent.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

Yes, those are extremely noticeable issues. I liked the first gen Calf camera content so much, I had very high hopes for this camera. I was hoping it would be like the DJI drones I use where even the budget-friendly offerings exceed expectations. I think you're wise to wait. Hopefully they'll make this camera (a lot) better with updates.

[@SugizoYoshikiX]

@@WildWonderfulWeekends , I had high hopes too. Calf gen 1 content does look very good. Hardware is there for gen2 (although tarsier and not rebranded viewpt on gen1). I will be keeping my eyes out on the updates on this camera. Thank you for sharing info on the camera.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

@@SugizoYoshikiX Thank you, my friend! Hopefully we'll get some good news very soon.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

@@SugizoYoshikiX Hey... check out this email that I just received tonight from Calf. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqLNdWZti9t8h80

[@Quietus6]

Inability to upload to youtube an instant NO BUY! Good review.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

Yeah, KZbin is definitely falling behind on the immersive content front. I'm going to be using Deo VR for all my VR180 and 360 content from now on. If you haven't given it a look, you should check it out. Look for my channel there to see what I've shot with the Calf-Visinse (WildWonderfulWeekends). Also, if you are thinking about getting this camera, my last video shows a workflow that does help overcome some of the shortcomings of this camera. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZCkXmSMobdqodE

[@Raiken333]

On my Visinse camera the convergence is off. I took a picture of my self and I'm seeing double. I'm really disapponted with this camera. The picture quality is trash. I wish I spent the money and saved up for the Canon R5 Mark 2 with the dual fish eye lens.

[@WildWonderfulWeekends]

I know exactly what you mean. It's one thing to have the "typical" problems that folks are noticing in these cameras, but for the convergence to be off... there's no getting past that. Have you contacted support about returning the camera? If so, what was their response?

[@scstudios8]

This camera would make sense at the $350 price point. You can tell because Insta360 X4 has an 8k 360 camera for like $500. So,if you cut the insta360 X4 in half, you get vr180 doing 8k AND stabilization and software, and reliability and all. So, saying, hey, we have an $800 camera that isnt remotely close to the quality that we know insta360 could meet if they made a vr180 camera and we wont give you stabilization, plus you get a crap interface and weak hardware all with a tiny sensor.... They are not competitive here and I bet the first model was also not worth buying either because 5.7k is not enough to do vr180. 8K is where it just meets the range of being ok, but you wont like it. Basically, vr180 wont look good ever even for 8k. You cannot expect awesome quality when your field of view is so wide. You can find out by just buying a fisheye lens and shooting 2d vr180 and you will instantly see that the quality just cannot look good. Its going to be rough. NOBODY ever shoots 180 degree FOV with a normal camera. Why people think its going to look great just because you are doing 3d is baffling. 3d doesnt not fix the massive lack of pixels to cover 180 degrees FOV. It wont ever. Try shooting your SLR at 640x480 with a normal FOV and tell me it looks good. Thats all that is happening here. Too many degrees, too few pixels. VR180 is just a dumb format below 8k at a minimum. Its partly why the insta360 evo died. First, we should have 3d cameras like new versions of the Fuji 3d w3 camera. There should be something under $400 that is just normal 3d out there. But you have to build one to do that, which I pretty much have many custom builds for 3d. Used Z Cam K1 pros keep selling on ebay for under $400. I got one for $250, junked the lenses and shoot Laowa fixed 7.5mm and its pretty good. You can do vr180 with it if you want, but you probably wont like the quality, and that camera sells new for $2000. I also shoot zcam e2 cinema cameras, so you can just stick any circular fisheye on it and see you never will get to nice VR180, believe me, I have tried. Optically, maybe never even if we had a perfect sensor, realistically, its way off still. I mean, its ok, but its not going to be like a wow factor. Its vr180 and its rough as can be seen by the demos. This is why the FM DUO costs a fortune. I basically have the z cam k2 pro, because I have twin zcam e2 cameras, so I can say, there is nothing special going on there either. The Zcam K1 Pro is probably the best practical one going right now, and it easily sells cheap on ebay. Dont worry if the lenses are scratched because you can plop a meike 3.5mm f2.8 on there for $140 each and its totally fine. You do not need the original optics. Good luck on the software side of things, but its doable and fairly cheap. That is not a bad 3d camera when you swap the lenses out to a normal super wide. Keep in mind, super wide is still really really wide. So shooting a laowa 7.5mm lens on the k1 pro is still very very wide angle. Its fine for vr.

[@moelli12345]

I'm using two Panasonic S9 with the TTArtisan 7.5mm

[@moelli12345]

Before i was using two Fujifilm X-S20 with the Meike 6.5mm

[@Julio_Siqueira]

It is easier and better to put two cell phones side by side and start filming. Then, stich the two videos together. You can even use a bigger parallax than human eyes'

[@kingjames1866]

I hear the sync and stitching of doing that is abit of a hassle.

[@Julio_Siqueira]

@@kingjames1866 Indeed. I myself never tried.

[@bigchips202]

cellphones don't have a wide field of view like a fisheye lens, so the video won't be as immersive... Two GoPro's would be a better option