Sometimes you want to take a picture of a thing, but there are times when you just want everything. So far, your options for comprehensive photospheres involve taking a whole lot of pictures, or throwing some kind of crazy ball or something. This upcoming camera from Ricoh makes it a hell of a lot easier. “One button” easy.
Using its two side-mounted fish-eye lenses, the little handheld cam can grab a full 360-degree shot in a split second, meld the two 180-degree halves into one sphere and then beam it to a smartphone or tablet via Wi-Fi. Of course you can just peruse the spheres like any panoramic, but developers are also showing how the shots could be printed onto an actual sphere to make a pretty killer real-world souvenir.
The device is a way off from retail, but it’s easy to see how this could be an awesome gadget for photographers, if not something that everybody needs. You’ve just got to be careful not to get a big ol’ shot of your face in those suckers. Unless that’s what you’re going for, but please, no one needs your 360-degree selfies. [DigInfo]