Hands-On With GoPro's New Fusion 360 Camera

Getting into the spherical video game makes sense for GoPro. Surfing giant waves at Mavericks, jumping off a cliff in a wingsuit, floating around on the ISS—these are things I will likely never, ever do in my life. But I certainly want to experience what I would be seeing if I did. That’s why the world of extreme sports, where GoPro's line of POV cameras is a major player, is one of the most appealing arenas for immersive, 360-degree video.

GoPro teased the Fusion last month, but I got to spend a little bit of time with a beta version of the camera this past week. GoPro consistently emphasized that nothing about the version I got to see (hardware, firmware, or software) was final, and the company kept close tabs on the camera at all times, ensuring I couldn't put it through any stress tests. That said, what I saw left me cautiously optimistic.

The body of the camera is a flat, squarish brick, approximately 3 inches by 3 inches and roughly 1 inch thick. There is fisheye lens on each of the two flat sides—these work in tandem to capture a full spherical view of the camera's surroundings. There’s a power button on the "front" and a mode button on one of the slim sides. On the bottom is the standard two-loop shoe that attaches to all of GoPro's mounting brackets, though it's on a plate that can slide out, which is unique among GoPro cameras.

The styling of the Fusion looks very on-brand for GoPro, with colors and buttons that line up with the Hero5 Black and the Hero5 Session cameras. Curiously, there are three microphone holes on top and one on the back, but none on the front. Again, the hardware isn't final, but that seemed strange. From the clips I watched, the audio sounded pretty decent, but I'll wait to pass judgement until I can give it a full evaluation.

I was able to watch some spherical Fusion footage in a Samsung Gear VR headset (outfitted with the Galaxy S7). GoPro's Fusion teaser video was loaded up, which is chock-full of the extreme content you'd expect (wingsuiting, paraskiing, white-water kayaking). I'd had some reservations about what the 5.2K image would look like when stretched to a 360 degree sphere, but it seemed to be on-par for what I expect from the current state of VR content. In other words, some of that unfortunate "screen door" look creeps in, due to the displays not being high-resolution enough, but generally things look pretty good.

More importantly, it looks good enough to freak your body out. When watching the wingsuit section at the top or the ski jump toward the end, I felt my stomach drop and my heart rate rise. It's that visceral reaction that really sets watching a 360 video in a VR headset apart from watching one in a standard player. In the video, it was extremely difficult to spot the seams where the images from the two separate cameras meet.

One of the banner features for Fusion is the "OverCapture" mode. GoPro's VR software will allow you to take a spherical video, select a 1080p HD frame, and pop it out. This means you can play director of photography after you've already shot the scene, tilting and panning the camera at will. You can also pull all the way back until you have the "tiny world" perspective, with the whole 360 degrees squished into a 1080p frame. This creates an extremely dramatic effect if used properly. The video above is the OverCapture version of the Fusion teaser video, and as you can see, it looks pretty good at 1080p resolution.

There are a few red flags. The biggest is the camera's shape and how it will interact with water. Normal GoPro cameras are already on the boxy side, and when I’m surfing if I push through a wave or suffer a nasty wipeout, the pressure of the water will often push the camera's lens down into my surfboard, forcing me to readjust the angle. In very extreme cases, a wipeout can rip the camera clean off the board. The Fusion is taller and wider than a standard GoPro, providing a bigger, flatter surface for water to bully it around. We'll have to see how that goes. In contrast, the low-profile Garmin Virb 360 would cut through the water much more cleanly. The Fusion is waterproof to some degree, though GoPro is currently mum about exactly how waterproof. If I were a betting man, I'd guess it will need a case past 33 feet, which would be on par with the Hero5 line, but we'll see.

There was also some weirdness when I watched some of my own test footage in VR the following day. When an object was close to the camera and moving quickly from side to side, a really nasty strobing effect showed up. To me, it looked like interpolation, where the right and left eye weren’t entirely in sync, producing an effect known to video folks as "jutter." GoPro was aware of the problem and partially blamed the issue on the Gear VR headset I was using. That glitch broke the illusion of immersion more so than anything else, so hopefully GoPro's engineers get that ironed out.

The Fusion still has no launch date, and there's no word yet on pricing. GoPro has said it plans for a "limited commercial release" before the end of the year. In the meantime, it has invited the GoPro faithful to apply to be beta testers this summer. When the Fusion does arrive, it will faces formidable competition from Garmin, whose Virb 360 camera seemed impressive at first glance, but which currently costs a whopping $800. There are also several other spherical cameras already in the mix. That said, nobody has really pulled away from the pack in the 360 camera race. With GoPro's name recognition and its deep integration in the action sports world, the company has the best chance of anybody to take the lead. But it has to get the Fusion right.