Kaidan 360 One VR MK/II

by Josh Root

For those who don’t know, a 360-degree panoramic photograph is essentially one where a series of photos is stitched together and then replayed as sort of a “scrolling movie.” The effect places the viewer at the spot where the camera was, and allows viewing in a full circle. Usually only presented on the internet or via other computer-based applications, these 360 photos are frequently used for real estate sales, tourist/vacation information, nature/environmental display, and just to show off any single location. However, before the advent of products like the 360 One VR, the process for creating these photos was fairly long and annoying. It required precise alignment of 10-12 photos and then a lot of work in a photo editing program to make sure they were stitched together correctly and that their exposures matched.

The basic concept of the “one-shot” 360 lenses is that they have a mirror element that the camera shoots into. This mirror reflects a full 360 degrees, eliminating the need to rotate the camera and shoot multiple photos. This creates images that are circular when viewed unprocessed. A Photoshop plug-in or stand alone processing program is then run that essentially slices and “unfolds” the image into a long narrow panoramic format. Programs like Quicktime or Java can then read these files in such a way that they are played as a continuously rotating movie.

For the purpose of this review, I assume that the reader would be shooting with a digital camera. But I figure the basic use wouldn’t be that different if you were scanning in slides.

Quality and Design

As befitting its $750 price tag, the 360 One VR lens (web site: http://www.kaidan.com/is solidly build. There is very little plastic in its construction (if any), and it feels like a well-made quality product. The mirror lens element is glass which isn’t true of all of the “360” lenses that are on the market. Be especially wary of those sold on ebay for $200 or so as they reportedly have mirrors made of plastic. As the mirror is the whole point of a lens of this type, it hardly seems smart to skimp on its built quality.

Kaidan 360 One VR MK/II
closed	open

Quality control and customer service seem good at Kaidan. Every time I had to contact them, I was able to get my questions answered easily. And though delivery of the lens was delayed a little bit, I later found out that it was because they were unhappy with one batch of mirrors and wanted to send them back for retooling before releasing the 360 One VR II. Included with the 360 One VR you also receive a bottle of canned air, a lens cloth, lens cleaning solution, and an Ultra-Brush lens pen. No, it’s not like they are including a $100 bill in every box, but it’s always nice to see a company providing accessories that are actually useful to photographers, instead of spending money on fancy packaging or something equally useless.

Unlike previous versions and similar competing products, the 360 One VR does not require its own special case to transport it. These lenses are somewhat delicate just by virtue of their design. But the 360 One VR has a clever sliding sleeve that screws into place and protects the mirror and slides out of the way again for shooting. This is great as it allows the lens to fit easily in a spare 80-200/2.8 size soft case that I happened to have in my camera closet. Other 360 lenses typically need to be screwed into a fairly large foam and plastic case. Those cases are great for protection, but completely impractical for photo work where you are traveling by foot for any amount of time because it could only fit in the very largest of camera bags. My only gripe with the 360 One VR’s sliding “sleeve” is that it is a bit tricky to get screwed back into place and can take longer than expected. Still, though, it’s a worthy trade-off for the protection it provides.

There are two (three, sort of) ways to mount your camera to the 360 One VR. The first is through one of the camera specific adapters that Kaidan sells. A number of popular cameras are supported via this method, and you can see the full list on Kaidan’s website. Even if your camera isn’t listed, you should check the filter thread size of your lens against the sizes of the cameras that are supported. Since you may be able to buy a cheap step ring or two and make it work.

The second way to mount your camera is through the use of their SLR bracket. This is made specifically to allow the use of dSLRs with macro lenses, though you can easily use the SLR bracket with any fixed lens digital as well. The bracket was a little annoying to assemble because the printed instructions were fairly useless, though I did notice later that there was a better set of instructions included on one of the CDs that came with the equipment. That said, it is a very well made unit. And while its design is a little bulky, it is quite light in weight.

The third “sort of” method is to find some stepping rings and connect your fixed-lens digital directly to the 360 One VR lens itself. The success of this method is going to have a lot to do with how wide angle your lens is and what the close focus distance is. But it can work, and fairly inexpensively, in addition to being a lot easier to handhold (more about that later).

Use

In use the 360 One VR works just as it should. There is really nothing tricky about shooting these photos once your camera is properly connected to the lens or bracket. There are only two issues that you need to be aware of when shooting, neither of which are specific to the 360 One VR but rather are common to all “one-shot” 360 lenses.

Due to the design of these lenses, they are very susceptible to flare. When shooting outside on a sunny day it is virtually impossible to keep the sun out of the image. The same can be said for spotlights inside a store or house. There really isn’t much that you can do about this except to try and move the tripod a bit or turn off the lights. Thankfully, cloning in photoshop usually solves any problems.

The second issue is that in order to get good panoramas, the lens needs to be as level as possible. Not having your lens level will make your viewers seasick when they scroll around the image, and it will also make some of your subjects look distorted. If you have a good pan/tilt head, it shouldn’t be a problem. But if you like to use a small ballhead like me, it is more troublesome. You will need to bring along some sort of small level to place on top of the 360 One VR. In fact this is just about the only place where the 360 One VR gets beaten by any of its competitors. I have seen 360 lens models with small bubble levels built into the top of the lens housing. Very handy, I think.

Processing

Each manufacturer of 360 lenses has a different program for processing the circular images into panoramic strips that can be played via Java or Quicktime. Some use stand-alone programs, some provide Photoshop plug-ins, and some even use a series of steps tied to a Photoshop action. Kaidan provides PhotoWarp 2.5 as their image processing system. It is a fairly small program that comes in both Windows and Macintosh versions on a single CD. Installation was quick and easy.

PhotoWarp 2.5 screen sample

The program works wonderfully. You simply drag one or more image files into the program window, align the cropping circle, set the “start” point, and process. You can pick from Quicktime, Flash, Java, or any number of other settings for your intended output. You can also make adjustments to compression, image size, field of view, and various other options. It even gives you presets for most every 360 lens on the market because different lenses have slightly different shaped mirrors. After you tweak the settings to your liking, you just click the “unwrap” button and, seconds later, you have a series of 360 images to display on your computer or website.

Unwrapped

The only thing that I wish was different about the PhotoWarp software is that there is no way to unwrap an image and then bring it into Photoshop to edit before it is made into a Quicktime .mov file (or whatever other format you are unwrapping to). PhotoWarp has a few basic image adjustment tools, but it doesn't offer all of the tools that digital photographers have come to expect in photo editing programs. So this leaves you having to work on the original circular images if you need to clone out sun flare or adjust levels. And while this is entirely possible it’s kind of annoying. The circular image is strange looking and it’s easy to missclone. Adjusting image parameters is largely trial-and-error based. Would I get used to it in time? I’m sure I would. And the otherwise all-around excellence of the PhotoWarp software makes it easier to ignore this annoyance.

Samples

Click on a thumbnail below to view a 360-degree "photograph." Use your mouse and left-click to scroll around. Click on the plus (+) or minus (-) signs to zoom in and out. You need Apple's QuickTime to view these. You can download it for free at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/
Band	Bar	House	Skate Shop

Overall

Things I Like:

• high construction quality
• excellent protective design
• widest field of view of 360 lenses on the market
• easy to use PhotoWarp software works very well
• 360 movie/image output is VERY cool

Things I Didn’t Like:

• slightly annoying to screw protective sleeve back into place
• fairly expensive for a limited-application lens
• no ability to bring unwrapped images into Photoshop before creating 360 movie

Where to Buy

By clicking on one of the vendor links below to make a purchase, you help to support photo.net. Adorama and B&H are two vendors that sell the Kaidan 360 One.

Summary

Frankly I think this is a really cool lens and a fun tool. It is a great way to show distant friends and relatives what my house, local parks, or favorite bar looks like in a way that is impossible with traditional photography. I haven’t explored the hand-held possibilities yet, but I can imagine that taking the lens to a concert or a amusement park could lend itself to some amazing images.

However, at $750 plus the cost of any mounting adapters you chose to buy, it isn’t a cheap lens by any means. Especially when you consider that it really only does one thing (though it does it VERY well). But if I were a real estate agent, a website designer, a resort marketing manager, or a chamber of commerce tourism director, I think I would snap one up in an instant. Heck, even for a geek like me who just likes cool toys, it’s a pretty neat thing to have just to play around with.

My Background

Among other things, I'm the digital editor here on photo.net. Home is the Northwest corner of the USA (Washington state). I'm 28 and make my living as a photographer/filmer for the BMX & “extreme” sports industry when I feel like traveling, and by shooting weddings or building houses when I don’t feel like traveling. It’s a good life. I have been shooting photos for close to 17 years now and have been shooting almost 100% digitally for almost 5 years. I currently shoot with a Canon 20D, Canon Digital Rebel, Canon S110, Canon G2, a Leica IIIf, and a Polaroid Barbie cam. I can also walk through walls and predict the exact sequence of last week’s winning lottery numbers.