Truth be told, the 360-degree camera concept that Panono touted when it first came to Indiegogo years ago was really, really cool.
But, like so many dreams, it has quickly devolved into a bit of a nightmare for backers who never got it and owners who did and now find themselves getting nickel and dimed for each capture. As Gizmodo reports, the original firm behind the company closed up shop and got sold to Swiss private equity firm Bryanston Group AG.
The new fees are supposed to cover the costs of processing the images on the serves run by the company which makes the Panono’s images so dynamic. Initially selling for $USD 600 before disappearing from the market, Gizmodo reports that about 400 units were sold at this price.
Now the Panono costs $USD 2,400 and you have to pay to get your snaps processed. Gizmodo says that no one has quite been able to replicate what Panono does on the server side as its algorithm for stitching all the photos together is proprietary stuff. Still, it’s kind of unimaginable that someone would pay thousands of dollars for a device that still needs you to pay fees here and there to make it work.
How much is the Panono going to charge you? At least $USD 0.88 per snap. As you can imagine, this has some people on the Internet less than thrilled with the company. Many are pointing out that they thought this service was included in the Panono’s expensive price and to have this change put into effect AFTER purchasing the device is bad business and bad customer service.
Further, you can get the functionalities that the Panono offers with other equipment albeit costing thousands upon thousands of dollars more. But if you’re serious about taking 360-degree photos, the upside of that equipment is you won’t be charged to process a snap somewhere in the cloud.
Do you own a Panono? What do you think of charging people per snap after they’ve bought the device? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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[Gizmodo]
2 Comments
Yes, fancy spending thousands of dollars on a camera, only to have to pay more for processing just to access your photos.
You have no recollection of the good old film days?
Hmmm I can’t recall a camera that cost 1000s of dollars AND promised an unlimited supply of free film, only to take that away after it suckered a few thousand people into supporting it. I’m trying to recall the camera that offered unlimited free film but I can’t remember one. Now that would have been a breakthrough.