[October 20, 2014]

Panono Panoramic Ball Camera Nears Market Availability

The Panono Panoramic Ball Camera, which debuted last year in a highly successful crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $1.2 million, is making rapid progress towards market readiness, according to inventor Jonas Pfeil. Today, Panono shared news with its backers that it has completed its final mechanical design and that the first electronic prototypes are in production and will soon undergo testing. Panono anticipates that its first cameras will begin shipping in spring 2015 to the company's crowdfunding backers.

This is the first 108mp fully spherical 360 degree panorama taken with the final camera modules of the Panono Ball Camera. (Photo: Business Wire)

The patent-pending Panono is a grapefruit-sized, ball-shaped camera with 36 camera modules embedded all around it that fire simultaneously when the camera is thrown into the air to capture fully spherical, 108-megapixel panoramic images. Viewing Panono panoramas on a mobile device with the free Panono App offers a unique immersive experience in which viewers move through images simply by tilting their device up and down, left and right, and all around as if inside the image. Viewers can also enjoy their panoramas on their desktop, as demonstrated here in this first 108 megapixel 360° panorama taken with the final camera modules of the Panono camera.

"It's exciting to be just months away from realizing a dream that began in 2011 to create a whole new world of photography, one in which the photographer is literally at the heart of each image in a fully spherical shot that captures everything and everyone in every direction. The Panono Panoramic Ball Camera is a very different kind of camera and we can't wait for people to experience it and start sharing their panoramas," said Jonas Pfeil, inventor, co-founder and president of Panono.

Milestones in Panono's path to market include:

Electronics Manufacturing Service: To produce its cameras, Panono has selected Jabil, one of the three largest electronics manufacturing services in the world.

Electronics and Software: The first electronic prototypes are currently in production and will soon be undergoing testing together with the Panono App and cloud platform.

Mechanics: The final mechanical design is now complete and will be put through a series of drop-tests to ensure that the camera will stand up to normal wear and tear and possible drops on the ground.

New Features: Panono has integrated attachment points for ropes so that users can hang the camera from ceilings, trees and elsewhere to offer other unique vantage points for taking panoramas. An indicator light has been added to let the photographer know whether conditions such as lighting and rotation were optimal for capturing a good quality image. A new stitching algorithm has been completed and is yielding seamless panoramas.

In anticipation of its general availability in spring 2015, Panono today also unveiled its new logo, new panoramic pictures captured during testing and a new website. The Panono Panoramic Ball Camera is still available to purchase at the discounted price of $549 USD on the Panono website at http://www.panono.com

Website embed for the first 108mp panorama taken with the final camera modules of the Panono Camera: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://demo.panono.com/embed/3365/K6ZA2S7XDN/" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

About Panono GmbH

Panono GmbH develops trend-setting digital cameras along with smartphone and tablet applications. Its first product is the Panono Panoramic Ball Camera. Equipped with 36 individual cameras, the Panono captures 360° fully spherical 108-megapixel panoramas. International patents for the Panono camera are pending. The Panono will be available in spring 2015. Panono GmbH was founded in 2012 by Jonas Pfeil, Björn Bollensdorff and Qian Qin and is based in Berlin, Germany. More information is available at panono.com

The Panono team will be showing the new mechanical design and demonstrating the Panono Panoramic Ball Camera at the Web Summit (Dublin, Ireland) November 4-6, 2014 and at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES (News - Alert)) (Las Vegas, Nevada) January 6-9, 2015.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20141020005299/en/

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