Lenovo’s CES 2018 announcements largely revolved around virtual reality, with the company just unveiling both the world’s first standalone Daydream headset and a camera suitable for making VR content which is officially marketed as the “Mirage Camera with Daydream.” Powered by Google’s VR platform, the device is meant to serve as a versatile tool for contemporary filmmaking and can produce content compatible with YouTube’s new VR180 format that allows for 180-degree videos.
The Mirage Camera with Daydream boasts two 13-megapixel fisheye lenses situated next to each other, being designed to capture footage at slightly different angles so as to produce content with more depth that’s essentially three-dimensional in nature, the company claims. Despite the complex mechanics allowing for such results, Lenovo’s offering has been designed in an extremely straightforward manner and is meant to be as intuitive to use as point-and-shoot cameras. That simplicity is evident from the moment you set your eyes on the device that only sports three physical buttons controlling its power, shutter, and extra functionalities. While it doesn’t have a viewfinder or a display of its own, the Mirage Camera is able to operate in conjunction with a contemporary Android smartphone that can serve as its remote viewfinder with the help of a companion mobile app that will soon be making its way to the Google Play Store.
While Lenovo launched the Mirage Camera alongside the Mirage Solo headset, the content produced by its filmmaking tool can also be viewed by any other Daydream-powered hardware, as well as Google’s Cardboard solution. The gadget ships with a removable 2,200mAh battery rated for up to two hours of use on a single charge and is powered by the Qualcomm-made Snapdragon 626 SoC. A single speaker and two microphones are also integrated into the device, as is a microSD card slot that can expand on its 16GB of eMMC2 storage by up to 128GB. The Mirage Camera boasts 2GB of RAM, USB Type-C port for data transfers and charging, and support for Wi-Fi, as well as Bluetooth 4.2.
The dual-sensor setup of the Mirage Camera utilizes f/2.1 lenses and can deliver 4K footage at 30 frames per second, with the entire package measuring 55 x 105 x 22mm in size and weighing 145g together with its battery. Only the Moonlight White color seen in the gallery below has been confirmed by Lenovo so far, with this particular model being priced at “under $300” and set to go on sale in the second quarter of the year. A 4G LTE-enabled version of the Mirage Camera is in the works as well, but its price tag has yet to be disclosed, though it’s also likely to start retailing by spring.
