Video: Building a Raspberry Pi 360 Camera (part 2)

Last month we looked at an interesting project by Tinkernaut: "How To Make a Cheap 360 Video Camera with a Raspberry Pi."

It clearly struck a nerve, and quickly became one of our most popular projects, so we definitely want to show you this update.

How to Make a Cheap 360 Video Camera with a Raspberry Pi Part 2 goes into the project and answers many questions.

360 video with a Raspberry Pi camera

"If you've been keeping up with my videos," says Tinkernaut, "you'll know that last time I showed you how to make a cheap 360 webcam using a Raspberry Pi. It was a very crude project, but this video hopes to help refine it some. What we'll do this time around is tweak the code to improve the video output, and make a remote control system for the Pi. "

One user pointed out that the Raspberry Pi camera module has a focus ring. Using a pair of pliers you can adjust the focus on a Raspberry Pi Camera Module.

Tinkernaut has also improved the software to improve the quality of the image warping. While this home-build is never going to match the quality of a professional 360 camera, it's a much cheaper option and a great way to play around with 360 footage.

• Project code for 360 Camera

360 images can be uploaded to YouTube, where you can drag a mouse around to pan around a scene. This isn't, of course, the endgame. The idea is to learn about recording to be viewed using a VR headset.

When wearing a VR headset you can view 360 videos and look around a scene while it plays. This is a completely different experience to watching television on a regular flat screen.

Sample 360 video recorded on a Raspberry Pi

Tinkernaut has uploaded a sample recording, so you can see the kind of results that will be possible