Vecnos, a startup independent from Ricoh, is expected to be "faster than slow"!

2020.03.13 06:01

On March 10, 2020, Vecnos, a startup company independent of Ricoh, announced the development of a completely new pen-shaped all-sky camera. The company was founded by core development members of the Ricoh THETA, the world's first all-sky camera, which was launched in 2013.

I have previously written in this article about the THETA Z1, the only camera in the THETA series to use a 1-inch sensor, which is often used in high-end compact digital cameras. The Ricoh THETA camera does not look like a Ricoh product. Rather, it does not seem like a product from a big old Japanese company.

The OS is Android. Although the camera can be used by itself, it is basically used with a wireless connection to a smartphone. The firmware has had a number of bugs, but they have been quickly fixed.

Advances in elemental technology have made it possible to attach one fisheye lens to each side of the camera body and stitch together images taken with the two lenses to take 360° panoramic photos and videos in all directions, up, down, left, and right.

Many old Japanese companies do not take the risk of jumping in when the external environment changes drastically and opportunities for new business development arise. The "RICOH THETA" development team was quick to see the opportunity, and was quick to develop and launch the product. As a result, they created a market for an all-ceiling camera that did not exist in the world.

Later, followers such as China's Insta360 and the US-based GoPro would enter this market. And the market for all-sky cameras has now reached 6 million units globally.

And going forward, "we expect a 20-30% annual increase," said Hidenao Ubukata, CEO of Vecnos. While sales of cameras with old-fashioned concepts are slowing down, there is one area where this kind of growth can be expected.

The subjects I am particularly conscious of in all-sky cameras are the ones that will disappear in the future. Please take a look at the 4K video I shot with the THETA Z1 at Shin-totsukawa Station, the terminus of JR Hokkaido's Sassho Line, which will be discontinued in May of this year.

This video is omnidirectional, so the viewer can look in any direction he or she wants to. If you actually operate the camera on the device you are viewing, you will clearly see how revolutionary it is.

Video taken with an ordinary camera does not show anything that is outside the composition. What the photographer does not want to capture is eliminated. However, when shooting with a fulldome camera, the photographer does not need to think about the composition in the first place. The photographer can take pictures in all directions and the viewer can choose the direction he or she wants to look.

Many old Japanese companies are slow in decision-making anyway. We often hear stories of time wasted in zero-productivity meetings to avoid responsibility.

In this day and age, speed is the most important thing. The PDCA cycle that infests many Japanese companies is particularly harmful. It is just fine to shortcut unnecessary processes and revise the original guidelines when the external environment changes. Poor speed is better than slow.

I hope that Vecnos, which was established as a spin-off to avoid Ricoh's cumbersome internal procedures, will be the first to introduce a pen-shaped all-sky camera, which is not yet available on the market. I hope that Vecnos will set an example for many other companies.

first appearance : AGORA