If you haven't already done so, go out and spend $20 or less for one of the many Google Cardboard virtual reality (VR) viewers out there. If you want to spend more and you have a Samsung Galaxy, you'll get a vastly superior experience -- and really see what all the excitement's about -- when you buy the Samsung Gear VR headset instead. In either case, get ready. VR is the shape of things to come. Suddenly, pixel-peeping is so 2015.
Google Cardboard Kit by D-Scope, $16.95 at Amazon. This is the one I bought to try out with my iPhone 6s.
When the the Cannes Film Festival embraces VR and Steven Spielberg -- one of my favorite directors of all time -- warns us about it, you know that VR has arrived.
But you already knew that because of NAB 2016, right?
If not, pay attention: a new generation of cameras are rapidly riding the manufacturing experience curve to bring VR filmmaking within reach of the masses -- and storytelling well, if not never the same, will at least have a new branch in its evolutionary tree.
360Heros Pro6 for $395 at Amazon (cameras not included)
Kodak PIXPRO SP360 4K Action Camera Dual Pro Pack, $899 pre-order at B&H
If you want to see first-hand what it's all about, get a Google Cardboard Kit like this one for less than $20. If you don't want to spend that much -- or you have a Samsung Galaxy and are willing to spend $100, you can have a vastly superior experience by trying or buying Samsung's Gear VR headset. I tried it, and it blew me away.
See original Reuters story about Cannes here.