As cameras get smaller, people can get increasingly creative with the shots they capture. Few DIY projects demonstrate this as well as a clever clear bowling ball with an Insta360 X5 360-degree camera embedded inside.
As spotted by Laughing Squid, VFX artist, engineer, and bowling fan Wren Weichman from Corridor Crew teamed up with engineer Erik Beck to make what they describe as the world’s first-ever bowling ball camera. If only such technology had existed when the Coen brothers made the cult classic movie The Big Lebowski. The film’s star, Jeff Bridges, an excellent and passionate photographer, would have certainly appreciated the wild camera tech.
“I love bowling. I’ve got a membership card, my own ball. My wife and I go bowling just about every week. It’s very fun and I cherish the time I get to spend destroying her,” Weichman says. “But lately, I’ve not been able to focus on our games because a question popped into my head: What does the POV of a bowling ball look like?”
While it may seem straightforward at first to put a camera inside a clear bowling ball, it is anything but. Weichman and Beck faced numerous challenges. While carving out a hole to place a camera is one possible solution, it would be stuck to a single point of view. It’s also possible to put a camera behind the ball, but that isn’t quite the same thing as seeing the ball’s perspective. Weichman then realized that 360-degree cameras could solve the perspective problem, as they record a complete 360-degree view at all times, allowing editors to decide precisely which perspective to view at any given time.
They settled on the Insta360 X5, an 8K 360-degree camera that is small and lightweight enough to put inside a bowling ball. When PetaPixel called the X5 “the most versatile action camera available” in its review earlier this month, this is not quite what we meant, but the new bowling ball project certainly demonstrates the X5’s versatility.
Enter Erik Beck, who expertly engineered the (nearly) perfect bowling ball for the mission. It needed to be entirely clear, the correct size and weight, perfectly spherical, and durable enough to withstand the rough and tumble life of a regular bowling ball. It also needs a frame to hold the camera, which fortunately does not itself need to be clear since the X5’s two cameras overlap each other’s fields of view by 20 degrees — hence why the X5’s selfie stick is invisible on camera.
To see how Weichman and Beck dealt with other challenges that popped up, watch both videos above. It’s a really cool project that captures footage nobody has ever gotten before.
Image credits: Corridor Crew, Wren Weichman, and Erik Beck