The Nikon KeyMission 360 holds great promise as a tool to create immersive visual experiences. In putting the camera through its' paces, I found that the limitation of the battery, at 1 hour and 10 minutes, created limitations when I needed to place the camera in a remote location where I could not trigger it from afar, or when I wanted to capture longer than the internal battery would allow.
In order to capture a longer video, an external battery connected to the camera was needed.
The challenge occurs, when the door of the KeyMission 360 is opened, as it then intrudes into the final stitched video/photo, which is distracting. The solution is to remove the door of the camera.
The tools necessary to accomplish this were fairly simple - a Torx T5 was used for the screws on the protective plastic covers on both sides, and a Phillips #000 was used for the rest of the screws. A Smudger - which is essentially a dull-tipped knife tip that allows you to get in between seams, and fine-tipped tweezers were useful as two of the side covers had plastic click-notches. The tweezer tip got the plastic up over the notch tab, and the smudger helped hold it and lift it smoothly.
Here is the partial tear-down of the KeyMission 360 to the point where the door could be easily removed:
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here to see the full-sized image of the partial tear-down in a new window.
Here is a close-up of the hinge area once the door was removed:
Once the camera is re-assembled without the hinge, a 90-degree left-angled MicroUSB cord allows you to power the camera externally, running the camera while the battery is charging, and lowering the profile and visual interference on longer-duration captures. It goes without saying, that with this door removed, the camera is no-longer waterproof.
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