Ricoh Theta S 360 degree video test

My latest toy. And I use my language carefully as this basic 360 video camera is little more than a 'technology tester' in my opinion. I fully expect that within a year there will be cameras of far better quality and resolution on the market (for the same or money as the £300 price tag of the Ricoh).

I was lucky, I persuaded my work that they should buy this camera to try out elementary 360-degree photography and video to gauge whether there was interest in the format. Specifically, we are interested in virtual guided tours of our facilities which would be hosted on our website.

The Theta S couldn't be more simpler. It a very basic compact (fixed focus) digital camera system with a lens at the front and a lens at the back. These two lenses record footage in sync to produce a 360 effect...Though, it's not quite as simple as that, as you will see.

But before we get into the nitty-gritty, here's a preview of the very first go I had with the Theta S. But I warn you - turn the volume down as it was a very windy trip and so the audio is terribly distorted.



Results - the not so bad, bad, and downright horrible!
Well, as you can see, it looks like an SD quality video from about 5 years ago! The reason for this is - although the marketing advertises that the camera can shoot in 1080p HD, that resolution is spread across the whole 360 degree of vision supplied by the two lenses. So, in effect, you don't really achieve 1080p quality at all - it's more like 1080HD stretched which results in a 640SD quality look!

A bit of a cheat - from a marketing point of view- and it has led to the greatest number of complaints by users, who are - understandably - a little disappointed with the quality that they are getting.

Add to this the awful software and upload system that Ricoh has cobbled together and it means that getting the best out of your Theta S is something of a grueling challenge! I have experimented with several ways to get the best out of the camera and it's MPEG4 footage, and my conclusion is that you cannot afford to drop quality in edit/conversion one iota as the quality of the original footage is only just adequate in the first place.

Here's a useful introduction which explains the Theta S workflow by Tony Cece...

(I'm looking into buying Apple's 'Compressor' app for FCPX so I can edit then output lossless MP4 files. We shall see.)

Anyway, all technicalities and gripes aside the camera is what it is - it's the first (as far as I am aware) consumer entry level 60-degree video (and stills) camera on the market. Things will undoubtedly improve, but the Theta S gives you a very useful first experience of shooting and deploying 360-degree video. And I've no doubt that this will be a more mainstream activity as the technology (and software) improves.

Stay tuned.