tgreenhaw

Does anyone have experience and opinions on the best 360 degree camera like the Rico Theta S or Kodak SP360 4K? I'm looking for high quality stills without a lot of fuss and post processing. Also any recommendation on VR headsets to view them?

melismus Loc: Chesapeake Bay Country

Many Sony cameras, DSLR and mirrorless, will do automatic panos with no stitching.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

I don't think any of the Sony cameras can produce true spherical views.

Clemens Loc: Maryland

To get high quality 360 I would recommend the Novoflex VR Slant and a 8mm fisheye lens. Only 4 shots are needed to cover 360. I have one and it is very easy. Stitching only takes a few minutes. For even higher quality you can go to a 12 or 16mm lens but you need more photos to cover the whole area and you will need a dedicated head with tripod to do so. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDpveVZULjo

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

Here is another product that's a little less expensive to help with panorama's. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010CP4K5S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

billt1970 Loc: Gambrills, Maryland

I have extensive experience with the Ricoh Theta S and love it, for what it does! What it does is deliver well stitched and processed 360 photospheres in less than 10 seconds. I would not call the resulting photosphere images high quality, but to my eye they are good quality and quite acceptable for what I am trying to do.

Now "Best" is in the eye of the beholder and depends, again, on what you are trying to do. If I want a "high quality" photosphere I go to my DSLR with Sigma 8mm f3.5 fisheye lens. Using 3 shot bracketing that requires 12 images per photosphere followed by HDR processing then pano stitching. This approach definitely requires a lot of fuss and post processing, BUT it certainly IS the highest quality.

If "without a lot of fuss and post processing" is your primary goal, then the Theta S is an excellent choice. One additional advantage is that with a single exposure it allows you to shoot in public settings where things (people, cars, etc.) are moving. You can't do that effectively shooting a 12 shot HDR sequence with a DSLR.

The bottom line to me is that the Theta S is another tool in my kit bag that allows me to collect great photospheres quickly and unobtrusively. I often take it out to dinner with friends and put it in the middle of the table to take a "family and friends" shot that most have never seen before. Showing it to them mere seconds later on my iPhone really blows their minds. I also use it regularly to collect landscape photospheres that get posted to my Google Street View Trusted portfolio on Google.

Give the Theta S a try. You can pick one up for between $300 and $350 on eBay.

Happy Thanksgiving and Good Shooting to All here at UHH.

Best Regards,

Bill Taylor
Gambrills, MD

mainshipper Loc: Hernando, Florida

Do you have an opinion regarding a Theta S versus SC. The differences don't seem to be that significant if you are shooting stills.

mainshipper Loc: Hernando, Florida

I was introduced to 360 panos last winter when I was on a photo trip to SE Asia. One of the participants produces 360s commercially for some government entities in Canada and took a number of panos on this trip. Needless to say the shots were amazing. He was using a Sony DSLR with a Canon 8-15 fisheye lens and a Nodal Ninja R1 tilting pano head http://shop.nodalninja.com/collections/r1-r10-r20-heads-pkgs/products/r1-rd5-custom-build-pkg?variant=12341285508. One critical component of this pano head package was the mounting ring for the lens that enables you to get a perfect nodal point which required for precise panos of any style. I thought this was pretty cool so I outfitted myself with the required pieces when I got home. Fortunately, I already had the Canon 8-15 lens and with my Canon 5D III I was set camera wise. I ordered the pano head package in the above link as well some stitching software from PTGui http://www.ptgui.com/ which is easy to use and fairly inexpensive when purchased with the pano head.

It took some practice to get some really nice shots but with the right gear it can be done. I did experiment with HDR and although it is supported in the PTGui software, it requires a different process than I use with regular bracketed sets. One requirement of the 360 shot is that the exposure remain the same throughout which can be difficult with outdoor shots. I have settled on a six shot 360 sequence with a 5 degree up tilt and a 31 degree nodal point for my lens which is set to 12MM. The pano head has detents that enable precise rotations through the 360 degree spectrum stopping at 60 degree points in my case. I have also shot conventional panos with this head using a 50MM Canon prime with the camera (not lens) attached to the tripod's arca mount. For these panos I shoot vertically and stop at 10 degree points.

I find this style of photography to be fun but does take some work to get it right. The links below are a few of my shots taken this year. There is a control at the upper right to go full screen and you can move all around the picture with your cursor. One thing to note is that all evidence of the camera (i.e. tripod) has been removed and this accomplished via the PTGui software. If you move the picture to the bottom you won't see anything. This area is normally a small black four or six sided square and is called the "nadir". The opposite side of pano is called the "zenith" and is covered in the image because of the five degree up tilt. If you had a zero tilt there would be a uncovered spot at the top and bottom. Someone created a template that allows you to extract the "nadir" (bottom) to a square image, manipulate it in Photoshop using content aware fill, and then reinsert it into the pano image.

http://alantigner.org/pano/mofrc1/ - cockpit of historic airliner
http://alantigner.org/pano/fh2/ - hilltop vista in Canada
http://alantigner.org/pano/fpu1/ - interior of college student center ("nadir" cleanup not perfect and difficult with geometric patterns)
http://alantigner.org/pano/dcc2/ - interior of Denver Convention Center lobby (inserted my logo over "nadir")
http://alantigner.org/pano/es1/ - interior of hotel in lobby (inserted my logo over "nadir")
http://alantigner.org/pano/dt4/ - historic fort that has the original "nadir" still in the picture (this was a four versus six shot sequence)

I hope this was informative.

Alan Tigner

billt1970 Loc: Gambrills, Maryland

My understanding from discussions with Ricoh tech support is that the main difference is the onboard memory. The Theta S has much more than the SC; so, as you note, not much difference for stills, but a huge difference for video. The Theta S can take up to 25 minutes of full HD video, where the SC is limited to 5 minutes.

Other differences include colors (4 choices for SC) and 1 (Black) for the S, plus the S is capable of live video streaming.

Happy Thanksgiving.

BT

tgreenhaw

Thanks! This is the advice I was looking for.

The concerns that I had with the Theta S are non-removable battery and memory. Has that been an issue for you?

billt1970 Loc: Gambrills, Maryland

Memory has never been a problem. Battery life was an occasional problem, until I learned to keep it charged all the time!!

BT