This is a very interesting camera. This photographic device from RICOH is called Theta. It's a world's first spherical camera which lets you take 360 degrees of imaging all around you. On the both sides of the small and remote-controller-like body, it has two lenses that covers 180˚ angle of view. It lets you capture your complete surrounding with a push of the shutter button. You can look at the photos on a PC and a smart phone that receive the data from the camera. You can shift the point of view, zoom in or out, and it reproduces the moment and place that the shot was taken. We have also panoramic cameras, but there's no other gadgets that can record and play the space as the Theta does. I think this is made possible by the technological advancement that enabled smart phones to perform like desktop computers of the former generation and that realized WiFi data transfer. Since the application for Android OS was under development, I played with the Theta on the iPhone OS. You can look at the spherical photos after uploading them to RICOH's special website for Theta, but I cannot embed them outside of it. So, I'll show you the videos of viewing them on the PC screen.
( Photo : Z II / Text : 48 )
This is a view from the Tokyo Skytree observation deck. This device is perfect for capturing wide scene like this. Despite the big luminance difference between the outside and the inside, the picture came out nicely. Because resolution isn't impressively high, it's more fun to include people around. And voila, you can take a souvenir photograph capturing your company even if you didn't intend to include.
This is the famous intersection at Ginza 4-chome. I zoomed out and changed point of view. You should notice a borderline on the sky, but the buildings are pieced nicely. You don't really need to be careful about the direction of camera because it takes 360 degrees of imaging, but you might want to remember to frame the subject outside the seam line.
It's this kind of narrow spot when this device performs at its best. It captured everything in the cockpit including front meters, overhead panels, levers, and seats. You can press the shutter with a smartphone, so it allows you to shoot in a narrow space or the place where people cannot enter.
If you shoot in an aquarium tunnel, the picture looks like the one shot under water. Because ISO sensitivity AUTO100-1600 only, it doesn't always perform well at low light conditions. Yet, it does an outstanding job in capturing the atmosphere. So, I started to shoot when I find subjects in all directions.
This is an old ramen restaurant. I placed the Theta next to a bowl of ramen and it came out very surrealistic. With this camera, I want to shoot this kind of places because I really hope they continue to exist.
Operation is so easy. All you have to do is aim at the scene and press the shutter. When shooting panoramic photography, we need to be careful about the horizontal or vertical lines. But, with the Theta that takes 360 degrees of imaging you don't have to be that meticulous. There's only one tip: aim one of the two lenses at the subject and shoot. If you don't want to shoot yourself, you can hold it up high or fix it on a tripod. But, it's interesting to shoot yourself, too. Connecting to a smart phone isn't hard if you get used to it. The exclusive application has a very simple interface just like the camera body, and I can feel they did their best to simplify things. But, there's one drawback: you can't check the result reflecting exposure compensation until you view the output on the smart phone. It would be nice for advanced users if they fix this problem.
What I felt interesting was that I keep looking at the photos taken by this camera. The 360˚ world is simply amazing and it lets you discover something new as you keep looking at it because it captures something you didn't see when you shot. In a shot you carelessly took while having lunch, you can know lives of people around you. Or, you can find something unexpected on the street you walk everybody. Party shots are also fun to look at because you can check everyone's facial expressions and motions. This ambiance is something that two-dimension photography couldn't realize and I don't think I looked at a photo so closely until this time. This is an article for the public, so I cannot show more private example scenes. But, I think it's the private scenes when this camera shows its true ability. In the present, you can share the outputs by uploading them to the RICOH's special website, but it would be even more fun if we can attach them in the blogs and emails.
Getting the 360° panoramic world requires special equipment and mechanism, but now we can get it so easily. If you can imagine the scenes you want to shoot with this camera, just get it because you can never experience this fun until you use it.