Ricoh Theta M15 360 Degree Spherical Panorama Camera (Blue)

This is a fun little camera that has a few critical flaws, making it far from ready for mass audiences. Some specific gripes: 1) As others have stated, the image quality is fairly low rez. Adjusting the ISO/exposure helps, but the images produced are still pretty grainy. I get that this is still a very advanced camera and I imagine it's tough to get 360 degrees in high rez, but it's still worth noting. 2) The way you need to connect to the camera in order to use the remote shutter is VERY annoying. You need to sign into the unit's onboard wifi, and the password is printed on the base of the unit (making it annoying once you've already rigged it to a tripod). Further, if you want to post pictures or send them after you take them, you'll have to switch back to another WiFi or use cellular data. Bluetooth would be a much easier connection method, though I'll admit I do not know the tech implications of this request. 3) If you want to fine tune any of the camera settings (ISO, shutter speed, exposure, etc) the process is a but cumbersome. You need to adjust in the app, take the picture, wait for the picture to sync to the phone, re-adjust, repeat. I wish there were a way to see the settings in real time (i.e. there were some sort of live viewfinder when fine-tuning the settings). Again, I'll admit I don't know if this is possible tech-wise. 4) The camera is very tough to sit on a table without it toppling over. I imagine that the unit needs to be slim and narrow in order to disappear from the resulting pictures, but it is very cumbersome, and I can see this being an issue for long term care of the lens and body. 5) Even though the unit is slim and narrow, I still see a sliver of the camera in all my pictures. That seems like a design flaw, and I probably would have chosen a different body color had I known it would be in all the pictures. 6) There is no way to extend the storage size via memory card, etc. Given the price of the unit and the above mentioned shortcomings, I would only recommend this camera if you just want to have some fun playing around, or if you have a specific need for spherical images. Otherwise, I'd wait until the technology improves greatly.

I am very Impressed with this product. To be fair the resolution is not awesome but it is decent. I knew this from reading reviews and seeing videos showing samples on youtube before buying it. I was concerned b/c in the video and photo samples I saw, it seemed to show stitch lines and differences in lighting between the two sides of the camera. I have only taken a few dozen pictures so far but some where inside, outside, in low light conditions, and in an indoor stadium. So far I haven't seen any stitch lines or lighting problems at all. I was also a little disappointed in the 3 minute time limit on the video time. Again I knew that before I bought the camera so I can hardly complain. That said after having it for only a couple weeks a new firmware update was released by the company increasing the video length from 3 minutes to 5 minutes and the internal storage from 40 minutes to 1 hour. That was a pretty pleasant surprise for me :). They also announced that they will be releasing an updated app for my android phone very soon adding many new features. The apple version is already out. All things considered, this is the best 360 spherical camera out right now that even approaches this price. The next best camera would be the 6 Go Pro camera array which would cost you about $2,400 to setup and be a very complex operation to setup, use, and especially edit and stitch the 6 different video segments together which would ofc require a computer and a lot of time. This camera does all that work for you between it and the computer app once you download it you are ready to post it and share it with your friends or the world. Im sure in 3 years or so this camera will seem archaic for for the foreseeable future this is as good as it gets for under $2k

I really wanted to love this camera. It does a nice job of creating a 360 Degree picture and is easy to use and fits in your pocket. However, the resolution of the images are so low they did not meet the standard of a modern digital camera. You get pictures on par of a last generation phone image. Any zooming in on an object or face ends up blurry and grainy. The picture quality is also not up to the standard to be used by Google Maps. So the camera does what it was designed to do but until it ups its picture quality it remains a nice toy camera. You deserve better for the price.

This camera worked for about two months and then started having issues transferring files. I reported the issue to Ricoh and have had no luck in getting them to replace or repair the unit because there is a scratch on the lens. I don't need them to fix that, I just need the camera to work! Video quality is very poor. Picture quality is great. I can't recommend this because of Ricoh's unresponsive tech support and the inability for the camera lenses to be replaced if scratched.

Great fun to use

Cosas malas primero: - La conexión con el móvil es por wifi en lugar de bluetooth, lo que hace que sea un poco coñazo estar conectado y desconectando el teléfono cuando estás en una red local - La calidad del vídeo es bastante mala - La resolución de las fotos es de 3584x1792. Para una panorámica es más bien baja. Las hechas con PhotoSpere con mi Android es de 7168x3584 (aunque el montaje sea peor). Hasta donde he podido ver no se puede aumentar la resolución. - Ricoh no ofrece una herramienta para compartir los vídeos de más de 11segundos en internet (te obliga a cortarlos). Algún reproductor de photos y vídeos 360º o similar. Yo he encontrado Panellum para las fotos (Open Source), pero nada para los vídeos aún. - Activar el modo vídeo requiere apagar la cámara y volverla a encender, e igual para el modo foto. - En el Mac tardé un buen rato en acceder a las fotos y aún no he conseguido si se pueden exportar los vídeos completos al disco duro (en Windows sí). - Ciertamente las imágenes salen un poco deformadas sin no haces zoom, y si haces zoom se ven muy pixeladas. - No se pueden previsualizar los vídeos grabados en el móvil Lo bueno: - Es ligera - La batería aguanta bien - Hace las fotos muy rápidas y el montaje es bueno - Se integra con Twitter y Facebook de forma que desde la app móvil se pueden compartir directamente las fotos hechas. En definitiva diría que es una cámra muy cómoda con la que hacer fotos 360º y - Se pueden hacer tours 360º de manera rápida pero la calidad es bastante mejorable

Ich hatte mich vorher umfassend informiert und mir war klar, dass die Qualität nicht die beste ist - erst recht, wenn man PhotoSpheres von einem Android-Smartphone gewöhnt ist. Allerdings benötigen diese eben ca. 1 Minute zum Knipsen der einzelnen Fotos und dann nochmal 2 Minuten bis das Bild fertig ist. Und bewegte Objekte kann man so schonmal überhaupt nicht festhalten. Ganz zu schweigen von 360°-Videos. Genau dafür ist die Theta-Kamera gemacht worden. Schnelle 360°-Knipsfotos und -videos. Und das macht sie hervorragend. Zusammen mit einem Stativfuß und passendem Monopod kann man wunderbare Fotos machen, ohne, dass die eigenen Finger einen Großteil des Fotos ausmachen. Die Fernauslösung geschieht dabei über die Theta-App vom Smartphone aus. (Oder eine kompatible andere App.) Bei der offiziellen App ist noch zu beachten, dass die Fotos, die man damit von der Kamera lädt, nicht die volle Qualität haben. Die Kamera schießt Fotos in 3584x1792, die App lädt aber eine verkleinerte Version mit 2048x1024. Unter Android kann man aber mit der App "Theta Transfer beta" die Fotos in voller Auflösung drahtlos übertragen. Oder eben am PC per Kabel. Den nervigen Quietschton beim Knipsen kann man mit der Android-App "ThetaZero" dauerhaft abschalten. Einziges kleines Manko: Videos können nur mit max. 3 Minuten am Stück aufgenommen werden und müssen auch noch umfangreich am PC mit der Theta-Anwendung umgewandelt werden, bevor man ein brauchbares Format erhält, was auch YouTube versteht. Die Anwendung gibt's auch nur für Windows oder Mac, so dass Linux-Nutzer außen vor stehen. Und in einer Windows-VM kann die Theta-Anwendung die Grafikkarte nicht nutzen und wandelt die Videos besonders langsam. Auch das Hochladen von Videos von unterwegs - ohne Zwischenschritt über einen PC - ist so natürlich nicht möglich. Ach, und die Qualität von Videos ist äußerst bescheiden, denn diese haben nur 1920x1080 statt der vollen 3584x1792 Pixel. Insgesamt bin ich aber trotzdem sehr zufrieden mit der Theta m15 und meine bessere Hälfte ist glücklich, dass sie im Urlaub nicht mehr ewig darauf warten muss, dass ich die PhotoSpheres knipse. Außerdem hoffe ich, dass Ricoh genug von den Kameras verkauft, um weiter daran zu arbeiten und eine verbesserte Version auf den Markt zu bringen.

Ci sono diverse versioni di questo articolo. Io lo uso per la presentazione di annunci pubblicitari relativi a case in vendita o in affitto. Anche se si tratta della versione più economica, è davvero un bel prodotto. Usarlo non è semplicissimo ma nemmeno un' impresa. L' app dedicata è fatta bene ed è anche molto intuibile. Su può riscontrare qualche problema nel collegamento allo smartphone ma niente di persistente. Basta collegare prima il dispositivo e dopo aprire l' applicazione. La guida all' interno spiega tutto. La fotocamera è di buona fattura. Tuttavia consiglio di utilizzare un buon cavalletto perché è facile danneggiare la lente se dovesse cadere, pena la rovina di tutto il dispositivo. Scatta foto di buona qualità ed è possibile regolare anche l' esposizione o l' illuminazione. Lo ricomprerei senza problemi.

works well...short video bursts of course. seems to have intermittent charging problems...hard to make it 'connect' to USB sometimes. also intermittently difficult to transfer videos to both PC or Mac because of same intermittent USB connection issue. it does work with a bit of persistence and replugging repeatedly.