Ricoh Theta S

Price Rs.39000/-

Theta S is a 3rd generation 360 degree digital camera by Ricoh.

When we think about a digital camera we have customary images that comes to our mind. well that's no with Theta S. The Theta S is the latest product by Ricoh. it is unlike your normal point and shoot, because it shoot in 360 degree ( obviously ). 360 degree camera yet become common in the upcoming market because the use and application of them is pretty broad.

Synopsis of Theta S

It is a easy to use light weight digital camera and using it was very fun actually. the excitement of shoot in 360 is indescribable but it is review so it has to be done. It has 8 GB of internal memory and a upgraded high speed wifi for better transfer speed than its predecessors and older models. the ergonomics have also been improved with black rubber coating and face mounted LED mode indicator. it has dual 12MP 1/2.3 inches image sensors pair with bright f/2 twin lenses to capture high resolution images.

Build and Design

As it is powered by Pentax you could see some of its design features borrowed for the camera like the different sets of colors and smooth but edged design. When held its sleek and light weight body wraps around the hand like a glove. On the front you can 3 buttons for power, wifi and for selecting shooting mode. A LED indicator to indicate the status of the power and connectivity of the device with a tripod mount at the bottom. Unlike a flashy digital camera ( expect for its colors ) Recoh took a subtle  approach toward its product and Theta S a full rubbered look with matte black finish.

Performance

The fun of shooting a 360 degree video can be compared to any other form data recording in the market and the level of immersion in 360 degree is just life like. but to do that the camera must pack some serious piece of engineering and in the case the Theta S packs dual 12MP 1/2.3 inches image sensors to shoot the surrounding area and show it as one. as any camera light is its best friend when it comes to image and video capturing but somehow the microphone on it didn't quite well as the sound was always quite pinching and the mild static was continuous. But other than that the picture quality was very impressive compared to a 360 degree camera and many digital cameras as the videos had good color saturation and contrast and with changing in lighting from outdoors to indoors the picture turned sharper.

( some images captured form Ricoh Theta S )

Cons ( there is always that part )

There aren't many hardware related set back that we discovered other than the videos dimension which is lower than full HD. The picture was impressive but when you haven't left something to point out we have to nitpick. other than that the developers could have provided the Theta S with an external microSD card or a SD card slot to expand its storage because 8 gigs of memory won't hold for much time in a longer run. there was another problem which wasn't in the camera itself but in one of its tool i.e . the app. even when synced the app didn't felt the need the backup the files. and finally Ricoh has limited the minimum length of the video that can be uploaded on a social site that 10-11 second based on different experiments. although full length videos can be upload on YouTube you would need the desktop application to render it first then upload it.

 

Bottomline

Well there is no clear bottomline with this product as it is still an technology which hasn't been tampered or innovated enough and it would soon be surpassed with other similar product in the upcoming future, so it wouldn't be good to judge something this early but as a product it stands firm in the field of 360 degree cameras. with this type of picture quality it is clearly one of the best camera out there in this category. shooting with easy fun and one might spend hours just shooting his or her room with this without even realizing it because one cannot understand the fun of a 360 degree with using it.