RICOHTheta V 4k 360 Spherical Camera

I own a theta S and after reading some of the reviews on here I was very hesitant to purchase this new one, even though I was very excited about the upgraded 4K video recording. I am SO glad I went ahead and made the purchase! This is a serious upgrade from the Theta S. The video quality is so much better. No comparison. Video on the theta S was so blurry I felt it was pretty unusable. It was more of a gimmick. This is actual quality video with a clear enough resolution that you can see not only people and objects near the camera, but even items far away. It’s almost HD quality no matter where you look in the 360 shot. The pictures are also crystal clear and I have not had any issues with the stitching as noted above in other reviews. If you are looking for a high quality 360 camera for video and pics that is super easy to use, this is a must buy. The upgrades in the app too that allow you to upload directly to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are fantastic! You used to have to upload as a 360cities link, but now it uploads to these platforms as a direct 360 video. No need to transfer and edit on any other device. Great product!!

Absolutely love this camera. The spherical photos are higher quality than I expected, though there is more noise at low light than I thought there would be. I purchased this along with a monopod + tripod so I put it in full manual and control exposure within the app to minimize the noise (in photos). Not a big fan of the Theta V's built in Noise/HDR filters; I found it creates artifacts within the photo that negate their usefulness.Only negatives to this camera are the apps (iOS app has better performance than Android app; neither are fantastic) and the lack of removable storage. The ~20GB internal storage holds a good number of photos and videos, though I'd love to be able to put in an SD card if only to keep photos/videos from one day or event separate from others. I prefer to start the day with a fresh card in all my cameras and with this I have to go in and delete everything from the internal storage, which is less than ideal.The new higher quality sensor definitely make this camera acceptable (Theta S photo/video quality was not) if you want to test or play around with this new immersive medium. It won't replace a traditional camera or even a smartphone, but it is an amazing extra to keep in your bag to capture moments in a very unique and fun way.

This thing works great for easily creating home interior 360 degree virtual tours. The directions for setting it up are a bit confusing and could be improved upon, but once you understand that you need to turn your home wifi on your phone to not pair automatically and then switch the wifi for the camera to pair automatically, you will be off and running. I use it for still shots for Matterport tours and have not yet used the video capabilities. It made doing my Matterport shooting so fast and easy, and this thing takes up almost zero space including the tripod. I love it, and it “paid” for itself in 3 shoots that I didn’t have to hire someone else to do.

Wonderful entry into 360 cameras. The best audio capture on the market. You will not find anything better. The only shortfalls are the storage, WiFi and the mobile app.At 19gb it is laughable as to what you can actually record in 4K. You can work around this by attaching the camera to a computer and offloading images. Confusing as to why this is in the day of SD cards, etc. The WiFi implementation is a complete joke but not a deal breaker. The work around for this is simply manually starting and stopping the camera. The WiFi connection is limited to less than a foot before it disconnects. This is horrible but not a deal breaker. The mobile app is a complete waste of time space and effort. Don't even bother using it. Instead connect it directly to a computer to download images. IF the mobile app will even start up it will always crash on you. The connected WiFi speeds (when working) are abysmal at best, a 300 MB file will take up to 45 minutes to transfer, so use the direct connection to the computer.With these shortcomings this is still one of the best 360 cameras on the market right now. Reliable and the results in both video and audio are stunning. I am already purchasing additional units. With the name Ricoh attached to it, it had better be top notch and it almost is. Highly recommended for both entry level photographers as well as commercial/professional applications. Can't wait for the next model, hopefully it will have more storage!

I like the hdr rendering with monopod, and the ability to add plug ins that are useful. I shoot mostly photos so all the video features I’m sure are great, but I don’t use them.The mega pixel debate is ongoing, more or less is better? I can honestly say this camera out performs my other which has more megapixels. The images look sharper have less grain and are all around better. So more megapixels don’t equal a better photo. Unless of course you need to enlarge your photo to bill board size. But for my purposes this one hits all the right marks, except of course the red dot of doom, which needs to be edited out.Over all sharp photos. Not dslr sharp but when you can take a photo edit it. Color correct and upload to social media in about a minute without worry, that is a good workflow easy use camera.I still haven’t used all the features yet and I don’t know if I ever will. For my needs it’s a winner.Easy shooting, great app, easy editing, quick workflow .