how is the insta360 1r for virtual tours
how does it compare to the ricoh theta
z1 or
other 360 cameras for virtual tours is
it compatible with metaport
these are some of the most common
questions i get asked
almost every day and in this video
you're gonna find out
now most people know the insta360 one r
is a pretty good camera for 360 videos
but if it's good for 360 videos how good
can it be for 360 photos
well as it turns out the insta360 one
can actually be pretty good for virtual
tours as well
in fact it can be so good that it can
sometimes
beat the theta z1 a thousand dollar
360 camera and i know that's hard to
believe
but you don't have to take my word for
it you'll see the shots later this video
is divided into three parts
in part one we'll talk about eight
advantages
of the install 361r for virtual tours
in part two we'll talk about four
disadvantages
of the one r for virtual tours and in
part three we'll answer the question
is the insta 361r a good camera for
virtual tours and spoiler alert
the answer is a solid maybe
it depends on your needs as you'll find
out in this video by the way stick
around to the end
i'll help you save money on the insta
361r let's get started
first let's talk about the insta3661rs
advantages
for virtual tours here are 8 advantages
of the 1r
number 1 is raw mold and this is a big
deal
for experienced photographers who know
that with raw mode
you have better dynamic range better
latitude for adjusting
exposure and color temperature and often
better detail as well there are 360
cameras that don't support raw at all
such as the theta v or the theta sc2
then there are cameras that can support
raw when shooting but cannot stitch
in raw such as the kucam 8k the 1r on
the other hand
can shoot and stitch in adobe dng raw
staying in raw space the whole time
second
is hdr now a lot of 360 cameras can
shoot in hdr but what makes the 1r
special is that when it shoots in hdr it
does it with
9 shots in exposure intervals of up to 1
ev
for amazing dynamic range not only that
but it can capture it in raw plus jpeg
number three matterport compatibility
matterport is a 3d virtual tour that is
pretty much the gold standard for
virtual tours it's the one that
other virtual tours try to emulate now
originally to create the 3d effects with
metaport
you needed a metaport camera that cost
over 3
000 but now you can do it with certain
360 cameras and one of those is the
insta360 1r
which will be compatible with metaport
very soon
estimated october i've tried it out and
it does work
here's a preview
[Music]
number four full manual exposure
with slow shutter speeds with the
insta360 one r
you have full control over exposure you
can choose your iso
your shutter speed which can be as slow
as 120 seconds
and you can also shoot in iso priority
or shutter priority
in addition to manual exposure with full
control over manual exposure you have
better control over
your image quality number five the touch
screen
the 1r has a touch screen that's very
useful for
360 photos here are four uses for the
one r's touchscreen
number one previewing the exposure
you'll be able to see
right on the screen if the exposure is
too bright or too dark
second when you're using the self timer
you can see the countdown
right on the screen so there's no
guessing about whether it's about to
take the shot
or not third you can use it to review
your 360 photos
right on the camera this is useful not
just when you're shooting the virtual
tour
but also when you're meeting your client
or prospective clients and you want to
show them
what a 360 camera can do another
huge advantage of the touchscreen is
that you can use it
for full exposure control over 360
photos
in other words you can control the one r
completely
even without the phone and this is
critical for situations where for
whatever reason
your wi-fi connection is interrupted a
lot of
theta users complain sometimes they're
just unable to connect their camera to
their phone
and without that connection it's very
hard to adjust the settings
from simply using the camera with the
one r the wi-fi signal
is more reliable but on this on the off
chance that you're not able to connect
your phone
you still have the touchscreen as a
backup and that way
your job is not going to be held up 6
9 360 photos and videos when you create
your virtual tour it's a good idea to
add
non 360 photos and videos as hot spots
or
information highlights with the one r
you can switch to the 1 inch mod or the
4k
mod to take excellent quality non 360
photos
and videos 6 excellent quality
360 videos this is useful for several
reasons number one
you can do a walk walkthrough video with
the insta360 one r
in non 360 mode two you can do a 360
video
virtual tour with hot spots
three you can shoot the 360 video and
the 360 photo at the same time
and use the 360 video to animate
your 360 photo all you need are software
such as pano2 vr
or 3d vista and finally special shots
here's what i mean most virtual tours
are in daytime of course
but sometimes you may want to take a
night view
of a certain location especially if it
looks great at night
for 360 photos at night the one r has a
special mode called
night shot what it does is it takes
eight shots with the same exposure
and a ninth shot that's underexposed i
think
three or four ev to capture highlights
and then
it stacks those images together so you
have
excellent image quality with very low
noise and excellent dynamic range
the 1r is also waterproof so you can use
it to take photos
near water features such as a swimming
pool or a fountain
now let's talk about 4 disadvantages of
the insta360 one r
for vertical tours first the stitching
with the insta360 one r the lenses are
farther apart from each other
so there's larger parallax stitching
error compared to
slim cameras like the ricoh theta z1
the theta sc2 or the xiaomi
mi sphere so that means you have to be
more careful about
aiming the stitch line now the other
option is to use
third-party stitching software such as
ptgui
when you do that then the stitching
quality can be just as good
if not even better than what you can get
with the theta z1
now please note pt gui is a little bit
complicated
if you want to know how to use it then
check out my virtual tour edge
hq method class second no in camera
stitching
with the ricoh theta line of cameras and
the gopro max
you can take a 360 photo and you won't
have to do
any stitching you can just take your
memory card and your 360 photo will be
ready for you to use
right away with the inside 361r the
photos have to be
stitched either on the app or on the
desktop
now this is less convenient but it can
also be an
advantage in some circumstances when you
have difficult
stitching you can use third-party
software to
adjust and fine-tune the stitching which
you cannot do
with cameras such as the theta sc2 where
the
photos are already stitched in the
camera and you have no
option to change the way it's stitched
third
the cost the insta360 one r costs
more than cameras such as the insta360
one x
or the theta sc2 or the xiaomi mi sphere
on the other hand with the 1r you do get
other modules
such as the 4k mod which can be useful
for non 360 photos and videos to enhance
your virtual tours
another disadvantage is that the 1r has
a swiveling mount
so this means that you have to be
careful that the 1r
is in line with the selfie stick and if
it becomes out of line for any reason
well that means that your selfie stick
will become visible
in the shot now there are accessories
for the insta360 1r
that have a tripod hole on the bottom so
you won't have to worry about whether
the 1r
is in line with your selfie stick so
examples are the vertical battery
and the ulanzi cage for the 1r but these
accessories cost
extra now with these
advantages and disadvantages is the
insta360 1r
a good 360 camera for virtual tours
well it depends on your needs if you're
choosing a virtual tour camera
i would start out by asking which is
your priority
is it image quality or ease of use
of course both are important but you
have to decide
which is more important for you if your
top priority
is ease of use then the next question is
what's your budget
if you have an unlimited budget then i
recommend
the theta z1 this is a camera that is
easy to use and it has very good image
quality
one of the best the problem is it's a
thousand dollars and most of the time
it's even out of stock
so if your top priority is ease of use
but you also want
very good image quality and you have a
limited budget
then i recommend the insta360 one
r so what's the difference between the
theta z1
quality and the instance 361r quality
what are you getting when you're paying
more than 500
extra for the theta z1 the main
difference between them is that the
theta z1
is more detailed than the one r but
if you edit the insta360 one r the right
way
then it can actually look even better
than the
z1 and you don't have to take my word
for it here's a sample
here's an unedited photo from the ricoh
theta z1
in hdr mode now here's the same scene
shot with the insta360 1r
edited with my hq method so as you can
see with the right editing technique
the 1r can beat even the theta z1 now
what if your top priority is
image quality now if you want the
absolute best
image quality then i recommend two
cameras
first option is the x phase this is a
360 camera with the highest resolution
134 megapixels a 16k
at 16k resolution the non
360 view is as detailed as a 4k
non 360 video it is that detailed in
fact
it's so detailed that it's even more
detailed than
some dslr setups now the disadvantage of
the x-phase
is the stitching some straight lines can
look a little bit
wavy because it uses an optical flow
stitching now you can't fix these issues
in post but they take time and time is
money
so this is why my other recommendation
for
absolute best quality is that's dslr
360 photos with the dslr can have
amazing detail
and dynamic range and excellent
stitching and not only that
but they can actually be easier to edit
than a regular 360 camera photo now what
if your top priority is image quality
but you have a limited budget so
you don't want to get an x phase or dslr
yet
well in that case my recommendation is
the xiaomi mi sphere
this is an older 360 camera but it's
still one of the best 360 cameras for
virtual tours
even in 2020 in fact up to around
800 this has the best image quality
among all 360 cameras for 360 photos
it does have a couple of downsides
number one to get the best image quality
from it
you do need to know how to edit your
photos and
secondly it's kind of hard to find in
the us
now i did find a store on aliexpress
where you can
buy it and i have purchased it from them
and
it did arrive after about a month again
i don't have a relationship with them
and i've tried it just once so caveat
emptor
now what about other 360 cameras let's
say the coocam 8k
the coocam is also a very good 360
camera for virtual tours
and i would say it is among the top five
for virtual tours
but it has a couple of significant
disadvantages
number one the shutter speed it's
limited
to one second so in lower light
you'll be forced to push up the iso
second it is very susceptible to glare
next what about the theta v
or the theta sc2 they can produce
good quality 360 photos and they're very
easy to use
but my main complaint about them is that
they do not
support raw so cameras like the insta3
c1r
will have better image quality than the
theta v or theta sc2
if you know how to edit your shots now
what about the insta360 one x
the one x is also a decent camera for
360 virtual tours
uh in fact it's also motherboard
compatible just like the 1r
and you have full control over exposure
the main complaint about the
one x is that its raw mode is only for
single shots in hdr it doesn't have
raw mode so you're gonna have better
quality from the
1r not only that but its hdr
is limited to three shots whereas with
the one r it takes
nine shots in hdr mode so it's gonna be
much smoother now if you'd like to get
the insta360 one r there's a special
offer going on right now
the one are virtual tour kit has
everything you need
the 1r the monopod the tripod
even the memory card and you can get it
at
10 off for even less than the cost
of the 1r twin edition not only that
but if you use my link you can get two
months free with
mataport starter package so check out
the link in description below now i'm
working on a couple of tutorials for 1r
stay tuned i'll see you in 3 6