Of all of the 360 cameras in 2022,
the Theta X has the best image quality
for 360 photos straight out of the camera,
without any editing needed at all.
This is the unique selling point of the Theta X,
and a good one for anyone who wants a super fast workflow
with good enough image quality, such as real estate
or any type of shoots where you need
to shoot a lot of volume.
So in this video, I'll share all
of my best workflow practices
when it comes to shooting with the Theta X,
because this camera does have a pretty different workflow
to all of the other major 360 cameras out there right now.
If anything changes in the future,
I'll be sure to post a follow-up video,
so make sure you subscribe for that.
And as always, links to the Theta X
and everything else I've mentioned
in this video can be found down there.
So when shooting with the Theta X,
I'd strongly recommend taking advantage
of the big touch screen on the camera.
It makes navigation, changing settings,
and everything really super easy,
and you really could use this camera
without your smartphone at all.
You can shoot and even review your images all
on the camera's screen.
Now let's talk about settings,
and, ooh, here's a big one.
Whenever you're shooting,
make sure you always check the resolution
your camera is shooting.
So there are two options: 5.5K and 11K.
Even though they sound pretty similar,
11K is literally four times the resolution of 5.5K,
and you may accidentally change it from one to the other,
and this could completely ruin your shots,
so always make sure you have 11K selected,
which is 60 megapixels.
Next, which shooting settings should you use?
Well, I've found, up to this point, that the in-built HDR
that comes with the Theta X is extremely good,
and I would use this in 99% of situations,
especially if you're shooting virtual tours.
Haven't really found much need
to use the other settings yet,
unless you're shooting handheld,
then shooting HDR handheld will blur your shots.
So assuming the lighting isn't too contrasty,
you'll wanna switch into manual exposure mode
and set your shutter speed to at least 1/100 of a second.
This will minimize any kind of motion blur
whether it's shaking the camera
or any movement in the scene.
However, this is a camera that performs best on a monopod,
so I really would advise mostly using it on a monopod.
The next thing to keep in mind with the Theta X is one
of its biggest flaws, and that is the softness
in the stitching between the two lenses.
It's soft because the lenses don't stick out very far,
and when stitched together,
there simply isn't enough sharpness in this direction
or this direction, resulting in soft seam lines.
The best way to avoid this is
to orient the stitch line towards the empty spaces
in the room if there are any.
So here in my office,
I chose the corner of the room with my light,
and on the other side, we have the empty door frame,
both things not really the highlight of this room.
In this bathroom, I pointed them
towards the door and the shower screen,
both barely noticeable when you look around.
This ensures that the center of the lens on the front
and back have a clear view of the most amount
of things to capture sharply.
That's a very precise technical term by the way, things.
And you may even want to check your images back
before you leave your shoot location, just to make sure
there aren't any really big seam line issues.
If there are, then change the orientation
of the camera to point towards something else.
You will wanna use a self timer with the Theta X.
Five seconds is about the sweet spot.
Oh, and something I totally missed
in my first few Theta X videos is that, initially,
I thought the button was in the screen,
as in you tap the screen
and it counts down to take a photo,
but then I realised that the button
underneath the screen is the actual shutter button,
albeit disguised very well, but there you go.
It's a button, you don't have to touch the screen,
and you can turn the screen touch capture off,
because sometimes it does get annoying
when you're trying to change other settings
and you accidentally tap the screen
and it fires off a photo when you're not ready.
Here's a cool trick that only the Theta X
and Z1 can do in camera, and it's called time shift,
where you essentially take a photo
where you're hiding behind the camera,
and then it takes another photo five seconds later
where you walk around to the other side
to hide behind the back lens.
Then it instantly blends the two photos together,
only choosing the sides that you weren't in,
and voila, you're gone.
This could be handy in situations
where there aren't any hiding spots in virtual tours.
And if you're silly like me, you can do the opposite
of this, and stand on the wrong side of the lens.
Now let's talk about plugins.
One thing I like about the Theta X is
you can access the plugin store directly from the camera,
you don't need a phone or a computer to do that.
However, right now, in the early days of the Theta X,
there really aren't many good plugins to use.
Hopefully some new ones come out this year,
but for now, you'll have to rely on the native features
of the Theta X to do all the cool stuff.
Now let's talk about workflows,
and like I mentioned at the start,
this camera doesn't require editing if you don't want to,
which leads me to the very first workflow option,
and that is doing nothing.
If you don't want to edit, you don't have to.
The images are good enough to use straight away,
especially for real estate type shoots,
anywhere you wanna shoot a lot of photos
and colour correction isn't important.
Because it's blending the inbuilt HDR shots in the camera,
the dynamic range will naturally be really good,
as well as the colours.
It's something I've always loved about Ricoh cameras is
that they turn out extremely close
to what you see with the human eye,
which means they don't actually need
as much colour correction as some other cameras.
But if you're a perfectionist like me,
then you wanna do some editing.
So the way I edit Theta X photos is,
firstly, colour correcting in Lightroom.
This is pretty straightforward,
and there isn't even too much you can do,
because the exposure is usually pretty close
to what it should be,
and colour correcting a JPEG can only get you so far.
So I'd consider that like a 10, 15% enhancement,
then I'll edit the tripod out using Affinity Photo.
Finally, and this one definitely is optional,
I like to use Topaz DeNoise
to, firstly, sharpen out the images
if there are any soft areas left over,
and, secondly, get rid of all the noise.
Honestly, you would be surprised
at how much noise is in even the cleanest shots,
and Topaz DeNoise gets rid of it all.
And the reason I use DeNoise and not Gigapixel is
that Gigapixel is a software I use
when images are starting blurry or low quality,
and we don't have that here with the X,
we've got lots of resolution.
However, due to the smaller sensor size,
the shots will have noise throughout.
Nothing extreme, but it's something that is very easy
to get rid of in Topaz DeNoise, which I'll link below.
Final step when making virtual tours
with the Theta X is uploading to a virtual tour platform,
and because it spits out equi-rectangular,
two by one 360 photos, this means you can upload them
to any virtual tour platform.
So whichever one you like, go ahead and upload it.
Something I've noticed Ricoh are pretty heavily investing in
is their own virtual tour platform,
which is called RICOH360 Tours,
and it's a pretty simple virtual tour editor
much like the other platforms out there,
except it's one of the only ones
that has its own dedicated mobile app,
which means if you wanted,
you could shoot and edit your virtual tours on your phone
without needing a computer at any stage.
It also offers MLS unbranded links if you wanna upload
to platforms like realtor.com and Zillow.
Right now, I see the price of RICOH360 Tours
as being its biggest flaw,
since there are other platforms
that offer the same features at a lower cost.
However, I do see this as a decent workflow
if you're a fan of Ricoh cameras and you just want
to keep everything simple using Ricoh stuff.
Again, another technical term.
The Ricoh tours app is definitely a super fast option
for mobile virtual tours that are quick and easy.
And that's it, that's the Theta X workflow
as it stands right now in mid 2022.
If there are any updates, which there likely will be,
I'll be sure to post them on my channel,
so you'll wanna hit that subscribe button
so you can be the first to see whatever those updates are.
If you've ever thought
about shooting virtual tours professionally,
but didn't know how to get started,
then I've got a free training you can watch,
called My Top 10 Tips For Starting a Virtual Tour Business,
which will give you some valuable tips
that will help get you up and running quickly.
I'll link that below.
And that's it.
Give me a thumbs up if this video was helpful,
give me a thumbs down if it wasn't.
Bye.
You're still here.
What are you still doing here?
Don't you have better things to do?
Huh?
Okay, bye.