The theta V has now dropped and everyone wants to know is this camera going to be as groundbreaking as the theta s was when
It first came out there's been a lot of
Mixed reaction to the theta V some people hate it some people love it so in this video
I'm going to set the record straight about whether you should buy the theta V
And whether it does offer enough to justify paying more than the average 360 camera
The camera design is a very familiar one look. It's basically identical to the last theta
The only difference is the previous theta is covered in rubber this one has more of a metallic finish
And they weigh roughly the same the design is basically the same other than the bottom
You can see there is an audio jack on the bottom of the V whereas there wasn't with the theta s
overall I like the design a lot the only thing it's missing is a
Replaceable battery and a replaceable SD card this does not have a replaceable SD card
This is one of the biggest flaws the theta V. I'm going to tell you up front and
All shit, I got to catch a flight now release my very first date of the video the biggest complaint
I got from you guys was about the storage and the fact that it can only record 19 gigabytes
Yeah, that's a pretty big thing and after having tested it for about three or four weeks now
I can say that for me personally it actually is manageable this means you can get about
16 minutes or so of video not continuous the max recording time is about 25 minutes for my experiments so far
But there is actually a way around this firstly
I'll say that if you're going for a really long time like if you want to record for 3 or 4 hours
Then the theta V
Probably isn't for you to consider yourself more of a 360 photographer than a 3 video shooter
Then this definitely won't be an issue because you can store about two
Thousand 360 photos on the 19 gigabyte SD. Card, so you've got nothing to worry about it's more for video shooters
They want to shoot for a long time. Let's talk photo resolution
This is something that a lot of people have been disappointed with because unfortunately they haven't opted
Resolution since the theta s to be honest, I don't
is another look at the
To the vast majority of cameras so while you might get as much resolution
Dynamic range Westing
And make the a superior 360 or
So why'd they call it the fate of V?
I hear you asking and not the theta T or the theta u well my theory is its data V for video
This is an exceptional 360 video camera and among the best
Options out there right now so my theory is it's theta video
The theta V. Most certainly is not waterproof so keep it away from water
Unfortunately, I killed four theta SS in my time and the very first one was when I was at Bondi Beach
I took a press swim
I thought I could get my arm up high and I snapped an awesome tiny planet
But then a wave came and crushed over it and bye-bye theta s. However good news for you underwater photographers
There is an underwater housing. It's called tw1 and
It's $200 look is not the cheapest underwater housing at all so only through a hardcore underwater photographer
You might want to consider it so the options there
$200
With the theta V the red dot of doom has returned with the theta s
You would get a very distinct red lens flare on either side of your lenses
Whenever you're shooting in strong sunlight well because their design if the theta V is basically exactly the same
It returned with the theta V. I've noticed it has been maybe a little bit better however
This is something you will need to keep in mind when you're shooting outside
You're going to get a lens flares personally if I edit them out in Snapseed because I mainly shoot tiny plants
It's very easy to use the healing punch function to get rid of them, however if you're shooting video
It's not so easy. So this is something you must be mindful of
Number one complaint I got when I released my fate of the test footage video was about chromatic aberration
Unfortunately whenever you put the theta V in strong sunlight
And you have any prominent details in the highlights of that of the image or video
Wherever the Sun is you will get a purple outline
So this is something to be mindful of you can remove it however for me
I just don't really care about chromatic aberration for me if the content is good people will forgive you for chromatic aberration
That the frequencies change if I get loud off I get quite up in the Sega smile
I mean you don't need to record sound externally to get 360 audio
This is the theta V when shooting handheld while it does have improved stabilization it has basic inbuilt stabilization
It's not six axis and six access has been something
That's amazed me about other cameras like the verb this young me and the Institute on
So it doesn't really compare for handheld shots one thing that is cool is you can tilt the camera?
So now I'm holding it directly
Horizontal whereas before it was vertical, and it automatically levels. That's cool. It's not six axis, but it's something
There are several different shooting modes if you go into your options
We have off noise reduction dr compensation and HDR rendering I would strongly suggest
trying dr compensation or HDR rendering if you can set up your camera on a tripod because
HDR is an incredible tool for getting a lot more dynamic range in your photos
Especially when you have strong contrast like we have now
We've got the Sun which is beaming overhead creating a really harsh light on everything yet
We do have shadows of of everything though that creates a shadow, so you want that to not be too contrasty?
So let's try it our HDR setting
so we'll take a photo doing that wirelessly and
So it's essentially taking three photos within the camera it then combines them all together
Instantly instantly I can download that so here. We have our normal photo
you'll see that the shadows are really strong and that Sun is taking up a lot of the sky and
Next we'll go to dr compensation, so this is before this is dr compensation. That's one level better the sun channel really well
We're seeing more details in the shadows there now. Let's have a look at the HDR look at that sun. It's handled so well
It's just a tiny little spot in the sky you can barely even notice it and look at those shadows we're seeing
Details in the wooden planks there
This is really incredible for such harsh light to be lit
So evenly using this HDR mode
This is amazing and I try my best to shoot in HDR in all situations
If I can because it's just going to enhance your general dynamic range
It means everything will be exposed more evenly however
You will want to watch out for movement if you're moving around a lot if you're shooting handheld it might end up a little bit
blurry
So you will want to use it selectively?
however if you can use HDR you're going to get vastly better results the next awesome feature of the theta V is the stitching because
The camera body is so thin. There is barely any stitching error
I can stand about here or closer, and I'm not going to get my face cut off and that's always a good thing
So I'm going test it out right now and just see just how good it is
That's good
One of the biggest areas that the theta has improved since the last version is its video
This is now a fork a 360 video camera
And yeah look they were super late to the game
Basically every other camera shoots 4k by now and before they were doing 1920 by 960
but now they have entered the 4k game and
they've gone straight in my opinion to the top because
The dynamic range and the sharpness and so many qualities about the video
I think are superior to the other 4k cameras, so this is a massive contender in a 4k game
The camera does do live-streaming however at the moment. It's only via a wired connection. They are working on a wireless solution
It's not ready. Just yet supposedly. It's going to be ready in the next one to two months however
I like to buy a 360 camera based on the specs that are released when the camera is released yes
I'm sure they're going to add lots of more cool things to it, but it's not ready just yet
So if you're a big live streamer you might want to consider other options knowing that that is coming very soon
Another thing I love is now with the theta B when you upload to your phone the transfer speeds a
Lightning fast is literally more than 10 times faster than it was because the theta s
I download some footage earlier, and I download a gigabyte I'm going to say in 30 seconds
How cool is that that's going to speed up the workplace significantly and this is the fastest transfer speeds I've seen with any
360 camera theta B has excellent compatibility, it's compatible with both iPhone and Android you will need one more recent versions of
IPhones or androids basically anything that can already shoot 4k video is probably going to be able to handle
364 K with an F, 2.0 aperture the theta V is one of the better performing 360 cameras in low-light
I've compared it to a few others and it's come out the best
It does low light and also really low light well without signs of really strong visible noise
the theta V retails for currently four hundred and thirty dollars and a lot of people are wondering is it worth paying more than the
Average 360 camera the current range is about 300 to 400 dollars for a 360 camera
And this is significantly more than its competitors the insta 361 and the Xiaomi in my opinion
Yes, it is because that video is so beautiful the dynamic range is excellent
I love having an HDR mode for photos special audio is incredible for me
This is worth the investment
Of that extra a little bit of money and a lot of people wondering is this better than these yummy camera
I would say yes
it is just a
little bit and as due to the full 4k resolution the Xiaomi is only 3.5 K and
with 360 video the more resolution you can get the better because
You are wrapping. It around a full sphere so if you can't get 4k over 3.5 K
It's always going to be a benefit look
It doesn't make a massive amount of difference, and if you put them side-by-side you might not notice, but for me
This is an excellent video camera if you're happy keeping this on a tripod
If you own a fader V a theta s or thinking about buying either one. There's a Facebook group
I'd strongly recommend you join and it's called the Ricoh theta users on Facebook
Won the best 360 Facebook groups out there, and there's always people posting there experiments their sample photo sample videos
Just really cool and quirky things they're doing with their camera
So I think you get a lot of value out of that if you join the Ricoh theta users on Facebook
I'll put a link in the description to where you can find the theta V on Amazon for the cheapest price possible
Definitely keep checking because it's going to go down in price
There are so many cameras in the market now that they're all competing with each other and the prices are going down quickly so
Definitely check that link until next time keep capturing your world in 360 this has been Ben coming at you from Venice Beach
California and don't forget to follow me on Instagram my handle is @BENCLAREMONT also
we're on facebook, facebook.com/360photo
and youtube.com/lifein360photo the heaps of cool content coming out
I'm here in America for a month, so I'm going to be releasing a lot more videos while I'm here
So you definitely will want to hit that subscribe button also let me know. What do you think of theta V?
I'd love to hear your thoughts leave a comment in the box below if you have any questions or just
General thoughts about the theta V, and I'll do my best to answer them and and I'd love to hear your opinion
So definitely let me know alright guys. I will see you in the next video