[savoche]

Hmm, wonder if this thing could be of interest to real estate agents.

[pinholecam]

About it being $400.
A BEATS ear/headphones sell for how much?
And youngsters/hipsters are swapping them up as if they cost a bunch of candies.

The Theta sure has more tech on it than a pair of BEATS.

If it captures the imagination of the 'lifestyle' crowd, it will do well for Ricoh/Pentax.
I can see that its possible.
The device that will give you the 'one up' over other facebook 'friends' and their camera phones.

[Katmandude]

it's not the device that is getting the flak, it's a gadget, it's cute (can't blame the cuteness now can you?? ). What most people on the forums are bitching about is the lack of something tangible that reassures pentaxians of the commitment of ricoh to the brand, to our investment in their products. We haven't seen anything really important come out of the company since 3 years. And I'm not talking about remakes, or revamps, or gadgets.
No, we looking for a new flagship camera! something that says " THIS IS PENTAX/RICOH, THIS IS WHAT WE CAN DO!" more of a "why" product ( why buy pentax or ricoh? this is why!) not some sort of "how" or "what" product (how do you take 360° pictures? ... like this, 'click'... booooooring!) how can we possibly invest and identify ourselves to some sort of fancy webcam gadget which, frankly has been done before, or can be done with software?

am i wrong?

[Kunzite]

You can't do it with software and I'm not aware of being done before.
But you are right, some people see any product which is not what they want as a threat; almost as if people working on that flagship were reallocated to the Theta (because a company like Ricoh Imaging could not possibly have several teams working on different projects).
Even deciding new colors would take away the people previously working on a new processing engine

[monochrome]

@Kunzite:

@Katmandude has a very real very valid point. Which might be rendered moot in a few weeks.

Think about being Ricoh. You own a segment of the B2B market, but B2B is only 30% of global GDP. You want to grow. You have a 30-year vision. What do you do?

You do in B2C what you did in B2B - buy platform companies, improve their products, re-brand their indirect ideas Ricoh and do it consistently, dependably and repeatedly for 30 years.

[Kunzite]

What I'm saying is that the Theta is irrelevant to Ricoh Imaging showing our tangible reassurance. I'm not exactly contradicting Katmandude, but pointing out how our impatience translates into automatically rejecting everything else they do.

[Kenntak]

This is not something I need, but after looking at what it can do and the sample picture, it looks like a device that could be fun and useful to certain groups. About the price, that is a suggested list price--I am sure the street price will be lower. Plus, it is sometimes surprising what people will pay for gadgets they think are cool.

[pinholecam]

Oh yeah!

Maybe someone can flag to the US army that this thing can be very useful for FIBUA.

[monochrome]

Jeez - it's a RICOH labeled product, not a PENTAX labeled product.

Binoculars and sport optics (AKA rifle scopes that people use to KILL LITTLE BAMBI's!!) are PENTAX labeled products and that doesn't bother us one little bit.

[johnmflores]

The Theta is perfect for online discussions that just go round and round and round...

[Kenntak]

Come on johnmflores, that reasoning is so circular.

[OrangeKx]

Picture this: wedding dance floor, the Theta hanging from the ceiling about 10 off the floor and the wedding party makes a circle and look up and click away from an iPhone. Cool shot. Or...

Thanksgiving dinner (Theta in the middle of the table) with a 360 shot of the family gathered 'round. The more I think about this thing the cooler it gets.

[boriscleto]

@Kunzite:

@Katmandude has a very real very valid point. Which might be rendered moot in a few weeks.

Think about being Ricoh. You own a segment of the B2B market, but B2B is only 30% of global GDP. You want to grow. You have a 30-year vision. What do you do?

You do in B2C what you did in B2B - buy platform companies, improve their products, re-brand their indirect ideas Ricoh and do it consistently, dependably and repeatedly for 30 years.

You want to know who's going to be buying these? Real Estate Agents...

If I had shown theta360.com to my uncle this weekend he would have bought one on the spot.

[deadwolfbones]

Picture this: wedding dance floor, the Theta hanging from the ceiling about 10 off the floor and the wedding party makes a circle and look up and click away from an iPhone. Cool shot. Or...

Thanksgiving dinner (Theta in the middle of the table) with a 360 shot of the family gathered 'round. The more I think about this thing the cooler it gets.

Seems like we think alike. That first one is the example I actually used in my review.

[Gray]

The more I think about this thing the cooler it gets.

Yes, me too.