Originally posted by deadwolfbones So I'm here at IFA and have been playing with the Theta. It's an incredibly well-built piece of gear and it does exactly what it says—feels a lot like an iPod in terms of build quality, though a little lighter. Anyway, it definitely feels like a premium product, not a cheap toy. The app is well-designed, efficient, easy to use. Everyone who's been to the booth when I was there oohed and aahed over it, though I doubt many of them will actually purchase one. Still, for the right user (real estate photog, wedding photog, skate/action photog) it's a neat thing to add to your bag. I do think the price will be prohibitive for a lot of people, but you have to remember it's a first-gen product—something that hasn't been done before.
Imagine one of these at a wedding reception, though. Pretty cool.
Thank you for actually posting some facts.
I had imagined it would be a typical Pentax / Ricoh device like the Q>K converter - over-engineered, great in the hand, hard to quantify value until you actually touch it but when you do touch it - WOW!! This is really cool!!
So the product issue is resolved in the form of this is NOT a cheap Logitech device. It is a high quality, durable, premium device priced to reflect that.
But the
business problem in the developed world for the Theta will be - how do they get people to "Just Hold a Theta."
As an aside, If Ricoh released a product that a few Members conceded was perfectly designed, perfectly featured, perfectly colored, perfectly priced, perfectly marketed, perfectly distributed and perfectly fine - do you think their heads would explode or is it inconceivable that they would ever find anything perfect?