[Ishpuini]

Hello all,

I've been looking through the various Ricoh Theta threads, but I cannot find much information on the actual still image output that can easily be produced with this camera. I'm interested in purchasing a Theta for some travel photography, but since I still make printed books I need to be able to produce prints of max 30x40cm (=the page size I use). I'm not interested in the Theta as a social media image sharing tool.

Is there an easy way to transform the output into alternate projections, such as tiny planet for instance. How would that be done and at which maximum output resolution?

This has probably already been discussed, but searching didn't reveal the posts...

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Wim

[Adam]

The effective resolution is listed here:
Ricoh Theta S Review - Specifications | PentaxForums.com Reviews

I would go with the Theta S, since it has more than twice the resolution of the original and m15.

For a flat projection, 30x40cm might be a bit optimistic, since you only get half the quoted resolution per lens, unless you're willing to settle for a different aspect ratio.

You can use the Theta desktop program to play with images (download it to see for yourself and try opening the full-size JPEGs linked on this page).

If you really want to get fancy, you can use mathematical software such as Matlab to project the image onto spheres and other solids.

[Ishpuini]

Tx Adam!

Just had a look at the software download. I am right that there is only a Spherical Viewer available? I downloaded and had a look at the full size image. Cool... much more detail compared to the web presentation, but still there's no way to export the image, nor does there seem to be a way to use all image information in a tiny planet type of projection.

I've been looking around some more and I found out that Pano2VR has a Transformation Output feature that seems to be able to do what I'm looking for (I'll check out the trial)... Adds quite a bit to the price of the Theta though, so I would prefer to do it with the tools I own (Lightroom/Photoshop CS, PTGui) but I haven't found a way to do so...

EDIT: I just downloaded the Pano2VR trial, and it managed to create a fairly detailed transformation into a little planet from the Theta file. There's a myriad transformations available. I'm still looking whether there's no way to this with PTGui...

EDIT2: OK, PTGui is easy too. It recognizes the spherical image immediately, and changing the projection is all it takes. That was easy. Seems I was a bit fast to create a thread to solve my question... Well, perhaps someone will stumble on it and be helped in the future? ;-)

Wim

[severalsnakes]

Probably not at all what you're looking for, but @jcdoss shared this with me recently:

Scandy Turns Your 360° Shots Into 3D-Printed Spherical Photographs

[Ishpuini]

Probably not at all what you're looking for, but @jcdoss shared this with me recently:

Scandy Turns Your 360° Shots Into 3D-Printed Spherical Photographs

Sorry for the late reply, but I had missed your post. It's not what I was looking for indeed, because it seems hard to fit this into a book ( ;-) ), but it's a cool concept nevertheless. A bit expensive per image, but for exceptional images it might be very nice. All depends on the material and quality of the print, but this could turn 360° family snapshots into a great present for mothers/fathers day. An idea worth considering once I have a Theta.

Tx!! Wim