[Pewter]

I was working in the lobby/reception area of a hotel this morning and one guest approached the counter grinning sheepishly with a smart phone in one hand and a Ricoh Theta device in the other. He set the camera down on the counter, stepped back a few feet then after examining the scene on his connected smartphone, snapped a photo. He almost could not stop himself giggling as he examined the output image. He turned to me and a few others nearby and exclaimed how amazing it was and to underline his point he sideswiped with his finger so his 360 degree globe spun and glided to a stop. Next he called his wife to the counter and pulled out his GoPro. This time he giggled less and it took him a few tries navigating the bleeping menus before he could snap another photo. Pocketing the device he walked over to the lobby area where his wife was already sitting and he repeated the whole giggling business again -- this time with his Theta on a low table. By the time he left through the hotel front doors he was laughing again.

Obviously with a sample size of one I could be wildly wrong but am going to suggest the Ricoh Theta device is definitely pushing the right buttons out there in consumerland and I dearly hope this gives a warm glowing feel good effect to potential customers of Ricoh's DSLR cameras

[Adam]

The Theta is selling really well among consumers. It's die-hard photographers like us where it's struggling more

[joergens.mi]

The problem is the displaying of the pictures, if you don't want to use the Ricoh Website ore your mobile. Displaying in the Wikipedia is a little cumbersome. It would be great for a lot of Panoramas, displaying the surrounding - and making details with a "normal" camera. But that is not a fault of the camera.

[leekil]

How easy is it to make rectilinear panoramas from the Theta photos? Is that capability provided with the camera? It seems like it might not be, as mostly I have seen only the "VR" ones online.

[Kozlok]

SeveralSnakes (a user around these parts) uses one on occasion. PM her, she's a fine photographer and an overall nice person.

[edmundrt]

I've seen quite a few since I moved to Japan, as well as a LOT of Pentax - I'm planning to make a post about that soon. There are Theta displays (and WG-M2 displays, as well) in most big camera shops and I've seen a Theta being held aloft at almost every tourist site I've been to.

[Nicolas06]

The good thing of theta is that it provide a different experience and it is easy to use. Even if not necessarilly better, it is enough different that you'll want to try it and that you'll also get noticed by your friends, even the one not interrested in photography. It is also small and pocketable and as I understand it, the fisheye part mean you'll not have that much issue with high iso. It is also a very interresting device to get the mood/atmosphere and feeling of some event and it will do it better in one click than any DSLR/mirrorless. It may be much more difficult to make great picture with it as obviously you loose framing control, but still...

While if you go from say a K5 + 17-50 to K1 and 24-70, for most people the biggest difference will be the size/weight of the thing.

[victormeldrew]

It's a great, quirky little camera. Very cool to see something genuinely different available. Obviously, to share the images you need to upload to a website, but that's no different to standard digital. If (IF) it becomes quite popular then maybe viewing support will spread elsewhere, but who knows. Not sure how you would begin to approach printing...but that's really not the point.

I guess the trick is to stop thinking of it and comparing it with a photograph and come up with a new name for the output.

There is aone glaring issue though...the price. For a quirky gadget it is too expensive in my mind, and ripe for the Chinese picking. If it gets popular, expect dozens of clones to be available for 1/10 the price.