The second release of Theta's Theta camera is certainly a niche product. Quite astonishing that a big camera company ventures into this with a consumer product and price because the camera cant do anything but create fullspheric panoramas, not even a regular 'normal' snapshot. Lets see if this is a long-term thing or a one off, though I must say the updates from the first release are not really that huge, putting video aside (which is currently limited to 3min snippets). I dont think the market for real estate agents creating their own virtual tours is rather limited when you look at target figures of big companies.
There are a couple of independent crowdfunding projects around with similar devices.
In short: Is fun to use the Theta, though after a few shots by hand without phone you get annoyed making selfies all the time and you move on to the mobile app and with a tripod or a selfie stick, that helps you to 'carry' the camera above your head to minimize your own footprints in the final image (beware of bystanders looking at you!).
Some flaws
- Fix memory (4GB, ~1200 JPG images)
- Fix Battery (~200 images)
- Noise (to be expected for such small sensor)
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| ISO 100 |
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| ISO 800 |
- Stitching errors for very near objects
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| Stitching Error |
- Flare with direct sunlight (to be fair this is hard to handle anyway with fisheye lenses)
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| Flare |
- Problems with 1 lens full facing sun and the other one reverse
