Ricoh Theta 360° pano camera goes on sale, samples appear
posted Friday, October 25, 2013 at 5:10 PM EDT
Ricoh Japan has today announced a preorder program for its unusual, dual-lensed Theta 360° panoramic camera in the Japanese market, with orders being accepted immediately for delivery from November 8th. Announced early this month, the Theta includes two cameras of unspecified resolution, and captures a full 360-by-360 degree panorama with a single press of the shutter button, without the need to reframe and stitch multiple sequential shots. That makes it ideal for on-the-fly panos -- perhaps for real-estate photography -- as well as for panos including moving subjects.
The Theta camera is already on sale in the US, UK, France and Germany, where shipments started ten days ago, but the company apparently felt that sufficient supply wasn't available to fulfil demand in its home market, and so briefly delayed launch there. (Fans of immersive photography in the USA will find the camera is currently in stock on IR affiliate Amazon, where it's priced at US$400 or thereabouts.)
Want to see what the Ricoh Theta can do? A number of sample panoramas shot with the camera can be seen on the Ricoh Theta website.