I have a Rico Theta camera mounted on a pole below my multirotor. The camera uses dual fisheye lenses to produce full 360 degree images. Just looking at the images with a standard image processing program, they look very distorted, but there is software which allows you to view the image as if you are inside a sphere.
If I were to feed these full 360 degree images to Pix4D, would the software be able to use the data effectively?
Dear Izzy,
No, full 360 images would not work. However, if you can get your hands on the two 180 images that are used to produce the 360 images (that is before the Rico Theta software glues and stitches them together), then that would work. We have experimented with the Rico Theta. What was holding us back is that we could not access those 180 images. We had to extract frames from the video, and this led to poor quality results because each video frame was only 0.5 MP.
There will soon be a new version of this camera, and we hope that we will be able to access the 180 images directly, in which case this would work very well.
Best regards
Izzy, do you know anything about the Giroptic 360cam? I think these 3D cams have the potential to revolutionise indoor mapping applications?
Hello, does this new release allow the Rico Theta to work? Also do you have any pictures or videos of what the “final” products look like? Or any recomendations to a 360* camera in the similar price range.
Thanks
Stephen
Stephen,
The support article ( https://support.pix4d.com/hc/en-us/articles/210663886#gsc.tab=0 ) list the Ricoh Theta ( and “S” model ) as a supported 360 camera and included in the camera database. It also mentions that “Any spherical camera that supports the Equirectangular format is also supported.”
I will begin testing the Theta S tomorrow.
I pre-ordered the Giroptic 360cam a month ago, but still waiting for delivery.
Ryan,
Checking to see how the testing with the ThetaS is going?
Would love to see some pictures/video/model of a “final” product.
Thanks,
Stephen
Stephen,
I was disappointed in the photo’s and my model.
I tried to model my living room. The 12’ ceilings, glossy floor, and lots of windows makes it a challenging site.
I’m sure there are tricks to indoor modeling that I don’t know yet.
To be completely fair, I will not form my opinion based on my first indoor model and lack of indoor techniques.
I can say that the image collection is extremely fast with a 360 camera.
Thanks for posting your question, it reminded me to take the Theta S outside today and try it with something I’m familiar with.
My Giroptic 360cam delivery is estimated in 3 weeks.
Ryan,
Any progress with this?
Arturo,
I never was pleased with the Theta Models.
The Giroptic 360 cam was delivered earlier this week. I haven’t had time to test w/ Pix4D yet.
The Giroptic does take much better images, but does it at a slower pace. It also has a GPS.
Ryan ,
Please let me know how it goes. I would like to start indoor mapping .
Hi Ryan,
Any luck with the Giroptic 360 cam - would love some feedback?
Hey Iain,
I couldn’t get the results I wanted with the Giroptic either.
This isn’t meant to be a “bad review” for either of the cameras.
I probably didn’t spend enough time to figure out the best workflow.
I’m headed a different direction now.
Have you guys tried the Insta360 Pro 8k camera? This camera produces very high quality images and all the images are maintained for each camera.
But with that in mind, you will have 6 images from the same point. In Webinar Training Video #10 he states that if you take multiple images from the same point (ie panoramic photo) then you introduce error into the model. So I am wondering
Can we use the 6 images from a Insta360 Pro to do inside models
If so, is the amount of error minimal from “panaoramic photos” due to very short distance being modeled indoors?
I have requested a Insta360 on Loan from Google. If they loan me one I will be very anxious to try this if you think it will work!
Also, I had the Theta S and now the Gear 360. They are great for fun photos (Google Local Guide, etc) but the quality on those can never be considered pro quality. I am however very optimistic about the Insta360 Pro. Not only for very high quality photos but 8k video as well 
I have a nice setup for doing 360 photos using DSLR and for getting a cool 360 shot outside somewhere it is great. Making money modeling the inside of a building, not so much. It would take you forever.
However, a low cost alternative would be to put a Sony A6000 with a fish eye lens on a motorized panoramic head like http://a.co/bMWocpl . You could set camera to snap every xx seconds or manually snap the photos with an app. Any thoughts on this?
Hi Tim,
How did your testing go with the insta360 Pro camera?
Did you order the Pro or Pro2 as it will make a huge difference as the Pro2 has GPS.
Curious to hear your method and successes or failures with the tests.
Look forward to hearing from you soon.
Kind Regards,