Johannesburg, 09 Sep 2016
Ricoh SA is making the Theta S 360-degree camera available in South Africa via Bowline to Takelot.com at a recommended retail price of R8 389, with a separate hard case at R789.
Theta S is a lightweight portable camera slightly larger than a 3G/LTE dongle, which can capture images of up to 14MP in 360 degrees, contains an enlarged image sensor and F2.0 lens which allows more light to enter in to its ultra-small twin-lens to capture images in low light.
"The Theta S is the second iteration of our 360-degree cameras and the first one we are bringing to the South African market," says Esti Kilian, GM of Marketing Services at Ricoh SA. "The price point puts it squarely in the domain of consumers, unlike many of the commercially-oriented devices coming in stream at the moment, which are beyond the budgets of the average consumer."
"This is the first step many people will take on their trip to virtual reality and creating immersive content with a camera they can pop in their pocket, use within seconds to capture the action, and immediately share with their friends, followers, and communities," she says. "The power of the camera is captured in its small size, light weight, simple controls yet a powerful app that gives knowledgeable camera users the power to explore their creative energies."
The Theta S combines two F2.0 folded optic lenses to create nearly 14MP images of 5376x2688 resolution equi-rectangular JPEGs. It records 360-degree spherical video in full HD at 30 frames per second (fps) for up to 25 minutes.
The app gives people control over ISO, aperture, and f-stop. Video can also be edited in products such as Adobe Premiere to maximise expressive integrity.
"The camera is simple to operate and comfortable to use, has 8GB of storage capacity that holds up to 1 600 photos at maximum resolution and about an hour of video. It has a shutter release on the side of the camera or, more frequently used, the camera is connected to an app on your smartphone and you can trigger it from there," says Kilian.
Theta S is based on the Google-supported Open Spherical Camera application programming interface (API) so it is compatible with Google devices. Images and footage can be directly uploaded to various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, Google Maps, Google+, and YouTube's 360-degree channel. It is also compatible with Google Street View so users can upload their own images to the service.
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