No summer in the PNW is complete without a good day of hiking. To many hikers, myself included, one of my favorite spots is Winchester Mountain and its lookout station at its top in the Mount Baker Wilderness.
On this trip I wanted to try the Ricoh Theta V (4K) to see if I could capture the scope of being literally on the top of a mountain. The benefit of this little camera, outside of its size, is the newly updated Theta + app. It is easier than ever to be able to capture 360 images, or video, and be able to easily slide it into something as simple as a Cardboard or as powerful as an HTC Vive.
Winchester Mountain Top: 6521 ft.
Inside and out of the lookout
The impact of this simple camera and app combo is the ability to bring (basic) interactive spherical content to anyone and everyone.
Editing spherical video can still have its ups and downs, as the software tools (Final Cut and Premiere) that are required to do so have its ups and downs with this new media format. But what I find as a killer first step; the ability in the new Theta+ app to animate still images with user generated view points. It gives a user a way to create small videos that can guide a viewers view and share it in flat video (non VR).
360 wristshot view (#watchfam)
This allows any user a simple way to create a flat video from a spherical photo from any 360 photo taken with the Theta, without the need to use a lot of complete software or tech-ninja skills.
I’ll be assessing the new 4K (across two lenses) footage and see what resolution upgrades Ricoh has done between the V and the S.