Ricoh exhibited a concept camera at CP+ that captures spherical panoramic images and sends them wirelessly to a smartphone or tablet. 'The idea is, the pictures you take arrive automatically,' [in the phone] said a Ricoh representative (via DigInfo.tv translation).
Ricoh concept camera that makes spherical panoramic images in one exposure. [Image credit DigInfo.tv]
Apparently produced mainly to gauge market reaction, Ricoh released no technical info on the camera apart from the fact that it uses two opposed 180-degree lenses whose images it combines into one spherical panorama. Users can zoom in on the image elements and swipe to look around the sphere; they can also zoom out to a circular image. The company imagines printing images on spheres as a potential product concept, and is considering video capture as well as stills.
I can't believe this! It just happens in a one shot, thats so cool! I want to use this at least one time. In the market you can also find different types of watermark software. To know more please visit www.masswatermark.com
Nothing new here. Pentax proposed an even nicer concept some years ago,but many other did. http://www.sandydan.com/photo/wide/sphere/nikonlrg.jpg Stitching two emispheres brings some problems to the final result. You need a quite perfect fisheye lens, with a very corrected CA and fringging down to the very border. Let's say more. You need more than 180 degrees, 200 at least, an incredible flare resistance and a very precise exposition and synchro of WB, or you will ALWAYS see the stitching seam, fisheyes must be closer or you will have a large blind area! Then is better to use a squared, or a 4/3 sensor, in order not to throw away a lot of black pixels. Let's say they use a 24MP apsc sensor. The circle dia would be 4000 pixel. Cut edges, overlap area etc. and you end up with a 3500x7000 panoramic image. I stitch panoramas since 1998, and project software and panoheads since 2003. I've seen it all, nobody is doing a really GOOD non-stitching camera
Great for sports. Stuck on top of our race car we could see everything that happened around us after the race. Software would allow distortion free prints in any direction
You might be able to wear it as a hat - like one of those "propellor hats". Certainly any advantage of being able to take street shots without pointing the camera directly at the subject might be lost by the attention generated by the hat. Certainly you would be able to see what was going on behind your back and watch out for knives being planted there. Sounds like a great tool for big business and politicians.
Or make it into a regular lens and then go about holding your camera on your head? Image to smartphone seems better.
Not a new concept - my old 360 One VR from Kaidan parabolic mirror lets me do that with a number of my cameras, but the resolution is low. Having a small device like this might gain some traction in the real estate market for low-cost walk-through photos but I can't see it replacing serious pano work with panoramic heads and high resolution photos.
Ah, but can it capture a recognizable face if placed in a 7-Eleven? This would be a real time saver for high end real estate. Looks a bit like a Toucan with batteries, though.
Finally I would be able to take a wedding photograph with myself included in it cuz guests always say you have been taking photos all day long, let me take a picture of you.
It may make me rething on what to wear on the day of the photoshoot. The possibilities are limitless ;)
now we need a 360 degree fill flash cuz I like to be lit properly
Interesting that mobile viewer he's running shows a "Share to Facebook" icon - AFAIK Facebook has dropped support for the few panorama viewing apps that were prototyped on their service. Panoramic photography won't be coming to the masses until the popular social media platforms support some standardized panorama rendering engines, be they QTVR, Flash, HTML5 or whatever.
The biggest issue with these types of cameras is the resolution of the captured image. To get any decent resolution, you are going to have to have a LOT of megapixels (gigapixel for anything realistic). Lotsa mpxls/mb and wifi to phone/tablet usually don't jive too well if you have a lot of photos or are in a hurry or have limited storage space, and definitely not for a data plan.
The built-in panoramic functions of most compact cameras suffer similar fates, giving you a panorama of maybe 5mb up to 20mb in size if you are lucky. To get detailed panoramas, you really need to get up above 50mb, and that is just for a 360* pano with one plane. For a 360 sphere, you would need at least 3x that for detail. So far as I know, that is only done manually, outside the camera, on a potent computer (maybe Defense industry has in-camera tech, but we will never know).
All that being said, I love the idea/concept. Please give us options for different resolutions!
This would work well for shots taken in fairly large spaces (church interiors, landscape), but there are problems with tight places like car interiors or when there are objects close by at the stitching seam area. This is because there is a slight parallax error as the lenses can not be at the same spot, this does not happen with nodal point panorama heads, which, on the other hand, are clumsy and slow.
Perhaps it can be redesigned to kill the distance between the lenses and diminish the parallax problem? Maybe it would be possible with some back-to-back sensors arrangement. Using three lenses seems more sensible, as their FOV would overlap so much that seamless stitching would be flawless. However, this has a lot of potential, worthy of further exploration. I like it.
Printing images on spheres! The images would have to be inside-out, so that looking at the spherical print would be like looking through a crystal ball into the room.
Could be cool to use for security with wifi sending images in say 3 second intervals of stills. Mount it in a dome and attach to interior exterior of home with motion detector car or entry or helmet ect.
I understood your idea, but the issue still remains... you'd be taking only one shot when you need two! Your idea needs two lenses, two cameras aligned and in synch, which isn't far from some extreme 360º setups. This effort by Ricoh does it all.
I dont think you get it. The idea is to use the camera body for battery and processor ect so you slap this on with its own sensors and lenses. the camera body has all the expensive stuff to make this better and cheaper.
The Diana Instant Square is a retro-inspired camera with manual controls that's fun to shoot in good light, but largely unpredictable in its operation.
The EOS RP is Canon's latest full-frame mirrorless camera, with diminutive dimensions and a diminutive price. Find out how it stacks up and get our thoughts in our early review.
The Leica Q2 is a fixed-lens, full-frame camera sporting a new 47.3MP sensor and a sharp, stabilized 28mm F1.7 Summilux lens. It's styled like a traditional Leica M rangefinder and replaces the hugely popular original Leica Q (Typ 116), launched in 2015.
Fujifilm's GFX 50R takes the image quality from the existing 50S model and wraps it in a new body with new controls and a lower price of entry. Is that enough to tempt you to pick one up for yourself? Find out how the GFX 50R performs in our full review.
The Mavic Air hits the sweet spot for many drone users, combining compact size with high performance and good image quality. Find out what makes it so useful, and why it might just be the best travel-friendly drone on the market today.
If you're looking for a high-quality camera, you don't need to spend a ton of cash, nor do you need to buy the latest and greatest new product on the market. In our latest buying guide we've selected some cameras that while they're a bit older, still offer a lot of bang for the buck.
A question frequently asked on the Internet is 'what's the best DSLR?' In this buying guide we've answered that question – but also whether it's the right question to be asking in the first place.
What's the best camera for under $500? These entry level cameras should be easy to use, offer good image quality and easily connect with a smartphone for sharing. In this buying guide we've rounded up all the current interchangeable lens cameras costing less than $500 and recommended the best.
Whether you've grown tired of what came with your DSLR, or want to start photographing different subjects, a new lens is probably in order. We've selected our favorite lenses for Sony mirrorlses cameras in several categories to make your decisions easier.
Whether you've grown tired of what came with your DSLR, or want to start photographing different subjects, a new lens is probably in order. We've selected our favorite lenses for Canon DSLRs in several categories to make your decisions easier.
We were in Japan earlier this month for the annual CP+ show in Yokohama, where we sat down with senior executives from several camera and lens manufacturers, among them Nikon.
Sony has released firmware version 5.0 for its flagship mirrorless camera, the a9. The update brings AI-driven autofocus modes, an improved menu structure and other updates.
The Auschwitz Museum has asked visitors to be more respectful after an upsurge of pictures posted on social media showing people posing on the train tracks that lead to the main gate.
This week Chris and Jordan take the new Leica Q2 for a spin, and while most of us in the Northern Hemisphere are welcoming spring, they head even farther north than usual to visit ice castles. Because #Canada.
Harvard is facing a lawsuit over profiting from 19th century daguerreotypes that captured the portrait of a slave and his daughter on a South Carolina plantation.
From the detailed textures in rural landscapes to the incredible lighting inside futuristic buildings, the photorealism of Unreal Engine 4 is blurring the lines between fiction and reality...you know...aside from the spaceship.
We've added Panasonic's new Lumix S1 and S1R full-frame mirrorless cameras to three of our buying guides. If you're looking for a quick summary of each model, then have a read.
YouTube channel Photoshop Cafe has shared a video detailing ten tips and tricks you can do to both fix and speed up Photoshop when it's running slow and sluggish.
The Diana Instant Square is a retro-inspired camera with manual controls that's fun to shoot in good light, but largely unpredictable in its operation.
Residents of a Paris street plagued by Instagrammers, selfie takers and music video crews are asking the city government for a weekend and evening ban to give them some peace.
The EOS RP is Canon's latest full-frame mirrorless camera, with diminutive dimensions and a diminutive price. Find out how it stacks up and get our thoughts in our early review.
Montana judge Dana L. Christensen has ruled the Republican National Committee did not infringe upon the copyright of photographer Erika Peterman after they took a photo from a Democratic candidate's Facebook page without permission and altered it to use in a derogatory promotional mailer.
With the arrival of some much-needed sunshine and final production firmware for the Panasonic S1, we've been able to get outside and really start putting the camera through its paces.
On its own, the FTZ adapter retails for $250 and when bundled it dropped the cost to just $150. Now, Nikon is offering it for free with all Z6, Z7 purchases in the United States.
Canon says its new EF 400mm F2.8L IS III and EF 600mm F4L IS III lenses can suffer from an intermittent flickering when shooting video in M or Av modes with certain cameras.
Leica recently announced the Q2, a digital rangefinder with a fixed 28mm F1.7 lens. It's a heck of a lot of fun to shoot with, but is it right for you? Based on our time with the camera, and its specifications, we've examined how well-suited it is for common photography use-cases.
Now that our Panasonic Lumix S1R has final firmware, we couldn't wait to get out shooting with it - and we also tried the high-res mode, which combines files to get 187 megapixel images. Because sometimes, 47 megapixels just isn't enough.
Comments