Theta & Google

zap · Sat Jun 15, 2019 11:43 am

Any of you guys are using StreetViews from Theta ?

What are your experiences
How u get rid of yourself in the image if u do a lot of pictures indoor ?

Thinking about purchasing the latest Z1 but not sure it is something worth? Also digging a little into the Matterport but again not sure that service is useful if u do not combinbe it with a lasermeasurement defice like Fargo or LEica devices provide.

Any input highly appreciated on the matter

thanks

RWood · Sat Jun 15, 2019 10:12 pm

I have just ordered the Z1 - will let you know what I think of it when it arrives, supposedly later this month in Australia.
It does have a plugin that puts a delay between the front and rear lens, designed to enable the photographer to be removed from the image.

Cheers from Oz!
Robert

zap · Tue Jun 18, 2019 8:54 am

Thanks for feedback. Looking fwd to your real-life review.

Plugin sounds nice

RWood · Tue Jun 18, 2019 9:13 am

Unfortunately, I just found out that delivery in Australia has been pushed back to end of July - so will be a little while until I can provide feedback...

Thu Jun 20, 2019 1:09 pm

I have a Z1 but not used it for street view.
The quality is good but you need to use the raw workflow so I would not use any phone apps.
You can install a "Time Shift" plugin into the Z1, this allows you to take a pano with a time delay between the lenses so you can move from one side to the other and your not in the shot.
Have a look at this link: https://goo.gl/maps/3YqDDgBBYUxkFvpG8
I was standing next to the camera but just moved between lenses.
It was raining, of course, I'm in the UK. This was an out of the app shot so it looks a bit off with the colours, but as said RAW processing is good.
Regards,
Hopki

DKosmach · Thu Jun 20, 2019 3:43 pm

We use a Theta V here. It is OK for interior and usable for exterior, but the quality is pretty low when looking at 360s on a large tv or monitor, especially when compared to the 360s I stitch from our drone. I'm trying to nudge the higher ups to get the Z1 (any other professional level 360 camera is crazy expensive). I have Adobe Creative Suite, so converting raw to jpg its pretty quick and easy.

I do edit myself out of any shots that end up on the Google street view. We did have a site we used for construction progress and since that was weekly, I just left myself in all of those since it was a ton of pics every week. You only saw the top of my head. Here is a view of one of our interiors. I did take 2 exposures and merged them so that the windows would be properly exposed.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.167126, ... 76!8i2688

zap · Fri Jun 21, 2019 10:30 am

Thx for your feedback. Looks nce.
But yeah physics is physics. U need a big lens and high MP sensor to get decent quality for HD interiors.

The whole idea was to get quickly 360s and passing them to Google streetview
If we have to use Adobe and raw workflow I am where we are now. So no big gain.

Thought was eventually worth buying a gymbal attaching it and using video mode then extracting stills from video. Case study: Example a supermarket...

but seems quality is again the bottleneck so back to basic workflow and decent camera and manual stitching