How To Get Started Quickly With The Ricoh Theta S
Thanks to community member Darren Button for his help in putting together this guide — he is the first on many people to receive the 360 camera for this experiment in around the world storytelling.
This is what I’ve found…
This is a great camera to work with, great construction and easy to use.
Picture quality is fine too, especially in well lit environments and on sunny days.
I learned a few things along the way — as a kind of summary too:
a) you connect the camera to your phone, and you don’t need any other wi-fi connection to take pics
b) another wi-fi connection may happen that overrides the connection with the camera once in awhile
c) you will need to connect to wi-fi (not the camera) assuming you don’t want to use data, when you want to share/upload pics.
Got your hands on a Theta S? Well, get started here:
Once you have gotten over the excitement of having a 360° camera there are 6 simple steps to follow to get you snapping away happily and fully backed up.
1. Charge the camera fully. A full charge take 240 minutes and when plugged in the red LED will show. Once fully charged this will go off
2. Download the Ricoh Theta App whilst you are waiting
a. Android — https://goo.gl/Ty9bJv
b. iOS — https://goo.gl/F0qsOv
3. Once fully charged and the app is on your phone, it’s time to connect to the camera.
a. Power the camera on.
b. Press the wifi button on the 360° camera.
c. Search for the wifi network created by the camera. It will look something like this: SSID THETAXS00220690.OSC
d. The password is 00220690 (i.e. the numbers on the end of the string of letters above)
e. Connect
4. You can now go into the app and start taking pictures or video. Use the button in the bottom right-hand corner. Here you can change all the settings along the top.
5. Download the Google Street View App
a. Android — https://goo.gl/IkKYOj
b. iOS — https://goo.gl/h0hRC2
c. Once you have taken photos of locations, upload them to the app, using the button in the bottom right-hand corner.
d. Once you have 50 photos verified you become a Google Trusted Photographer. More info about this program can be found here https://goo.gl/AaNsiG
6. Finally, ensure all your photos are backed up to a service such as Google Photos. It’s a simple process:
a. Take the shot using the app.
- This leaves the picture on the camera and transfers it to your phone.
b. Disconnect from the camera’s wifi network and reconnect to your own.
c. Upload the images to Google Photos.
A few, final summary of key points:
This is a great camera (and please know I bought my own unit at full price) — again, I must stress the ease of use as a winner. If you choose it, please let us know how you get on.
See you in the community.
More info about the Ricoh Theta S can be found here https://theta360.com/en/
