Tag: Theta Z1

Saturday (05-September-2020) — New Jersey

Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

With a clear night sky, I decided to try the new Ricoh Theta Z1 360 degree camera to create some star trails. I set the camera up on my back patio (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). The camera can collect 358 raw (DNG) images which corresponds to just under 5 hours at 60 second exposures. The images were processed with PTGUI, Capture One Pro, and Photoshop CC to create the following 360 degree Equirectangular Panorama, 360 degree Little Planet View, and 360 degree Tunnel View images. I’ve also included a time-lapse video of the night sky

Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Equirectangular Panorama). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Equirectangular Panorama). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Little Planet). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Little Planet). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Tunnel View). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Tunnel View). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Tunnel View). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Tunnel View). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (43.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (61.9 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. More sun. A surplus of 18.9 kWh.

Monday (31-August-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

The Theta Z1 camera has Dual 3 mm fisheye lenses and uses two back to back 1.0-inch back illuminated CMOS image sensors with an output size of approximately 23MP (6720×3360). The camera can be programed to collect images in JPG or Raw (as DNG) format. The JPG images are transformed in the camera from two 360 degree fisheye images to a single 360 degree equirectangular format (6720×3360 pixels). The DNG images are the two individual 360 degree fisheye images (6720×3360 pixels). In order for the DNG images to be used the two 360 degree fisheye images need to be transformed to a single equirectangular image. Ricoh provides the Theta program (runs on Windows 10) that can be used to view and rotate the 360 degree images. No save or output capabilities. They also provide Ricoh Theta stitcher plugin for Lightroom that can be used to transform the dual fisheye images into an equirectangular image. You have to export the file to the Theta stitcher to do the transformation (one at at time), no obvious batch transform capability. I found that I could do batch transformations with the PTGUI.exe

Backyard Sumertime Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
JPG 360 degree equirectangular format image out of the  Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
Backyard Sumertime Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
DNG dual fisheye image format out of the  Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
TIF 360 degree equirectangular format image transformed from Theta Z1 360 camera DNG image using PTGUI.  (DAVID J MATHRE)
Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
TIF 360 degree equirectangular format image transformed from Theta Z1 360 camera DNG image using PTGUI then edited with Capture One Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
DNG dual fisheye image format out of the  Theta Z1 360 camera then edited with Capture One Pro (DAVID J MATHRE)
Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
Above DNG dual fisheye image format out of the  Theta Z1 360 camera  edited with Capture One Pro then converted to TIF 360 degree equirectangular format using PTGUI. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (41.3 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (32.0 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Lots of clouds. A deficit of 9.7 kWh.