Ricoh’s Newest Theta 360 Cam Delivers 4K Video, Live Streaming and More

Over the past year, we’ve chronicled how wedding photographers are embracing virtual reality and live-streaming.

With Ricoh’s newest Theta, the Theta V, you can get a foot in both trends with a single device. The newest member of the company’s 360-degree camera lineup, the Theta V supports 4K/360-degree recording and 4K/360-degree live streaming.

But wait, there’s more. One of the major changes is the use of the Android operating system for the Theta, which will allow third-party developers to create apps to extend the camera’s functionality. One such app, to support remote playback capability on external displays, will launch later this year. With the app, you’ll be able to use the Theta V as a remote control to pan through 360-degree video on the big screen.

Ricoh made a number of other improvements including:

• support for omni-directional audio recording via a 4-channel microphone
• 2.5x faster data transfers to mobile devices via Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth Low Energy so the Theta V remains constantly connected to your mobile device
• H.265 (HEVC) compression for more efficient file storage (H.264 is also available and is the default codec)

You store your footage to 19GB of internal storage–good for 40 minutes of 4K footage or 4,800 spherical stills. The camera’s ISO range is 64-3200 for stills in manual mode and 64-6400 for video and you’ll get 65 minutes of recording out of a fully charged battery.

The Theta V is available for pre-order now for $430.

Ricoh is also adding a pair of accessories to support the new camera. There’s a 3D Microphone TA-1 ($330) for recording concert audio and the Underwater Case TW-1 ($230), which lets the Theta V (and Theta S and SC) operate underwater at depths of up to 30 meters.