John Warkentin from the michaels camera Social Media Team opens up the Ricoh Theta SC Box and takes you through what comes with the product. He then connects the camera to an iPhone and shoots a test panorama while comparing the Theta SC in white to the previous Theta S model.
The Ricoh SC camera connects to the phone with no trouble and is instantly recognised by the Theta S app on the phone. Simple operation with the new Theta SC happens exactly as expected.
John Warkentin here from the Michael’s Camera Social Media Team.
Thank you for joining us for another one of our low-budget unboxing videos.
Here we’ve got the brand-new Ricoh Theta SC camera.
I believe it’s in white.
[Top down view of the white Ricoh box]
Let’s get right down to business and open the box.
So, I’m going to do this backwards today, so I’m sort of pointed, I’ve got the camera pointing at me instead of over my shoulder; it’s going to make it a little harder to do what I need to do; but bear with me, and let’s see if we can get this box opened up.
Unfortunately, because the camera is looking at me, I don’t get to see… I’m showing… Ah, there we go.
[Opens box lid]
Okay.
Oh, that’s good; sort of about the size of an iPhone box.
We’ll open it up here when we bit; we’ve got a little lever here, a little tab to pull up, I’ll pull that forward and there we go.
Here is the camera; and a nice little bit of foam bag at the top; we’ll just carefully pop that open here.
[Removes small wrapped bag and opens it]
And, oh, that looks nice; that is very nice.
Now, it’s a much different finish than the previous Ricoh, which was the Theta S; which I’ve also got right beside me.
This is sort of a shiny finish versus the sort of rubberized finish that the Theta S has.
It looks very nice, very nice.
Okay, let’s just put that aside for a second here.
[Places small white camera body to the side]
Now, you’ve got to be very careful with these cameras; you don’t want to scratch the lenses, so there should be a little case with it; but for the time being, I’ll just keep it in the foam here.
If the camera were to fall over, or whatever, the first thing it’s going to do is impact on the middle of one of the lenses; which is exactly where you don’t want a scratch happening.
So, be very careful.
Now, I’m just going to pull out the little box insert here - there we go; and we’ve got our Theta SC camera manual here; and we’ll put that aside; and we’ve got the little neoprene case, which is in a matching color - sort of a light, sort of a very light grey it looks like.
[Removes packaging with cover]
Okay, that’s good; and we’ve got our USB cable.
Now, important safety tip here for Theta camera users: Theta cameras are a little bit finicky on your USB cables; so if you ever have problems linking your Theta camera to update the firmware, or to download your pictures, or whatever, and you find it’s not connecting - use your original cable.
I’m not 100% certain why there are problems, but many users, including myself, have had issues with cheap third party micro USB cables; so don’t lose your original.
Okay, well that’s all good.
Let’s just put this box aside for a second here, and let’s compare the look of the Theta SC camera to my Theta S camera that I’ve got here.
[Brings out a black Ricoh in a black cover]
Now, mine’s well worn, I’ve been using a fair bit; so let’s just put that on the table, and then just pop this guy up beside it here, and there we are.
[Places white Theta SC camera next to the black Theta S camera]
Now, is there any difference in the size? Doesn’t really look like there’s any difference in the size; although the Theta S camera feels just a little heavier; I’ll have to check the specifications.
Let’s match up the bottoms here; no, this looks like it’s a little bit larger; it’s hard to say; it feels a little bit wider.
Anywho, let’s see if it can power on here.
So, see if it’s got any charge - hit the switch - got a little bit of power; the power button is a little different colour than the Theta S camera; you see that it’s not quite as bright blue.
So that’s an interesting change.
And, let’s see if we can find it on our network here.
Odds are it’ll have a Wi-Fi connection that’ll be just the same as the serial number on the unit; so I’ll just go and check my Wi-Fi here, and I see my old Theta camera, but I’m not sure if I see the new one here yet.
Oh, Wi-Fi has not turned on; let me turn on the Wi-Fi - there we go.
Okay, Wi-Fi is turned on; the old one is here.
Now, I’ll just cycle my Wi-Fi on my phone off and on here, see if we find the new unit.
Not seeing it yet; it is turned on – there, it’s flashing.
Ah, there we are!
Okay, there’s the new unit; so I assume it’s just going to be the usual numbers for the password here; so it’s, ah, well let’s look at the bottom here and we’ll type it in.
Is it on the bottom?
Oh, yeah, there we are.
Yep, okay.
So let’s connect to it - password will be 103… 103… oh, sorry, sorry… 00103125.
Join.
Ok, that seems good; everything’s happy; connected up.
Let’s go over to the Theta app, and there we are.
Now, I’m running the Theta S app; I’m not 100% certain if there’s a different Theta SC app, but let’s just get in there.
Yeah, that seems to be working fine; I’m in manual mode, auto white balance.
How about 100, and I’ll do a 20th of a second here; and hold the other one right beside us, and we’ll take a picture.
See if we can get that into the frame here while we’re doing it.
There we go, the camera’s there… [Squeak from the camera] and picture taken!
Image synthesising… should be sending it down to the camera now… transferring as we go here.
And there it is! Not a very attractive picture of me here in the studio, but we’ve got it.
Conclusion
Okay, there’s our unboxing for the brand-new Ricoh Theta SC camera in white!
Hope you’ve enjoyed this video!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for plenty more unboxing; the odd sample footage; sometimes some technical talks; sometimes some new product announcements; sometimes it’s just some stuff around the store; like us on Facebook, and feel free to join our Michael’s Camera We Can Help; and I hope you enjoy the Theta SC camera; and I’m going to put it through its paces and compare the quality to Theta S camera.
I expect it’s exactly the same; the only real difference, from what I understand, is there’s no HDMI port on the bottom, there’s just USB, and there’s a video recording limit of five minutes.
So, those are the real changes of it, and the new colours that are available; I’ve chosen the white, and I believe it’s about a $100 less.
So, hopefully, these will be starting to show up in the stores.
I think this is the first one that we’ve received for evaluation, so we should have a couple, or should have them in stock soon at michaels.
So, again, thank you for joining us here on YouTube, and we’ll see you next time!
Take care!