Ahhhh ok. That makes sense.
Thanks for clarifying.
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Are you planning to pre-configure a set of microSD cards and ship them to your user base with ptpcam installed?
I don’t know how to make a Raspbian system image, but if someone did, it would be nice to put the entire image up on a repository with ptpcam, libptp, and libusb pre-installed and tested. That way, someone could just get the image, install it on a microSD card and then modify their program on top of it. It would be good to pre-install tlapser and Koen’s Photosphere project. The short-term solution to help people is to document the install process.
The other piece of the pre-configured microSD card would be to install some type of server to show all the beautiful images. There’s some really nice images in your group.
I don’t know how to make a Raspbian system image, but if someone did, it would be nice to put the entire image up on a repository with ptpcam, libptp, and libusb pre-installed and tested.
I was planning to do this, actually. It’s on the to-do list for further down the track, though, once it’s all been tested properly…
Is there somewhere in particular you’d want the disk image to be hosted?
The other piece of the pre-configured microSD card would be to install some type of server to show all the beautiful images.
Yeah… I’m not really all that familiar with setting up web servers, especially not on an RPi. But it certainly could be done…
By the way… I realise this is going off-topic from my original post, but… you guys are the only people responding to my support requests, anywhere on the Internet… 
I sent a Theta V to a friend further south than I am and he got a heap of photos with aurora in them the other night.
There is a screenshot I have taken from a timelapse he compiled, which shows the problem I’m now facing…
Screenshot here: Dropbox - File Deleted - Simplify your life
All images I (or my friend) have taken with the Theta V have this strange discolouration to them in one hemisphere (i.e. as if one lens is faulty). As you can see from the screenshot, there is a clear vertical line, with one half of the sphere having a red tinge to it (to the right of the screenshot). (The left half of the screenshot shows a dull aurora and some town lights).
Has anyone else experienced this issue? It may be a long-exposure issue - this image was taken at ISO 2000, 30 sec.
My own photos from last week with the same camera (similar exposure settings) had the same issue.
Admittedly, these images were taken using the Theta app, not via ptpcam, and so are using the Theta app white balance presets, rather than a manually-defined colour temperature (through ptpcam). So I’m hoping that may be the cause of the problem. I’m still waiting to get the camera back from my friend before I can do any testing of my own.
For what it’s worth, I didn’t have this problem when I was testing the Theta SC a few months ago. Perhaps I’ve got a bodgy Theta V and should send it back under warranty?
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Is the aurora photo processed through something like photoshop? Or is that the original image taken from the THETA with no processing? Certain filters on Photoshop will cause this problem. If it’s the raw image, try to align the edge of the camera toward the largest bright spot when the shot is taken. It seems like either the image was processed with a filter or there is a problem with the camera.
Are you using the newest firmware? The firmware can be upgraded with the desktop application.
If you have a Raspbian image, we can put it on the theta360developers GitHub repo in addition to other places to make it easier for people to find.
I’ll look into the image problem a bit more.
Thanks for all your work on this. Super cool project and would love to see more beautiful pictures.
This was the update on the firmware. See note about still image joining accuracy.
Oct. 24, 2017 Version 1.10.1
- The precision of video slant top/bottom correction has been improved.
- Still image joining accuracy has been improved.
- The quality of the still image is improved by modifying the compression ratio.
- Corrected bugs and improved performance.
Info on updating the firmware is here.
David,
Wow, that would be a fantastic contribution if you built a pre-tested image… well, pre-used… Pre-tried out… Whatever you want to call it, and made it available to everyone. We host quite a few repos on the Unofficial Guide GitHub account. We could easily host it there.
Seriously cool.
Jesse
There was a discussion here about the stitch line
Postby CorLeone » 13 Apr 2017, 07:49
My guess is that this is not a flaw of the camera but caused by postprocessing the image.
For example, many processing options in Photoshop or Lightroom are not “360-aware” and may handle the left and right edges of the equirectangular image differently so that they don’t match when rendered in a 360° viewer. This will result in exactly the effect shown in your sample image. Every seam that has a hard change is not caused by the camera (or lightning) but postprocessing.
In general, all processing done to a single pixel will cause trouble that depends on the surrounding pixels. In this case, the image’s edge will cause a discontinuity (unless the algorithm takes into account that the image is in equirectangular projection with 360).
Unfortunately, many of the powerful and frequently used adjustments such as ‘Clarity’ in Lightroom or ‘Shadows/Highlights’ in Photoshop fall in this category. Even ‘Unsharp Masking’ may have noticeable impact.
The solution is to not use this kind of processing or at least do it limited and very carefully, checking the results under real viewing conditions with a 360° viewer.
Thanks for those thoughts. Unfortunately, these images are straight out of camera (not processed at all), and the Theta V is running the latest firmware…
That seems like an unusually large difference between the lenses. There may be some problem with your camera.
See these community examples.
Title: ISS Flyover 3rd Submission
Attribution: Dave Michal
Location: Corktown Park, Hamilton, Ontario
Notes: Ricoh Theta S, nighttime (9:43pm local time), no flash, focal length 1.31mm, exposure time 1/4 sec, ISO 400, JPEG, 818.22 kb, 5376 x 2688
Title: ISS Flyover
Attribution: Dave Michal
Location: Hamilton, Ontario
Notes: Ricoh Theta S, early night, 25 second exposure
The main difference between your shot and the 2nd shot is that you are using ISO 2000, but I would expect the shot to be a lot closer to the 25 second exposure 2nd shot example. I suggest taking more tests and if the problem persists, try to make use of the warranty.
The only thing I can think of is that the high ISO is making the camera more sensitive to light from one side. Can you try a test where the illumination is more consistent in all directions? Or, put the skinny edge of the camera toward the brightest spot, which would cause the light to be equal across both lenses.
Hi, (replying to David Hunter’s q: from Nov 8 2017)
I’m using multiple Theta’s (upto 3) over Wifi on a single Raspberry Pi using extra usb wifi dongles. We’re controlling the Theta’s with the OSC API, and use power-only USB cables to keep the Theta’s charged.
As long as you have multiple physical wifi interfaces on the Pi you can run tunnels on the Pi to communicate with the individual camera’s even though each cam has the same ip. It’s a bit tricky, but definitely do’able.
If you had a home wifi AP router (internet path) on the same 192.168.1.0/24 network, that may also work but I haven’t need to test this. The Pi’s default gateway would need to be that interface and the router IP would need to be anything besides 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.5
–
Andrew (Alf) Leahy | Wonderama Lab | Western Sydney University
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Thanks for this usage tip. Great info.
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The individual cameras are not on your local network. They are all individual access points so in essence you have each of the Pi WIFI modules connect to a separate Camera Network Name.
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Thanks for all the above comments. I have spoken with my local distributor and they’ve agreed to replace the Theta V under warranty. Hopefully, I’ll get the replacement later this week.
And thanks for the tips about the WiFi options. Good to know those options exist. However, at this point, I’ll be continuing use via USB as it’s not really worth the effort to figure out the WiFi, now that the USB option is working… I’ll keep this option in mind, though, if needed in future.
I’ll keep you posted about the replacement camera and the red tinge, and will let you know once I’ve done that disk image…
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Thanks for the update and great to hear that your distributor is willing to work with you on the warranty replacement. One of the benefits of this type of community is that someone else with a THETA V can duplicate your settings and post a picture so that you can see if the pictures are different.
There will still be a difference in the actual environment, meaning that your lighting, atmosphere, and orientation of the camera will be different. However, it seems a decent way to try and identify if it’s a problem with a specific camera or with some software in general.
In my case, I can’t replicate the problem with lighting that you posted earlier.
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David,
Did you get your replacement THETA V? How’s it going with the red tinge? Any more updates on your setup? I’d be interested in getting ahold of that disk image, if that’s still a possibility. In fact, I’m sending a DM with some more details, so please keep an eye out for it.
Happy holidays!
Jesse
is the red tinge the same as the purple fringe correction in the firmware upgrade listed on this roadmap.
Purple fringe problem was addressed (hopefully) in firmware 1.20.1, released Dec 20, 2017. Upgrade the the camera and give it a shot.
Hi Craig and Jesse,
Sorry for the delayed reply - have just got back to work after the Christmas break and saw the email notifications that you had both replied here (and Jesse - I will reply to your PM shortly).
My camera has been replaced under warranty - I have to go and collect it tomorrow. I think the supplier just did a swap without any testing (fair enough; it requires really dark conditions to be able to test it, which isn’t feasible, working in a shop…). So I’m not sure if the replacement has the issue or not.
However, one of my customers (who bought a Theta V from me before Christmas) reported to me that her camera had the exact same issue when she was out photographing the New Years Eve fireworks. I directed her to the firmware update Craig mentioned, and apparently the issue is fixed, although she seems a bit vague, so I don’t really know for certain…
In any case, I’ll pick up my new camera hopefully tomorrow, and will head out and do some testing one night. (Sadly, it takes two hours for me to drive somewhere dark enough to test it, so this isn’t a simple five minute task…)
I’ll keep you all informed as I know more. 
Thanks for the help, everyone. Hope you all had a good end-of-year break.
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David,
Let me know how you’re doing with the new camera. Sorry it takes you so long to get somewhere without light pollution.
We’ve been doing more work with the THETA V, am pretty impressed with some of the development possibilities in Android.
(Answering your other DM separately.)
Thanks,
Jesse
Hi Jesse and Craig,
As luck should have it, one of my customers went out two nights ago with her Theta V. This is the same person who previously reported having the same issue.
I am glad to say the issue is fixed in still images. However, it is still present in videos. My own testing confirms this too. (this is running firmware version 1.20.1). Here is a video my customer took on Friday night, which shows the big line in the sky: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yYBnEalkXkJ_KbHtdEDB2jzL82KA26Cp/view?usp=drive_web (apologies for the coarse language at the end of the video… perhaps only watch the first few seconds!) (you will need to download this and load it into the Theta desktop app, and convert it to a 360-deg video in order to play it).
So this issue is still not 100% fixed, but it seems to be getting closer (at least it’s ok now in still photos).
Are you two in touch with people at Ricoh? I’m just wondering how I can pass this information on to them…
Thanks,
David