As a parent, “family photographer” is part of my job. I am constantly snapping pictures and shooting video of my three kids and our endless adventures. What if you never had to “point” the camera again? The Ricoh Theta S 360 degree camera, gives parents a new way to capture photos of their kids.
The Theta S doesn’t look like a camera. The unit, shown above, has a half-sphere glass lens on two sides, so it takes two photos or two videos simultaneously. Each image captures 180 degrees and when the camera stitches the images together you get a complete 360-degree picture of everything around the camera.
Once you snap a 360 photo you can use your finger to move around the picture, like you’re actually there. You can also convert it into some pretty cool flat pictures like the one of me and two of my kids shown above. The Theta S takes pictures like you have never seen before.
The amazing thing is that the S can also shoot video. This means, while the video is playing you can move around the video clip and look up, down, left and right. If you have a toddler who never sits still for a video, there’s no escaping the lens of the Theta S.
The Theta S may be the perfect Father’s Day gift that could change the way you snap pictures of your family. So far, it’s my favorite gadget of 2016. The Theta S is $350.
