Is there an easy way yet to be able to enable 5 FPS for recording Google Street View video mode captures?
Thanks in advance
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Interesting that the body of the camera doesn’t have 8K 5fps
The fiileFormat has the 5fps in the API.
I guess the official mobile app can’t set it?
I wrote an article on using something called API Tester (free tool) to test APIs in the field
You can save the API commands in the tool.
If we provide instructions for the fileFormat of the X, is the API Tester something you can use? It’s for software developers, but it might be usable by a wider range of people.
Thanks for your reply Craig.
I’m not a developer, I just capture and publish 360° imagery to Google Maps Street View. I have the camera mounted above my head on a backpack and usually control it remotely via the app on my phone to start and stop the recordings. Main settings are usually set in auto, with the occasional manual adjustment of the EV setting if needed.
I have been aware for a long time that 5 FPS is available in the API, but it not in the camera app settings.
I’d certainly be keen to try your API tester to see if we could get this to work. 2 FPS is too slow for other than walking speed and the 10 FPS is far too high and creates unnecessarily large files.
Do you have an iPhone or an Android phone? Maybe both?
The API Tester is a free app on Google Play. I didn’t write it, but can show you the configuration. There are similar apps for the iPhone
The phone I use to control the camera remotely is an old iPhone 7, but my main phone that is mounted alongside the iPhone for navigation is a a Google Pixel 6 Pro. Happy to test an learn using my Android phone.
Many thanks
Jim
Using the free API Tester tool to set 8K 5fps video on the RICOH THETA X for Google Street View.
file format API for 8K 5fps: theta-api-specs/theta-web-api-v2.1/options/file_format.md at main · ricohapi/theta-api-specs · GitHub
API Tester: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=apitester.org&pcampaignid=web_share
POST command, not GET
Body is Raw
Content Type is application/json (which should be automatically filled in)
Post Data
Usage to set 8K 5fps
- connect mobile phone to X in Access Point (AP mode)
- Press play on the mobile app
- verify that the video mode switches to 8K 5fps on the screen of the camera
to start video
You must press the button on the body of the camera. If you need to get out of the picture, you can use timer delay.
Other
it’s likely that the metadata will be compromised if you edit the video prior to uploading to Google Street View
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Thanks for the extra note about smart quotes (“ ”) instead of dumb quotes (" "). I make that mistake on macOS often.
Thanks very much for taking the time to make a YouTube video tutorial. Very kind of you.
I’ll need to spend some time later and try to follow it as I’m no coding guy.
Can I kindly ask you to try and experiment - see what happens (if anything) if you replace “5” with 4 and 3 in your line of code. I’d be interested to see if it will record in a 3 and 4 FPS setting also.
Your next challenge should you choose to accept it is finding a way to start and stop the recordings remotely without having to use the physical button on the camera (a bit difficult when the camera is mounted above your head or on the roof of your car)
Thanks again for all your hard work. 
The camera request will fail with an error if any FPS is sent other than 5, 2, 10.
Triggering the 8K 5fps or any 8K video from a mobile app is disabled in the API. It might be due to heat.
It may be possible to write a plugin with an internal web server to talk to a mobile app and then start/stop the 8K video.
As a short-term workaround, can you use a Bluetooth remote as the trigger for the camera on top of your car or head?
Hi Craig,
I’ve contacted Ricoh Theta support directly and asked if they can add these low frame rate settings into both the camera menu and into the app to allow for remote control.
My request was met with a positive response and they are looking into it along with the possibility to access the Android operating system directly to enable linking an external GNSS hardware unit.
Let’s see what comes back.
Best regards
Jim
Update after my last post -
Response from Ricoh tech support - as the 5 FPS is already in the API, they are going to see if they can add it into the camera menu, but unsure about adding it into the app for remote control at the moment.
Additional low frame rates are possible under the API, but the camera firmware doesn’t allow for this and they have no plans to add these additional frame rates (I requested 3 & 4 FPS)
Having 5 FPS in the camera would be an improvement and utilising a Bluetooth remote would suffice.
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Thanks for your report back. This sounds promising. 
BTW, is the 5fps useful for walking or bicycling? I’m not an experienced Google Street View photographer, so I’m not sure what camera settings are useful in different use cases.
Google originally published the Street View images at roughly 3m spacing, but more recently they seem to have stretched it out to around 10m. Publishing to Mapillary, it’s possible to define your own spacing, but 3m is a common spacing.
The purpose of having different low frame rate settings is simply to match with the forward speed of the form of transport you are using to capture the imagery with the purpose of keeping the file sizes as small as possible to keep the uploading time as short as possible.
Using 4 FPS @ 8K for cycling speeds, by Labpano camera records just under 40GB per hour. A regular day can result in files of anywhere from 60 up 200GB, so using a 5 FPS capture rate will add an additional 25% of unnecessary data to upload.
If we all had a super fast full fibre connection, keeping the file sizes small would be less of an issue, but the reality is, it can still take several days sometimes to upload your captured images.
As a rough rule of thumb -
Walking speed - I use 1 or 2 FPS (depending on terrain)
Cycling - 4 FPS up to max around 20 mph
Driving - 5 or 7 FPS (depending on terrain again)
Hope this gives you a little more insight? 
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@Jim thanks for this feedback. It’s wonderful to hear from real experts like you who are using Google Street View for real-world usage.
I added 8K 5fps to the app below. It’s now a button.
@jcasman can you test the app above for the 8K 5fps settings?
I certainly will. Thank you, but it won’t be for a few days as currently in the middle of rebuilding my external GNSS hardware solution.
Hi, I just finishing testing it. It works well.
Download the app using the URL. Click through accepting the download (several popup screens).
The app is running.
Make sure you’re connect by Wi-Fi to the THETA.
In the X section (click the X icon on the bottom right of the main screen), it shows the option to set to video mode and then set to 8K 5fps. If you’re not in video mode, it won’t work. You can also set video mode using the physical mode button on the side of the camera.
Video appears to me to be at 5fps, due to the (expected) jerkiness.
Bonus: You probably don’t need it, but if you want to use the app to move back and forth between image and video mode, if you go into the Settings section (click the setting gear icon on the bottom left of the main screen) you can see image and video there.
Finally, you can also switch between image and video using the touchscreen LCD on the front of the THETA.
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Friday night update!
- 8K 5fps video (as of Feb 16, 2024, the camera menu does not have this)
- auto-level disable and enable
- image stitching enable and disable
- image bitrate to adjust 11K image file size for web load speed