RICOH THETA SCUBA Plug-in

Download from THETA Store


For recreational and scientific diving.

Test site: Blue Sea Adventure RICOH THETA 360 image

Features

  • takes 1,000 pictures at 4 second intervals
  • this will give you 66 minutes of recording
  • manual white balance adjustment underwater


Photo Credit: Kai Oda with RICOH THETA V and TW-1 Housing

workflow

  • Set plug-in to load by default
  • put into RICOH TW-1 Underwater Housing for THETA V
  • mount underwater case on underwater tripod
  • put tripod in underwater work area
  • press lower side button on underwater case for longer than 2 seconds
    to enable plug-in mode
  • press shutter button to start recording
  • press shutter button to stop recording
  • in the lab or home, create timelapse video for review by team
  • if area warrants further inspection, use full resolution image to
    zoom in.

Use

  • Press the shutter button to start taking pictures every
    4 seconds.
  • Press the shutter button again to stop taking pictures.
  • Long-press lower button on side to put start scuba plug-n
  • Long-press lower button again to stop scuba plug-in

Color Temperature Adjustment Underwater

Short-press lower button on side to cycle between different color temperatures.

Additional Benefits

Cannot use Wi-Fi button when the THETA is in the underwater case.
This prevents the camera from being put into self-timer mode.
You can use this plug-in like a self-timer and discard the pictures
that you don’t want to use.


Photo Credit: Kai Oda using RICOH THETA V and TW-1 Housing (photographer in picture)

Source Code

v2

Option for aesthetics. Not needed for scientific analysis. Per frame adjustments to enable greater control of white balance.

  • increase brightness 5%
  • increase red 30% (most critical adjustment)
  • increase blue 3% (for the tropical scene)
  • decrease green 5%

image

Thanks

Thanks to the student researchers at the Santa Barbara Coastal Long Term Ecological Research site for providing product requirements and testing on their own time. Also thanks to the American public for funding the National Science Foundation (NSF) and to the NSF for funding the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites which not only provide valuable scientific data to the public, but also inspires future scientists to understand our planet.

Additional Information


Update: June 20, 2019

I am resubmitting the plug-in with pre-set Color Temperatures as follows:

  • 6,500 Kelvin - Cyan LED
  • 8,500 Kelvin - Yellow LED
  • 10,000 Kelvin - Red LED

6,500 Kelvin

image

8,500 Kelvin

10,000 Kelvin

Would be nice to have a setting for 12,000 Kelvin.

Update: July 8, 2019

Resubmitting plug-in with new feature to force camera to go into “Still Image” mode. There was a bug that prevented the camera from working if it was originally in “Video” mode.


Update: July 11, 2019

I’m experimenting with a third-party Android app called, Dive+ to improve color in post-production on my Android phone. It’s possible that I can replicate some of this correction into the plug-in directly.

–

July 22, 2019

SCUBA Plug-in updated

  • different color temperature settings
  • forces use of image mode as video mode will not work
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