360 Camera Techniques

TECHNIQUE: Process horizon correction for the Ricoh Theta dozens of files at a time with this script!

Here is a script for batch processing horizon correction (leveling the horizon) for Ricoh Theta files!


Ricoh Theta S (reviewed here) is the most popular 360 camera.  Although it is getting old, it is still one of my favorite cameras for photography because of its manual controls.  One difficulty with using the Theta is its quirky horizon correction.  It does have a gyroscope for horizon correction / vertical correction.  However, rather than use the data to write a corrected image file, it instead records the direction as metadata.  Ricoh’s app is then able to interpret the data and level the image.

The problem with this approach is that if you open the Theta file in another app, the image appears tilted because chances are, the app won’t read the horizon correction data from the Theta’s file.  Instead, you have to open the file in the Theta app first then save the new fie.  This can be tedious.

However, with this script, you can automate the auto-leveling using Ricoh’s Windows app in batches, enabling you to correct images in an entire folder!  Here is the script on github.    Thanks to Sven Neuhaus for creating and sharing the script!

About the author

Mic Ty

Add Comment

Click here to post a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.