Hello everyone.
Here we’re going to look at the new functions of presets/Animation Photos on the RICOH THETA SC2, which will be released on Friday, December 13.
Preset and Animation Photo were added as new functions from the SC2.

Three preset shooting modes to match different shooting scenarios

The SC2 features presets (Face/Night View/Lens-by-Lens Exposure) that deliver optimum shooting performance for specific subjects and scenarios without requiring any complicated configuration.
*Use the Mode button on the camera body to call up one of the presets selected in the smartphone app.

Camera display icons for each preset

An Underwater mode has been added, with white balance adjusted to the optimal setting for shooting underwater (this setting is in the white balance settings).


Let’s take a look at some characteristics and examples of each mode.

Face mode:

A mode that detects human faces and places them at the center of the image, also uses exposure compensation and noise reduction to apply skin smoothing.


The faces of the subjects appear much brighter.
This is useful when taking selfies with THETA.

Night View mode:

A mode that utilizes dynamic range compensation and noise reduction through image compositing to deliver beautiful night-time shots.
A tripod is required when shooting in this mode.
Looking at the portrayal of the signage highlights in the comparison images below makes the effects of Night View mode obvious.


Lens-by-Lens Exposure mode:

A mode that controls two lenses individually to provide clear, bright footage of subjects in scenarios where there are significant variations in brightness levels, such as inside and outside vehicles, or on stage.
This mode allows you to capture bright, clear images of both the bright, glare-prone areas of sky and the dark locations inside the car that blur easily.


Called Lens-by-Lens Exposure mode, this mode is great for shooting out of bus, train, and airplane windows, as well as in areas where there are large differences in brightness levels indoors and outdoors such as observation platforms.

New Animation Photo feature

Still images taken with a smartphone camera and 360° spherical images taken with RICOH THETA can be composited in the THETA+ editing app(Note) to generate “Animation Photo” in which a spherical image is displayed as an animation when the image is tapped.
(Note) App version upgrade on December 12, 2019

Since these images can be played back and shared as Live Photos (iOS) or videos (AndroidTM), even people who do not have a dedicated viewer app can playback and share these files easily.
In spring of 2020, we plan to add function that allows the THETA basic app to shoot both still images and 360-degree spherical images at the same time, and to add animation to spherical images and composite them with still images to generate Animation Photos.
That completes this explanation of the SC2.
I hope this will be helpful!