Ricoh Theta m15 Review

October 22, 2015 | Mark Goldstein | Accessory Reviews |

Image Quality

In order to capture a complete wraparound image of the world around you, you'd expect the Theta m15 to be quite a megapixel monster. Surely its images would need to be at least 30 megapixels to capture enough detail, or even 50MP? Afraid not. The m15's twin cameras combine to record images just 3584x1792 pixels in size, equating to 6.42 megapixels. That would have been considered pretty respectable back in 2007 for a standard compact camera, but 6.42MP doesn't capture much detail when the lens' field of view is as vast as the Theta's. Even when viewing images on a 4.7-inch smartphone screen, you can immediately see that detail is lacking. Fancy zooming in on a particular area of an image? Forget it. It won't reveal any extra detail.

The problem is compounded by the Theta's image noise levels. At ISO 100 there's already a fine smattering of grain that you'd normally only expect to see in an ISO 800 shot snapped by a typical compact camera. At ISO 200 grain is slightly more obvious, but things really take a turn for the worst at ISO 400, where shots look more like they were recorded at ISO3200 on a small-sensor compact. By ISO 800 grain is unacceptably high and any detail that remains is destroyed by harsh noise reduction processing. ISO 1600 shots look simply awful, such is the extreme level of grain, image smoothing and colour desaturation. This is doubly disappointing when you consider that one of the Theta's best uses is to capture interior spaces which are likely to be badly lit.

Naturally, given the Theta's photos are captured using a pair of fish-eye lenses, only the very centre of whichever portion of the wraparound image you're viewing will be distortion-free. The peripheries of a viewpoint are obviously bulged, whilst chromatic aberration is also visible on high contrast boundaries, but it's nowhere near as distracting as the low image resolution and high ISO noise levels.

The lens does not feature image stabilisation, and there's no flash or any filter effects.