Published April 4, 2019 © Apache-2.0

RICOH THETA SCUBA Plug-in

Improves scuba photography with the RICOH THETA 360 camera and TW-1 underwater case. Adds white balance compensation and timelapse.

BeginnerFull instructions provided1 hour706

Things used in this project

Hardware components

RICOH THETA V

ricoh theta tw-1 underwater case

Story

RICOH THETA V for VR photography underwater

Underwater photography is rewarding, but at depths of 100', the photographer runs into a range of new challenges, including the ocean water filtering out red light from the sun. To compensate for this, photographers use red filters. This is not possible on the RICOH THETA TW-1 case. To reduce the work editing pictures after the shoot, I added white balance compensation. The color temperature can be controlled with the bottom button of the case.

Here's a test on land to illustrate what effect the color temperature has on the image.

white balance color test using SCUBA plug-in and preset color temperatures

In the next example, you can see effect on the white wall of my office.

This should help restore some of the lost colors.

Before Plug-in

Taken with RICOH THETA V without plug-in

With Plug-in

To take pictures without the photographer in the picture, the camera can be set to take up to 1, 000 pictures at 4 second intervals on a single dive. The maximum record time is 66 minutes. The idea is to put the THETA V on an underwater tripod or selfie stick and leave it on the bottom of the ocean.

Test of Self-Timer Without Color Correction

Without Color Compensation

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.

Additional Benefits

The plug-in allows the photographer to get out the picture, replicating the function of a self-timer mode. Normally, this feature is not accessible since the TW-1 case prevents access to the camera Wi-Fi button, which is needed to put the camera 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.