What’s the best camera for Virtual Tours? As virtual tours become more popular in sectors as varied as real estate and restaurants, tech firms have created a camera for every budget. We compare five of the most popular models. We’ll cover the Matterport Pro 2, the Ricoh Theta V, the Ricoh Theta Z1, the Insta360 One R and the Insta360 One X. Make sure you’re getting the best virtual tours for your space.
Matterport Pro 2:
The Matterport Pro 2 is a professional-grade 360-degree camera, which captures virtual tours with at least 99% accuracy. This makes it ideal for businesses like estate agents and venue-for-hire owners who want to offer clients the ability to measure their virtual spaces with a very small error margin. All of the cameras on this list integrate with Matterport’s software. However, the Matterport Pro 2 is native to the software and produces the highest quality content.
Of course, the Matterport Pro 2’s price tag reflects the quality of the camera. It is up for sale on the official site at £2,830, making it a significant investment for many businesses.
Ricoh Theta V vs Ricoh Theta Z1:
Ricoh’s Theta range prides itself on quality and affordability. The newer Z1 model targets a more professional market than its original flagship V model. Both shoot in 4K, ensuring high-quality tours images and professional visuals for marketing materials. They are also significantly more affordable than the Matterport Pro 2 option. The Z1 retails at £899.00 at the time of writing, and the V at £399.00. This could make them ideal for your business should you need to shoot multiple tours, meaning you’ll need to purchase more than one camera.
The Theta Z1 has an impressive 90% accuracy rating, but not quite comparing to the Matterport Pro 2 99%. Battery life is also a concern for those needing to shoot several tours in one go, or particularly large spaces. The Matterport Pro 2’s battery is large enough to last a whole day of shooting. The Theta range, however, can only last 60 minutes of continual shooting.
Insta360 One R vs Insta360 One X
At the time of writing, the Insta 360 One R and One X2 models were retailing for £439.99 and £429.99 respectively, making their affordability one of their best qualities. The Insta360 models are also more compact and lighter than the Matterport Pro 2, making them a better option if your tours require lots of travelling on public transport. Considering their price point and other specs, tours taken on the Insta360 models are also relatively true-to-life, offering up to 96% accuracy.
The smaller Insta360s are also unable to compete with the Matterport Pro 2’s battery life and image quality. In fact, in adverse lighting conditions, tour footage taken on Insta360s can be left completely unusable. They are a good starting point and great for virtual tour enthusiasts, but they cannot produce professional-grade tours suitable for marketing materials and virtual viewings.
The Matterport Pro 2, then, is the most professional and accurate camera for 360-degree tours on the market. You can hire a third party to create the tour with the best tools. Here at Virtualoom, we use Matterport Pro 2 cameras and Matterport software to produce top-of-the-range virtual tours to suit all needs and budgets. We take the hassle out of virtual tour production, and prevent you from having to make a large down payment on a camera yourself.
To find out more, and to receive your free, personalised quote, get in touch today!
