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MatterportRicoh Theta Z1

My First Matterport With Ricoh Theta Z1 Has Issues. Can you help?11313

KeithMitchell private msg quote post Address this user
In my first test of the Theta Z1 (just a quick run through my house) Matterport's algorithms got confused.

The dollhouse looks right, but when I click through rooms I am sometimes "teleported" to another room.

For example, the bathroom should only have Scans 11 & 12, but it also has Scan 23 which takes me to a bedroom closet, and the bedroom closet also has Scan 11, taking me back to the bathroom.

There are a few other cases where this happens. I've done about 40 houses with the big Matterport camera and never had that problem. The image quality of the Z1 is REALLY good and I'm encouraged by that, but I'm looking for help on how I can avoid this problem.

My guess is many others have seen this before and one of you can tell me what the likely cause is so I can avoid it in the future.

Thanks and stay safe!!!
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lilnitsch private msg quote post Address this user
@KeithMitchell you have a shareable link?

Was there any misalignment messages while capturing your home
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Home3D private msg quote post Address this user
When shooting Matterport with the Z1, it is critical to stare at and study closely the minimap on your phone or iPad. As there is no point cloud data for the software to analyze and match up to previous scans, there is no way for the Capture app to know whether each scan is aligned or misaligned. I have done numerous shoots and never gotten a "misalignment" message with the Z1. It's like expecting a referee to call "out of bounds" when a field has no lines painted on it.

As each shot is AI-converted to 3D data, I watch the iPad for the moment each new Z1 scan appears on the minimap to study whether it found the right place or not. Half of the time it's wrong, I have to delete, move the monopod a little and try again. When it happens to be right, or even close, I keep the scan and move on. Very frustrating and time-consuming, but that's the tradeoff for being able to shoot in direct sunlight.

It would be WONDERFUL if Matterport allowed each new Z1 "3D scan" to appear on the minimap, and then be positionally moved and rotated to the correct position, then locked in place. Models would be better and shooting would be faster.

Here is a model I labored over for 6 hours, half of that time outside shooting, deleting and reshooting until the Z1 shots worked fairly accurately. Each time you press 'capture' it's a roll of the dice.

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KeithMitchell private msg quote post Address this user
@lilnitsch No, I did not get any messages at all while shooting. Usually I get messages as I shoot, but this went very smooth because it was just a test and I didn't put myself in any difficult situations.
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KeithMitchell private msg quote post Address this user
@Home3D Wow, that makes a lot of sense! I knew that these 3rd party cameras were only providing part of the data that the software gets from the Matterport cameras, but I did not understand what impact that has on the app during capture. No wonder I didn't get any messages!
I was hoping to be able to capture a space faster with the Z1 since I don't have to wait on a rotating camera to take 6 shots, but it sounds like it will take longer most of the time.
I'll keep testing, keep my eyes on the map more closely, and see if I can gain knowledge about what works and what doesn't with this camera. Maybe it is still possible to do a job faster once I get more experience.
Thanks so much for the kind reply!
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KeithMitchell private msg quote post Address this user
@lilnitsch Thank you for your help as well! I've seen you on the forum before and you are always helping.

I don't have a shareable link because I just created a new, free account with Matterport and spaces can only be viewed privately.

I usually shoot with the big camera as a contractor using a different account. I'll keep practicing with the free account and if I get good with the Z1 I'll upgrade to a paid account. So now I have two issues with the Z1: this one, where I need to be more careful while capturing; and then the issue of lens flares on some shots due to the bulbous shape of the outside lenses. Otherwise the image quality (especially shooting HDR)is really good! If I can't resolve those two issues I'll have to consider buying the Matterport camera or just not shooting Matterport jobs. I subscribe to another service, Cloudpano, that has more basic features and lacks the true distance measuring ability of Matterport, but at least I can shoot fast and edit out lens flares if I need to.
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KeithMitchell private msg quote post Address this user
@Home3D Just took your tour. It looks great! That office with the two guitars on the wall - it's a good-sized space and looks like you got it in three shots. Looks like more than 6 feet between shots. Is that right - can you get away with that?
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lilnitsch private msg quote post Address this user
Z1 Inman Connect in Las Vegas

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Home3D private msg quote post Address this user
@KeithMitchell - The ideal environment for the Z1 to perform well is a simple apartment with not too cluttered furnishings. It looks for geometric shapes, especially at floor level. Just my experience talking here, but it is most influenced by where walls meet floors. It's confused by stepped areas, so if a home has varied levels up and down expect alignment inaccuracies to occur. For example, picture a living room that has three steps down to a family room. Each edge of a stair, the bottom of each riser and the front of each tread, is merely a "line" in the 2D world of a pano. It doesn't know that they are up and down. So "capture" in the living room and then in the dining room, and I've found that the distance is stretched apart. In one situation with a single step down, I found the greatest alignment accuracy when I placed the monopod directly at the step edge, so the pano was looking straight down at it, completely hiding the riser.

Give the Z1 with Matterport Cortex a level floor with some detail such as rugs scattered around, and it will align photos (remember, these are not 'scans' as there is no depth data) pretty well.
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Home3D private msg quote post Address this user
@KeithMitchell - that was the standard Pro camera. In open spaces you can sometimes go even 10 feet, but the space has to be wide in both X and Y axes. If one axis is long and the the other is short, like a long hallway, you need nodes to be closer together.
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