The Magix manual lists the Ricoh - Theta m15, S and SC cameras as compatible for Movie Magix editing. Does this include the Ricoh SC2 camera? I compared the specs on both cameras (SC and SC2) and they looked okay, but I'd rather not proceed on the camera purchase until I'm sure. Thank you.
Hi Gerald and welcome to the user to user forums.
Could you tell me which page of the pdf manual you found that information as I'm not aware of any specific cameras being mentioned.
Ray.
Hi Ray: Thank you for getting back to me. I got that information from the Movie Edit Pro manual, 2021. The cameras in question are listed on page 230.
Hi Gerald.
I hadn't realized I was still using the MEP 2020 manual.
I now have the MEP 2021 manual.
Looking at the manual and the camera specs, the main difference seems to be the SC2 is the only one to capture at 2K and 4K and the manual only mentions the 1080p versions. There are slight differences in the audio codecs as well but my main concern is the higher resolutions. If it doesn't line up automatically it says it does for the other models you can still line the image up manually. In my very limited experiences of lining up images of any type I would always do it manually anyway but if you think that would be too difficult it really isn't and sometimes you can never get a perfect line up manually or automatically.
Personally if I were into this type of thing I wouldn't let it put me off, but remember any 4K editing is going to show up any deficiencies in the performance of your computer if it doesn't exceed all the minimum specs as laid out in the specs page for Movie Edit Pro.
Ray.
Hi Ray: When I was comparing the SC and the SC2 camera models I didn't see the part about being able to use the SC2 in the different modes. I could always go to the 2K if I had to I guess. And if my computer proves to have a deficiency problem with the 4k I'm willing to bet it would be a memory issue which could be solved by boosting the machines memory. I think I have 8 gigs worth so 12 gigs would probably be the solution if I'm understanding this all. I'm running Windows 10 professional and Microsoft updates it regularly. So I think I'll just pop the extra $75.00 for the SC2 and take it from there. And if all else fails, I'll enter the necessary info into the program to set it up manually and see how that works. I saw that in the manual when I read it, but I'm still in a learning curve with the Movie Magix program and i thought the path of least resistance would be the best way for me to go. But I'm sure I could learn the manual set-up without a lot of difficulty.
Thank you so much for your time. I really do appreciate it and I'm looking forward to working with the panorama features in the program. Take care and thanks again.
Hi Gerald.
At least the camera is using H-264 and not H-265 so should not be as heavy in processing requirements.
Nothing is written in stone though. You can only try. If you can run MEP 2021 it can't be all bad.
Ray.
Hi Ray: I hadn't thought of that. But I'm glad to have learned that there are other options if the MEP program doesn't want to cooperate on the camera recognition. And if worse comes to worst, I can always revert to an open source video editing program and do my virtual tours with that. The open source stuff is free as you probably know and if I'm only going to do the virtual tours with it I could probably use the easiest of all the open source offerings and get by just fine. I do my image manipulation with an open source program known as the GIMP. A lot of folks say it's as good or better than Adobe's best program. I love it and saved a lot of money by using it instead of buying Photoshop. And like the MEP program, The GIMP takes some time to learn. This video editing is the hardest software package I've ever dealt with. Menus, menus and more menus and I had no idea what I was supposed to do when I first got the program. I'll weather this small storm as well.
Thanks again for everything.
Hi
. . . . I compared the specs on both cameras (SC and SC2) and they looked okay . . .
The specs are similar, however there is a difference - the SC shoots in 'Dual Fisheye' format whereas the SC2 shoots Equirectangular.
I would suggest before paying out the extra money see if you can get hold of some sample footage from the SC2 to test with.
There is more to the system requirements of MEP 2021 when using video of higher resolution than Full HD (1920 x 1080) then having enough memory - the specs @CubeAce linked to are the bare minimum to run the program.
What is your computer specification - see this topic for details required and please quote the processor and any graphics card full names and versions.
John EB
Forum Moderator
Hi John: I copied the page with the rules on it and the next time I post something I'll add the material listed. This program is very new to, me and whereas I have read a lot of the manual it can get confusing as I have never done anything in video editing before. And one of the things I've learned about program manuals as big as the Movie Magix manual is that the best thing, for me at least, is to read the intro material and then read the material I need as I go. Reading the whole thing at once isn't going to work as there's no way to remember something that that big and complex. So it's keeping me busy. Based on what you have mentioned here maybe the SC is the better way to go. The people at Ricoh told me that the images from the camera can be downloaded in single frames. Given that I can run them through my GIMP photo manipulation program and fix just about any problem one of the pictures might have. On the other hand, I just looked up the word Equirectangular and those images sound like the better option for what I'll be able to do as far as fine tuning the images before making a video. I think I'll call Ricoh again as this issue was not addressed when I spoke to them. As mentioned, this is all new territory for me.
In the meantime, thanks for the help.
Hi Gerald.
My way of learning is just to go straight in and experiment, look at tutorials or the manual when I get stuck and then ask questions on forums when needed. It's not that far removed from photo editing just a lot of images one after the other 😂. If you can master Gimp, this should be easy.
Ray.
Hi Ray: There isn't much I can't do with the GIMP, but I've been using it for seven years. But thanks for the ray (no pun intended) of hope. Slowly but surely I'm getting the hang of the Move Magix program. I know enough to make simple things. But the amount of information and menus on the program keeps me busy. I'll get there eventually. I will say that it's the hardest software I've ever dealt with and I've been into computers since 1983 when I got my Apple IIe. Initially I had the hardest time trying to grasp how segments of any video could be placed on all those tracks and then be harmonized into one video. It just didn't register and I had never seen any program with such a format. I spent a lot of time just trying to figure out what I was supposed to do. Eventually I loaded a video I had from the past and slowly I saw how things were supposed to work. And my learning tactic is almost identical to yours. I read the very basic stuff and then start playing with the program and address specific issues as they arise. Even that is harder with this program than anything I've ever seen. Possibly because there are so many different menus and sub-menus and terminology that's new to me regarding the editing process. So it's been a job, but I'm sure it will pay off and result in me producing some of the best video tours in real estate.
Thanks for the advice and I'll get there. It might be a little slow, but for now all I need is the ability to make the video tours I want and I don't think that will be hard. I did make one tour using flat images instead of 360 shots and it came out very well. Sound, music, titles and all else merged into the video as designed and that really helped in my comprehension of how everything works. I even put two short videos in the tour video I was making, just to see if I could do it. It was a lot of fun and I then realized that the sky was the limit with this program. And being defeated is not part of my mental make-up.
Take care and thanks again.