Virtual Tour Camera
360 Virtual Tour Camera - Real Estate 360 Virtual Tour Camera
Virtual Tour Camera and 360 Virtual Tour Camera Testimonial
"When I first started looking into the virtual tour business I bought a 360 degree One-Shot lens adapter for my camera, turning my ordinary digital camera into a virtual tour camera. Little did I know the great trouble that I was in for! I took picture after picture. I spent countless hours in front of the computer trying to make the few NEW virtual tour clients that I did have happy. Every time I viewed the images taken from the virtual tour camera then looked at the images from other virtual tour companies I was more and unhappy with my result. Furthermore, every time that I called I called the one shot lens company for further information on how to get better shots no one was available and my phone calls went ignored.
I had previously sworn I would not get any type of stitching system as my salesperson at from the virtual tour camera company had told me so many bad things about stitching to sell me my dreaded one shot lens and now here I found myself looking at companies that used stitching and their images looked SO MUCH BETTER than mine. As my faith in my virtual tour camera was slowly depleted I finally threw up my hands, put my virtual tour camera and one shot lens up for sale on E-Bay as it was apparent that my dreaded one-shot lens was getting me nowhere.
With just a little bit of research on the stitching technology I found what appeared to be the very best virtual tour company and that was RTV. I found my conversation with the sales rep very educational and made the decision within a day or two to go with RTV. I was amazed! After receiving my gear I was in business immediately and was able to save face with my clients who had already paid me for the one shot lens tours. I would have to imagine that there are lots of people out there who get tied down with a one shot lens system just like I did. To date, RTV has taken great care of me and my one shot lens and virtual tour camera have most likely been sold and resold dozens of times by now!"
Stories like the one above are all too common in the industry. People are promised over and over an easier quicker way and handed an inflated bag of goods. Virtual tour cameras and one shot lens technology is certainly something to steer clear of if you desire to create good looking panoramic images. Below is RTV™s summary of virtual tour cameras and one shot lens technology.
Virtual Tour Camera and One-Shot Lens Systems
I am amazed that virtual tour camera technology is still around today. When choosing a virtual tour solution, you will find that image quality is not the result of the software used to create the tour. Rather, it is the result of lens, the camera and the photographer's skills. The virtual tour camera solution sounds so simple that it becomes very attractive to potential clients. The problem is that one shot systems are sold to you with the promise that you will never have to pay for a virtual tour again. They sell against the stitching systems by telling you that you are certain to get mistakes if you try to stitch photos together. They will tell you that you can shoot 15 tours a day with their virtual tour camera system and you will be sure to leave your competition in the dust.
The entire process sounds very simple in that you only need to take one photo of each room. Any salesman pushing a virtual tour camera system is looking for people who don't take time to learn about the virtual tour industry. Take a moment and ask yourself why there would be so many of virtual tour camera systems for sale on E-bay.
There are now several manufactures of virtual tour cameras and one shot lens' but the underlying technology remains the same and that is as follows:
Virtual Tour Camera Pitfalls:
- One picture must be taking into a mirror at one exposure setting and one white balance setting.
- Most often the camera is held over the head or put on a tripod and the timer must be set allowing you enough time to exit the room.
- You can not utilize the virtual tour cameras on board flash
- You can not shoot a 180 degree shot with the virtual tour camera
- You can not print images from a virtual tour camera or a one shot lens.
A good business owner should never rely on hope and luck to get them by. When you move from one scene to the next you should always be certain that you have a professional grade shot. One shot systems setup on virtual tour cameras do not allow you to utilize your camera's flash so a dark hallway will appear as a black hole and any windows where you have sunlight coming through will be extremely blown out. You should know that all of your images gathered while using a one shot system on a virtual tour camera are only viewable within the software or the tour window online and they are not printable as mentioned above.
Realtors WANT images from their virtual tours for use in the creation of additional marketing pieces for their homes. If you are trying to maximize time and money why would you ever choose a one shot virtual tour lens system that limits you so much? You should also know that you must photograph and entire 360 and you will not have the flexibility to capture 180 or 90 scenes when requested by your client.
In almost every case while photographing a virtual tour of the inside of a home you will need to turn lights on. Since the light that will be coming through the windows of the home is different from the light coming from within the home, you will be dealing with two different kinds of white balance. Have you ever taken a photograph and wondered why the colors were all off or why you have an area of your photo that is blue or green? If so you will get to see an awful lot more of that here in your attempts to get your lighting set up properly for your virtual tour. In the end you will have far more post processing time and editing/setup time than you were sold on in the first place.
Hands down, the only people I would honestly recommend a one shot lens and virtual tour camera system to would be the Realtors listing only vacant land because taking a one shot lens system inside of a home is a recipe for disaster. We have plenty of people in our virtual tour network that are on our photo stitching software who would be more than happy to talk to you about their past experiences with one shot lens and virtual tour camera technology.
In summary as an intelligent business owner you should certainly know by now that anything worth doing is worth doing right. Making the right choice in technology from the start could save you thousands of dollars and more importantly lots of precious time.
RTV is the leading virtual tour company for high-quality 360 virtual tours on the Internet. Quality is ensured throughout the entire virtual tour building process while tour creation time is kept to a minimum. That's why our virtual tours are often preferred for virtual home tours, properties, colleges, long-term care facilities, the hospitality/lodging industry and businesses of all kinds.
For information on becoming a Full Service Dealer or an In-house virtual tour provider, click the link that applies to you.
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For more information on our virtual tour software programs visit www.realtourvision.com
Why Choose Our Virtual Tour Camera?
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How Our Virtual Tours Work
10 Simple Steps To Create Your Own Virtual Tours.
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What's New In Virtual Tour Camera
- New Tour Window!
- New! RTV Audio Wrapper!
- Default Speed of Auto Play on Virtual Tours Increased!
- RTV Releases new Tour Track system
Virtual Tour Camera Testimonials
Shirlee Smith
"I am so pleased with RTV Virtual Tour Software. I've found your support team to be great and exceptionally prompt on answering my questions." More...
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