Nodalview Virtual Tour: before connecting the 360º panoramas into a walk around experience. | Test Shoot by We Get Around Chief Photographer Dan Smigrod | Location: Atlanta Tech Village; co-working space includes We Get Around Network office.

Video Nodaview Rot@tor - Automatic panorama head for 360° panoramas | Video courtesy of Nodalview SA/VA YouTube Channel

My First Nodalview Virtual Tour: Dan Smigrod

Hi All,

Above is my first Nodalview Virtual Tour - before connecting the 360º panoramas into a walk around experience. (I will do another post next week about my Nodalview post production experience.)

This post is only about the shooting experience using the NodalView Kit (Below). For the purpose of this test, I did not worry whether I was in the panoramas or in the reflection of a glass window. I shot for an hour.

Highlights

Using the Nodalview Kit – paired with a smartphone – it is super-easy and super-fast to shoot high-quality (HDR), sharp 360º panoramas for a Virtual Tour.

I could imagine Nodalview enabling a Matterport Service Provider to affordably shoot under $250,000 listings by shooting the tour in 15-30 minutes. I could imagine just shooting one 360º in each room and four outside and charging $149 or $199 as an Add On to photos and video or included in a bundle. (Tip: shoot business locations for monthly recurring revenue.)

For someone new to the 3D/360º Space, Nodalview may be a great entry level solution that costs less than $500 to get starter (and $250 if you already have a tripod).

Here's what I liked about shooting with the NodalView Kit paired with my iPhone XR:

1. The NodalView fisheye lens screws on to a a NodalView designed case for my iPhone XR (Nodalview provides cases for most smartphones). If you ever tried a clip-on fish-eye lens for a smartphone, you know that it can easily move out of place: not with the NodalView lens and case included in the Nodalview Kit.

2. Easy to learn to shoot. While I did watch this video and read the short Getting Started with Nodalview instructions (below), the one thing that might not be obvious is to line up the lens over the nodal point to avoid distortion. I did one test shot and then jumped into shooting the second floor of the WGAN co-working space in Atlanta.

3. Keep or Toss. Once the 360º is shot, I could preview it and decide to keep it or toss it (Validate or Discard)

4. HDR is GREAT! The in-camera (my iPhone XR) HDR powered by the Nodalview iOS app looks great: even on especially bright outside views and somewhat dark inside.

5. Upload 360ºs to the Nodalview Cloud while shooting. I used Wi-Fi. I had the option of using 3G or 4G too.

6. Super-Fast Tour creation (as soon as I was done shooting, the 360ºs were uploaded to the Nodalview Cloud and ready for tour creation.

7. Horizontal and vertical line within the Nodalview app display to confirm that the camera is straight.

8. Naming the panoramas as I go (and I could not use the same name twice: which is a good thing).

9. The Nodalview Arm has a tight grip on my iPhone XR (despite its weight and size).

10. The eight shots around - every 45 degrees - likely means there is less chance of stitching errors. In my first pass, I did not see any stitching errors.

What I Did Not Like

1. I could see the tip of one tripod leg in some of the panoramas. That said, that would be easy to eliminate if I used the Nodalview tripod instead of one of my Manfrotto tripods.

2. Not sure how I know how much longer the battery charge will last. I could imagine that there is an indicator for this.

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You can take the Nodalview Kit for a spin - free - if you are a WGAN Basic, Standard or Premium Member. Please see the Borrow Gear tab above to learn more about the WGAN 360º Camera Loaner Program. Or, see your Welcome Onboard Letter for this form: WGAN 360º Camera Loaner Program Order Form (Private Message me for the password)

Nodalview contributed three Nodalview Kits to the WGAN 360º Camera Loaner Program, plus the free use of a Nodalview account for testing.

Take a look at the 360º panorama images in the Nodalview tour. What do you think about the quality?

(Please, never mind about no walk around experience. I have not done the post production on linking the 360ºs together. That's next week.)

Best,

Dan


Image 1: Nodalview Kit | [WGAN added the Adaptor to connect the Rot@tor to a professional tripod (1/4" male to 3/8" female)]


Image 2: Nodalview Kit Unboxed | [WGAN added the Adaptor to connect the Rot@tor to a professional tripod (1/4" male to 3/8" female)] Left to Right: 1) 360º Lens (and lens cloth, lens cap and soft pouch); 2) [WGAN added the Adaptor to connect the Rot@tor to a professional tripod (1/4" male to 3/8" female)] 3) Wide Angle Lens (and lens cloth, lens cap and soft pouch); 4) Getting Started User Manual (v1.1); 5) Nodalview Rot@tor; 6) smartphone case (WGAN ships the version that you need); 7) Nodalview Arm

WGAN added the following to the three Nodalview Kits for the WGAN 360º Loaner Program:

✓ Adaptor to connect the Rot@tor to a professional tripod (1/4" male to 3/8" female)

Below are the Nodalview instructions for getting started. The Nodalview Getting Started Guide is also available as a video.


Image 3 - Nodalview Getting Started Guide (Side 1 of 2)


Image 4 - Nodalview Getting Started Guide (Side 2 of 2)

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Also ...




If you are deciding on which 3D or 360º platform is right for you, one option in Nodalview.

If you are scanning with Matterport, Nodalview may be an option for lower price properties where you need an easy solution that can be shot quickly – a 360º in 5 to 10 rooms in a house or commercial space in less than 30 minutes - including unpacking and packing up.

For less than $250 in accessories plus a monthly subscription you can begin creating Nodalview Tours.

My guests on WGAN-TV Live at 5 (5 pm EST | GMT -5) tomorrow, Wednesday, 16 January 2019 are:

✓ Thomas Lepelaars, co-Founder, Nodalview (Brussels, Belgium)
✓ Yan Bohyn, Regional Director of Sales Nodalview USA (Orlando)

Thomas and Yan will demo how to shoot and edit a Nodalview tour (and will assume no prior experience with Nodalview).