Protecting my Ricoh Theta S

2016-01-05 18.10.45Bright ideas can be kind of obvious, when you look back on them.

I love my new Ricoh Theta S, but am also a little bit paranoid about taking it out and about with me. It has a protruding glass fish-eye lens on both sides, and the danger of accidentally damaging one of them tends to be on my mind. There is no way to casually lay the camera down on its side, without it resting on a lens, and the danger of scratching; so you end up standing it on its end. But then there is the danger of something knocking it over and breaking a lens.

How serious this danger is, I don’t know. There are stories out there of owners breaking a lens through carelessness, but also stories about dropping the camera with no damage. One would hope the lens is made of tough stuff, but Ricoh doesn’t seem to have published anywhere the characteristics of the glass used, and I don’t want to find out by experimenting.

The camera does come with a snug neoprene slip case, which will deal with the danger of scratching. There is an optional leather case, but I don’t see that giving much more protection. There is also a polycarbonate tube, sold as a weatherproof enclosure, but polycarbonate is tough, and fatally damaging one of them is 10 times cheaper than hurting the camera. I was planning to get one, but no-one in the UK has any stock (including the company that says they have stock, but are actually taking advance orders).

2016-01-05 181231_phixrThinking about this today, I had the bright idea – an old spectacles case. I have several spare cases, in particular one that is cloth-lined metal. I found that the camera and slip case together fitted perfectly into it. It could have been made for it. I’d actually feel relaxed slipping this in my back pocket, without fear of damaging the camera.

Obvious, really.
2016-01-05 18.13.29

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