Yay! Ricoh announces a software development kit and partner program for third parties to add features to their Theta V camera.

This is exciting – 4-5 years ago, I approached all the camera makers at CES about adding an SDK for their cameras. Panasonic was interested, Sony and Canon did not blow me off, but Nikon was stuck on stupid.

Nikon told me that allowing third parties to add features to their products would ruin the Nikon brand.

I said, “Just like how third party software ruined the Apple iPhone?”

The Nikon staff did actually laugh at that and noted they understood what I was saying but they had to speak the company line and management would never go for something like that. Since then, Nikon has been suffering significant financial challenges – oh well!