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Exporting equirectangular images

Getting a clean 2:1 equirectangular JPG out of Insta360, Theta, GoPro, and others. Includes the Insta360 Free Capture trap.

Chapter 4 of 127 min read

Tourly accepts a single thing: a 2:1 equirectangular JPG per scene. Every modern 360 camera can produce one. The trick is knowing the right export option in each camera's app — some of them default to a format that looks right but breaks spherical playback in subtle ways.

What "equirectangular" actually means

An equirectangular image is the unwrapping of a sphere onto a flat rectangle, the same way a world map unwraps the globe. The horizon is the middle row of pixels, the top is what's directly above the camera, and the bottom is what's directly below. Width is always exactly 2× height — that 2:1 ratio is what spherical viewers (Marzipano, Pannellum, Three.js, your Tourly viewer) expect.

Aspect ratio
Exactly 2:1 (e.g. 5760×2880, 7680×3840)
Format
JPG. PNG works but files are 5× larger for no quality gain.
Color space
sRGB. AdobeRGB will look desaturated in browsers.
File size
Aim for 5–15 MB. Anything bigger is over-detail; smaller is usually under-detail.

Insta360 (X3, X4, One X2)

This is where most agents trip. Insta360 cameras shoot a proprietary .insp or .insv file by default, which is not equirectangular until you export it.

Don't use Free Capture
In the Insta360 app, "Free Capture" exports a flat 2D photo with the framing you chose — useful for social media, useless for a virtual tour. It's not a sphere anymore.
Do export as 360 Photo at 5.7K Equirectangular
Open your photo in the Insta360 app → tap the export icon → choose 360 Photo → format JPG → resolution 5.7K (5760×2880). Save to camera roll or AirDrop to your computer.

On the desktop Insta360 Studio app the same option lives under Export → Spherical → JPG. Make sure "Spherical" is selected and not "Flat" or "Tiny Planet".

Exporting a whole shoot at once

  1. Plug the camera into your computer via USB-C.
  2. Open Insta360 Studio.
  3. Drag all the .insp files into the queue.
  4. Set defaults: 360 Photo, JPG, 5760×2880, sRGB. Apply to all.
  5. Hit export. ~10 seconds per photo on a modern laptop.

Ricoh Theta (Z1, X, SC2)

Theta cameras shoot equirectangular by default. Plug the camera in or pair via Wi-Fi in the Theta app, and the photos come off the device already in the right format.

Theta orientation
The Z1 and X have built-in horizon levelling that's enabled by default — keep it on. It auto-rotates the photo so vertical lines stay vertical even if you held the camera slightly tilted. Without it, your living room walls will lean.

On the Z1 specifically, you can also shoot in DNG (RAW) mode. Skip this for tour work — the JPG processing pipeline is excellent and the workflow saving isn't worth the extra step.

GoPro Max

The GoPro Max shoots a proprietary .360 file that needs reprojection, similar to Insta360. The flow:

  1. Open the photo in GoPro Player on desktop.
  2. Choose Export → JPG with the 360 projection (not "Flat" or "Linear").
  3. Resolution will cap at 5.6K — that's the camera's max.

The Max is fine but its stitching is noticeably softer than the Insta360 X-series. Workable but not best-in-class.

iPhone (panorama and 360 apps)

The native iOS Camera app's "Pano" mode does not produce equirectangular output — it's a flat strip with limited vertical coverage. Tourly will reject it.

For phone-only shooting, use a dedicated app:

  • Insta360's free app with the optional X-series remote shoots true equirectangular if you pair a 360 camera. Without one, the in-app "single phone 360" mode walks you through a manual rotation and stitches the result. Quality is mediocre.
  • P360 Camera (iOS) uses the wide lens and gyro to build an equirectangular image. Decent for outdoor/test shots.

Naming files so future-you doesn't suffer

The tour editor sorts scenes by upload order, but you'll be uploading 12 files at once and it's easy to lose track. Rename before uploading:

  • 01-front-exterior.jpg
  • 02-foyer.jpg
  • 03-living-room.jpg
  • 04-kitchen.jpg

The 01- prefix is what makes them sort correctly. Without it macOS and Windows both put 10-master-bedroom right after 1-foyer.

What's next

Now you have a clean folder of equirectangular JPGs, named in the order you want them to appear. The last shooting-side decision is which rooms to include and in what order — covered in Planning a tour.