How do you turn any camera into a 3D camera with a LiDAR?

A 3D camera like the Matterport Pro3 does two things: it photographs and it measures with a laser. It costs $3,995. A $419 LiDAR, on its own small stand under the tripod, brings laser measurement to the camera of your choice: a 360 camera of any brand or a DSLR. Virtuaaa sets up the import with you, on your first LiDAR shoot.

Try it free

Cameras and tools · by Hugo Mercier · 6 November 2026 · 7 minutes

A LiDAR point cloud: millions of measured points draw the street, the cars and the buildings — A San Francisco street corner scanned by an Ouster OS1-64 lidar on a car: about 23 million points in 18 seconds.

What a LiDAR adds to your camera

Any camera. Your panoramas keep the quality of your own camera, 360 or DSLR.
Laser measurement. The scale in metres and the true shape of the rooms, even on a bare white wall.
A fraction of the price. $419 for the Unitree L2, against $3,995 for a Pro3.
$10 per tour you keep, paid once, like any Virtuaaa tour.

Plan my first LiDAR shootThe import is set up on request: this first shoot will also be its first trial on a real L2.

Why add a laser to a 360 camera?

On one apartment also surveyed with a laser, room dimensions from the photos came within 10 cm of the laser, with the camera height known. Photos struggle with bare white walls, look-alike rooms, large open spaces and glass.

The Unitree L2 in figures

	Unitree L2
Price	$419 at Unitree, excluding shipping, taxes and duties
Range	30 m on bright surfaces, 15 m on dark ones (90 % and 10 % reflectivity)
Accuracy	2 cm or better for one point (measured at 15 m on a bright target)
Field of view	360° x 90°, a dome above the sensor (96° in NEGA mode): walls and ceiling, little floor
Speed	64,000 points per second
Weight	230 g
Power	12 V, 1 A: 10 W typical, 13 W peak while it warms up
Connection	Ethernet or serial, to a computer; SDK repository under BSD-3-Clause, driver core precompiled

Manufacturer figures (L2 user manual v1.1 and unitree.com, seen on 2 November 2026). Unitree is a trademark of Unitree Robotics. Virtuaaa is not affiliated with Unitree.

How would it mount under the camera?

Owners report that the L2 shakes a standard tripod (its head turns about 5.5 times a second). The plan: set it on its own small stand, centred under the camera, its top about 40 cm high, not touching the camera tripod.

It then stays in the nadir, the patch of floor Virtuaaa retouches on every panorama.

Known constraints: looking upward, it barely sees the floor, and the tripod legs and the camera hide slices of its view.

On a separate stand, its offset from the lens changes at each viewpoint: the plan is to compute that offset at every viewpoint by matching the scan to its panorama.

The L2 streams its points to a small computer, such as a Raspberry Pi, that also fits under the tripod.

Plan of a Virtuaaa tour, each viewpoint linked to those it sees

What would change during the shoot?

Switch the LiDAR on at the start and leave it on. It first warms itself up and sends no points until it is ready.
Keep the tripod still for a few seconds at each viewpoint: the points add up as the head turns.
Dark walls, glass and mirrors return little light: shoot these areas from a second viewpoint too.

Same viewpoints as without a laser, plus three habits to confirm on the first shoot:

Dollhouse of a materials showroom built by Virtuaaa

What can the laser data do?

Fit the scans together, starting from the positions computed from the photos: the laser brings the scale in metres and the true shape of the rooms.

Then draw the walls of the floor plan from the scans, take the ceiling heights for the dollhouse, and show measured dimensions. How the plan is drawn from the photos alone is in the floor plan guide.

Which laser for which job?

	What it measures	Price	Your camera
Unitree L2 under the tripod (on request)	Walls and ceiling all around, up to 30 m	$419, plus a small computer and a battery	Kept: Insta360, Theta, DSLR
iPhone Pro LiDAR (RoomPlan)	Walls of each room, up to 5 m from the phone (rooms up to 9 x 9 m)	Included in the phone	A second pass, after the photos
iGUIDE PLANIX	Positions and one horizontal slice of each room	Camera and per-project fees	Its own camera
4DKanKan META	Full 3D	€7,499 excl. VAT at Widdim (promotional price, instead of €9,374)	Its own camera

Prices seen on 2 November 2026: Unitree for the L2, Widdim (French reseller) for the 4DKanKan META. See the iGUIDE guide for a PLANIX project. Names are trademarks of their owners.

How do you start?

Write to me at [email protected] before your first LiDAR shoot. I set up the import with you on that shoot. The camera side stays the same: the panoramas are taken and uploaded as described in the 3D tour guide.

The LiDAR page

LiDAR and 360 tours: your questions

Does the Unitree L2 work with an Insta360 or a DSLR?

That is the plan: the L2 stands on its own under the camera, so an Insta360, a Ricoh Theta or a DSLR on a panoramic head all fit; each scan is matched to its panorama afterwards.

Can I use the LiDAR of an iPhone Pro instead?

The iPhone covers one room at a time, in a second pass after the photos. The L2 reaches 30 metres and would record at every viewpoint during the shoot.

How accurate will the positions be with the L2?

I will give a figure once measured on real shoots. The 2 cm in the L2 specifications is the accuracy of one point, not of a viewpoint position.

How long does it run on a battery?

Roughly the battery's capacity in watt-hours divided by the total draw: about 10 W for the L2, plus the computer. The battery must deliver 12 V for the L2 and the computer's own supply (5 V, 5 A for a Raspberry Pi 5).

Who installs the software on the small computer?

I set it up with you, as part of LiDAR import, on your first LiDAR shoot.

How much does it cost in total?

$419 for the L2, plus shipping, taxes and duties; around €180 to €250 in France for a small computer, a battery for both, a memory card and cables (my estimate, at 2026 Raspberry Pi prices); and a small stand.