Video: Matterport Pro3 Camera - Understanding the Three T-Mount Adapter Versions with MatterFix.io | Video courtesy of WGAN-TV Vimeo Channel | Thursday, 8 May 2025

WGAN-TV: Matterport Pro3 Camera-Understanding the Three T-Mount Adapters

Summary for Matterport Service Providers Using a Pro3 Camera

In this episode of the WGAN-TV Podcast, Matterport Pro3 expert Mike Vorce of MatterFix.io breaks down the key differences among the three known versions of the Matterport Pro3 T-Mount tripod adapters. He identifies two official versions—both with stainless steel pins—with the latest version distinguished by a flat section near the clasp.

These are considered safe for regular use. However, Mike issues a strong warning about a third, unofficial version featuring a brass pin and internal screw prone to failure. This version, believed to be a beta unit that escaped destruction and is now circulating via sites like eBay, can jam inside the camera and potentially damage the mount or camera internals.

Mike also provides practical guidance on identifying T-Mount issues in the field, including what to do if your mount is stuck or you encounter an “unstable” error during scanning. He explains how to assess mount tension, alignment, and grab-arm function, and even offers a basic adjustment tutorial using a T15 Torx tool. Importantly, he emphasizes proper seating of the mount to avoid scan errors or hardware damage. If problems persist, Mike recommends swapping out the T-Mount or tripod to isolate the issue—or reaching out to MatterFix.io for expert repair.

For techs using or buying secondhand gear, this video is a must-watch to avoid costly downtime caused by a defective tripod adapter.

Transcript (Video Above)

✓ What are the differences among the three Matterport Pro3 Camera TMount tripod adapters?
✓ Which Matterport Pro3 tripod TMount adapter may cause problems?
✓ What if you have an early designed Matterport Pro3 TMount tripod adapter?

Stay-tuned …

Hi All, I am the digital twin of Dan Smigrod, Founder of the We Get Around Network Forum. Today is Thursday, May 8th, 2025. You're watching the WGAN-TV Podcast for digital twin creators shaping the future of real estate today.

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Matterport Pro3 Camera: All About T-Mounts: Understanding the Three Adapter Versions

Our WGAN-TV Podcast Guest Host is Matterport Pro3 Camera subject matter expert Mike Vorce, founder of MatterFix.io And, yes, the website is also MatterFix.io

- Hello, this is Mike with MatterFix.io ... and this is one in our series of "All About" videos.

And today, we're going to be talking all about the Matterport Pro3 Camera T-Mount, or otherwise known as the tripod adapter. Now, currently, as far as we're aware of, there are three different versions that are in circulation right now.

The newest one, you can tell it, because it has a flat portion on this barrel where the clasp is. There's a little flat surface there, that's the newest one. It also has a stainless steel pin, so it's silver, so that's the newest one.

The one just previous to that looks exactly like this. The only thing is it does not have this flat surface here. It's round all the way around the barrel, but it does have the stainless steel pin. Now, those are the two official versions.

They should be absolutely fine to use, you shouldn't have any problem with those other than normal wear and tear. Now, there's also another version floating around out there, and I believe this was a test version or a beta version that Matterport had produced, and it didn't pass the QC test, and these were supposed to be destroyed, but apparently, I guess, maybe in Asia somewhere, somebody bought out those, was able to get ahold of those, and they've been resold, particularly on eBay.

And what distinguishes them is they have a brass pin. They look identical. It has the round body, it looks identical to the first official version that comes out, but it has the brass pin here. And the problem with these, the T-Mount is a fairly complex mechanism inside.

There's two arms that come up that have ridges on here, and they depress when you put the T-Mount into the camera, and then when you tighten the clamp that locks them in place. And in this particular version, the design inside, there's a piece that sticks out of an arm here, and instead of it being a solid piece, it actually has a little screw, a very tiny screw that goes in and holds it in place.

And that screw, over time, can work its way out, and when it falls out, it'll fall down, and basically, it'll jam the T-Mount up. And we've seen a number of instances of this, where the T-Mount has gotten stuck inside the camera. You couldn't remove it.

And in every case we've seen, it's because they had one of these version of the T-Mount with a brass pin in it, and that screw had backed out and fallen down in there, and jammed the mount, so that's something you need to be aware of. We have some of these ourselves, but we only use them in emergency cases, or around the shop where we can keep a good eye on them.

So I would definitely advise, if you have any of these, keep them as backups, and just use them sparingly in the case of an emergency.

So that's the, like I said, there's three versions of it, this non-legitimate version which we advise against using, and then two of the newer versions, the newest one having the flat surface on the barrel, and the one previous to that looking the same, and having the round surface there, and these can be distinguished easily, because they have the stainless steel pin in there.

Okay, so next, let's talk about how the T-Mount or the tripod adapter should function and should look. If you grab it near the top where the mount fits into the camera, and then you grab the base, you should be able to turn this.

There should be resistance there, but it should turn, or shouldn't be -- maybe a very slight fraction of an inch play in there is okay, but it shouldn't have play in it, and you should have to put some effort in it to turn it. If it spins freely, then that's not, that's not correct.

And this is considered the clutch, and this is so when it's sitting on the tripod, and the camera's on it, you can rotate the camera if you want to change the initial start position of doing a sweep. The same mechanism is built into the Matterport Pro2 Camera, so when it's on the tripod, you can basically twist the camera around, and it doesn't affect anything.

So that's the clutch, then there should be an even gap all the way around, very minimal, you see here. Sometimes if a camera has fallen over with a T-Mount on it, and the tripod on it, it'll actually be bent, or dislocated, or dislodged, and you'll see that this is uneven here.

You definitely don't want that. Now, what holds the camera in is these two I call grab arms. I'm not sure what the correct term is for them, but when this is released here, the tension's off, these should move freely in and out.

You can see I can push them here in and out. When it's locked, they should basically be in place. On some T-Mounts, one of them will have a very slight movement, and the other one will be rigid. So if you close it and you've got play there, that's a problem. If you open it and they don't easily depress and go back into place, that's a problem.

And then another thing that we like to keep track of is the tension that's on this arm. When this arm, we found that when this arm goes down, when you go to engage it, it should take a little bit of pressure to put it into place.

If it's flopping and it's loose, it needs to be adjusted slightly. And if it's too tight, if you really have to torque on it to get it down, that also needs to be adjusted.

And the way you do the adjustment is there is a T15 Torx head here, and I'll loosen this one up. So I've loosened it up, and you can see now, it basically flops without, and you really don't want that. There should be some pressure that needs to be applied at the very end there.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to tighten it a little bit, test it, tighten it a little bit more, still loose, tighten it a little bit more. Okay, very end, it's kind of a fine adjustment. That was a little bit too much, there.

Now, it just takes a little bit of pressure there. So you can adjust that, and then confirm that these pieces are locked in place, and like I said, when it's loose, these should be free. If they're not free, then that can be a problem.

And then the other thing that's important is that the T-Mount, you can have a problem if the T-Mount isn't seated, or if the camera isn't seated correctly on the T-Mount.

You want to make sure that this surface here, and this bottom of the camera, that they are perfectly lined up.

You could actually tighten it with it like that, and you can damage something. You don't want that. You want those two surfaces to be parallel and even, and then tighten it there.

That's the correct way. Most of the time, if you've scanned for a while, you kind of instinctively know that, but if you have a newer technician, or somebody who's not familiar with a camera, they can put it down and have it slightly adjusted, off of level and tighten it, and that can cause some damage, or cause a camera to not rotate correctly.

Okay, lastly, we're going to go over a couple other issues that can be related to the T-Mount. One is if you're scanning and you get the Unstable error on your Matterport capture app.

Typically what we found, this is going to be, it'd be one of a couple things, but if you get the Unstable error, you want to make sure that your camera is seated correctly on the T-Mount like we talked about earlier.

You want that surface to be parallel with the top. You don't want it tilted a little bit one way or the other. Make sure it's seated 100% correctly. Tighten that up, make sure your tripod legs are all locked, you're on a solid surface, try it again. If you still get the issue, we suggest trying a different T-Mount and a different tripod.

If you can do that, and you're still getting the Unstable message, then most likely, you've eliminated any problem with the T-Mount or the tripod, and in that case it's probably the H drive, the motor inside there that rotates the camera, and in that case, it's probably going to have to be sent in for repair. [www.MatterFix.io]

Another issue is if your T-Mount gets stuck inside the tripod. As I was mentioning earlier, this version of the T-Mount that has the brass pin in it, that screw can come loose, and your T-Mount can be stuck. You try and loosen it, and it just won't come out.

In that case, you're probably going to have to send the camera in to us, or try and take the T-Mount apart yourself, but in the field, you can try this. Unscrew the T-Mount and the camera off of the tripod, and open the clasp, and then try rotating around at different positions and tapping on the T-Mount, because you can possibly get that screw to get out of the position it's in now to allow the T-Mount to release.

So you can try different things, rotate at different places, tap on it like that, and you may get lucky and get it to come out, but if you can't, you'll need to send it into us, [www.MatterFix.io] or you can try and disassemble it yourself.

I'll be doing a detailed video on that fairly soon for those of you who might want to try and take it apart yourself, but essentially, you have to start at the bottom here, and take it out layer by layer till you get down to the point where there's only one piece in there, and then you can usually maneuver and get it out. So that kind of covers everything we know about the T-Mounts.

At MatterFix.io, we're always here to help you. Go online, fill out the questionnaire, shoot us a question, email us info at MatterFix.io

If you're in emergency situation, on [www.MatterFix.io], our toll-free number, you should be able to get there. You can call and we can try and help you out, thanks.

Thanks Mike!

Got follow-up questions for Mike?

Go to Matterfix.io or post your questions to the We Get Around Network Forum at WeGetAroundNetworkForum.com.

Thank you for watching the WGAN-TV Podcast.