3D Vision Blog

If you thought that you can use only the GoPro HERO or HERO 2 action cameras together with the GoPro 3D HERO system or maybe alternatively use the Drift HD Action Camera with MIO 3D for recording 3D video with a compact solution and in extreme conditions, then you should be aware that there are other alternatives as well. One such interesting alternative is the VIO POV HD action camera, a similar solution to the others already mentioned, but with slightly different approach and some extra features. The VIO POV HD camera uses a separate module containing the lens and the sensor (camera head) connected with a cable to the long main body of the device, it appears to be more rugged and also offers some interesting and more advanced features compared to the HERO and Drift HD cameras… but all that also comes with a higher price.

As with the other action cameras, using VIO POV HD also requires you to pair two of these cameras together and have them synchronized in order to get the two separate views required for the 3D video you are making. On the image above you can see roughly what are the sizes of the camera head of the VIO POV HD, so that you can get an idea how you can pair two of them in a stereoscopic 3D rig. The largest size is the front part of the camera head has a diameter of about 38 millimeters, so the minimum interaxial distance you can get by pairing two of these heads is going to be around 38 millimeters. It is up to you to make a custom mount that will hold the two camera heads together and maybe will also allow you to easily change the interaxial distance.

The VIO POV HD action cameras come with a wireless remote control that can be used to start/stop recording video on single as well as multiple cameras at the same time (works with more than two cameras as well). The thing you need to do is first make sure what is the channel number at which the remote control is set to operate at, there is a dial inside the remote that can be used to select from 10 available channels. Then you need to set the channel of the wireless remote inside the configuration of the two cameras that you are going to use for recording 3D video, you can find the option in the Settings menu of the device under Remote ID Channel. Make sure that both cameras are set to use the same channel and that the channel is the same that one of the wireless remotes is set to operate at, you can easily test if everything is properly working if both cameras start/stop recording at the same time. As usual with this type of synchronization of two cameras using a remote control to trigger them together you should expect some slight drift in the synchronization, but you should be able to fix that in post most of the time.

- To check what are the current prices of the VIO POV HD action cameras…

Onuprova 3D Camera is a free software that can help you easily use two web cameras in order to be able to take photos and record videos in stereo 3D, the application can output the resulting footage in anaglyph 3D format using multiple options. The five different anaglyph color schemes supported by the software are: red-cyan, red-green, red-blue, magenta-cyan and green-magenta. And if you don’t have two webcams (preferably the same model) you can also take two photos with a little offset in between with your mobile phone, digital camera or webcam and then import the two images in the software and get anaglyph 3D output. Onuprova 3D Camera is simple and easy to use and you should be able to quickly get the hang of using it, it could take you some more time in order to learn to place the two web cameras with the right distance in between or properly converged in order to give you the best results in 3D, especially if you are new to stereoscopic 3D shooting. Just have in mind that the closer the object you are shooting in 3D the less should be the distance between the two web cameras and the more distant it is the larger the distance should be. As a base you can start with the rule of 1/30, meaning that the distance between the lenses of the cameras should be 1/30 of the distance from the cameras to the object you are shooting in 3D, and this should work quite well as a base to start experimenting with.

- Here you can download the latest version 2.3 of Onuprova 3D Camera…

You can watch the short 3D trailer for an upcoming 3D movie called “Over the Sky” from Cesar Sommer, whose nice work in 3D format has already been featured here a few times. You can also find the 3D trailer of “Over the Sky” in his 3DVisionLive channel for 3D Vision owners, where you can also find some other of his works. The short movie was shot in collaboration with Clin d’Ailes, and although the final production release date is not set yet, it should be around February or March next year.

Cesar was kind enough to also share some details on the production of the movie, apart from the fact that he had some fun while shooting it as you can see from his impression on this photo. Most of the video was shot with the Sony HXR-NX3D1 3D camcorder, although for some scenes he also used the Canon 5D mark II stereo 3D rig he has built, although according to Cesar it was almost impossible to film the quick flying jets with it. The final movie might also have some in-cockpit 3D footage from the planes, but that is not yet finalized as shooting from the cockpit of a flying plane in 3D is something that needs to be carefully planed and executed.

The production pipeline consisted of a few steps with the first one being the use of the MVC to AVI Converter software form Peter Wimmer to split the .MTS 3D video file from the Sony camcorder into left and right AVI streams. The videos produced from the Canon-based stereo 3D rig are already in separate files for the left and for the right eye.

The next step of the production was to import the video files into Adobe After Effects for color grading and lining up the separates files, so that you can get a nice looking and properly aligned stereoscopic 3D movie in the end. Then the final step is to export the video from After Effects as a single left/right AVI file and cut it in Adobe Premiere. As I’ve mentioned already the project is still a work in progress and some extra footage will probably be shot and included in the final version, although there is still some time before we would be able to see the end result in 3D. Meanwhile you are welcome to share your feedback from the stereo 3D trailer, and ask some questions if there is something more you are interested in…

- To see the short 3D trailer of Over the Sky by Cesar Sommer in YouTube 3D…
- To see the short 3D trailer of Over the Sky by Cesar Sommer in 3DVisionLive…