Category Archives: Cameras

3D video of Yellowstone’s Old Faithful Geyser eruption

September 18, 2012 3DM 1 Comment

3D video of Yellowstone’s Old Faithful Geyser eruption – YouTube.

This is a “fake” 3D video created from a 2D video shot from the overlook several hundred feet above the geyser basin.

This video was created by time shifting a 2D video to produce separate left and right images – creating a very nice effect of the steam cloud coming out of the screen at the viewer.

To create this effect, the one 2D video was dragged to both the “left” track and the “right” track in Magix Movie Edit MX Plus. Then, using the Stereo 3D effects tools, click on the “Shift Frames” – or + options. For this video, the right track was shifted 5 frames to the left. This has the effect of moving the steam cloud forward or towards the viewer.

Because the steam cloud is constantly moving, by shifting one copy of the video sequence off by 5 frames, the left eye sees the original and the right eyes sees the original but shifted by 5 frames when the steam has moved slightly. This, in turn, is similar to having recorded a separate left and right video image. But instead, I cheated used only 1 camera.

This was shot on a single, handheld Lumix GH-2 with a 45-200mm zoom lens. My tripod was simultaneously in use shooting a time lapse sequence using a Canon SX1 which I have not yet processed.

Cameras

Hasselblad aims for luxury camera market

September 18, 2012 3DM

Proof that the recession has not affected some people – $6,500 luxury camera: Hasselblad aims for luxury camera market, not just pros | Crave – CNET.

Cameras

Nokia improves image stabilization in new smart phone cameras

September 5, 2012 3DM

This is what I expected after last week’s short teaser video showing a young woman riding along on a bike – the usual CMOS “jello” was not present. Nokia has addressed the problem of jittery camera phone videos by providing image stabilization in a smart phone camera:

The Lumia 920s PureView feature is a “floating lens technology” where the camera lens actually moves and responds to jittery hand motions, ensuring a more stable image. The technology also helps out at night, brightening up images in low-light conditions, with some shots looking like they were taken by a more sophisticated DSLR.

via Nokias turnaround hopes come to focus with new Lumia phones | Mobile – CNET News.

Their original “teaser” video clip turned out to been shot on a professional CCD video camera system, hence, no jello. However, Nokia has posted a new clip showing a side by side comparison of a normal cell phone video with the new optically stabilized Lumia 920 video camera. OIS does work (I have it on an older video camera).

3D, Cameras

3D Photography Tips (3D Porch) – this is great info!

September 3, 2012 3DM

3D Photography Tips (3D Porch).

Something I noticed is that “wiggle” shots are also done differently than regular stereoscopic shots. For example, the 3rd page of 3Dporch’s tips illustrates this where the foreground is made to move while the background is held constant.

Normally, when shooting 3D we like to have the closer subjects centered at the viewing plane (in the Z-axis) which is very different than how 3D works in a “wiggle” shot.

And note how in this wiggle 3D image, framing the photo works well, while many 3D enthusiasts would call this a “frame violation”.

Cameras

When “megapixels” does not mean what you might think it means

September 3, 2012 3DM

If your camera has 48 megapixels, how many picture elements do you think your highest resolution photo has?

This specification table for a Sigma camera helps to understand a bit about how “megapixels” may or may not mean what you think it means.

From the table, this is a 48 megapixel camera (which is an amazing camera).

But down below, you can see that the highest resolution images are 4704 x 3136 picture elements wide x tall. Multiply those together and you get 14.76 megapixels, not 48 megapixels. Why?

Because megapixels is counting the sensors of which there are 3 at each pixel. Multiply 14.76 x 3 and you’ll come up with 44.2 million image sensor locations (which is close enough since the entire sensor surface is not used in most cameras). The Foveon sensor uniquely has all 3 sensor sites, per pixel stacked on top of one another.

There’s nothing wrong with these numbers – only a potential misunderstanding of what the term “megapixels” actually means.

SIGMA DP2 Merrill : Major Specifications
Image Sensor	Foveon X3® direct image sensor (CMOS)
Image Size	23.5×15.7mm
Number of Pixels	Total Pixels: 48MP
	Effective Pixels: 46MP(4,800×3,200×3)
Aspect Ratio	3:2
Focal Length	30mm
35mm Equivalent Focal Format	Approx. 45mm
Maximum Aperture	F2.8
Number of Diaphragm Blades 9	9 Blades
Lens Construction	8 Elements in 6 Groups
Minimum Focusing Distance	28cm
Maximum Magnification Shooting	1:7.6
Storage Media	SD Card / Compatible with SDHC, Multi Media Card
Recording Mode	Lossless compression RAW data (12-bit, High, Medium, Low), JPEG (High, Medium, Low), RAW+JPEG, Movie (motion jpeg), Voice memo to still images (10sec.)

File Size / Still	RAW	High	4,704×3,136×3 (Approx. 45MB)
		Medium	3,264×2,176×3 (Approx. 24MB)
		Low	2,336×1,568×3 (Approx. 12MB

	JPEG	High	Fine 4,704×3,136 (Approx. 10MB)
			High Normal 4,704×3,136 (Approx. 5.6MB)
			Basic 4,704×3,136 (Approx. 4.2MB)
		Medium	Fine 3,264×2,176 (Approx. 5MB)
			Medium Normal 3,264×2,176 (Approx. 2.7MB)
			Basic 3,264×2,176 (Approx. 2MB)
		Low	Fine 2,336×1,568 (Approx. 2.5MB)
			Normal 2,336×1,568 (Approx. 1.4MB)
			Basic 2,336×1,568 (Approx. 1MB)

Let’s take a look at another camera, the Canon 5D Mark II.

Type
High-sensitivity, high-resolution, large single-plate CMOS sensor

Pixels
Effective pixels: Approx. 21.1 megapixels

Total Pixels
Total pixels: Approx. 22.0 megapixels

And then look at the image sizes

File Size
(1) Large/Fine: Approx. 6.1MB (5616 x 3744 pixels)

(2) Large/Nomal: Approx. 3.0MB (5616 x 3744 pixels)

(3) Medium/Fine: Approx. 3.6MB (4080 x 2720 pixels)

(4) Medium/Normal: Approx. 1.9MB (4080 x 2720 pixels)

(5) Small/Fine: Approx. 2.1MB (2784 x 1856 pixels)

(6) Small/Normal: Approx. 1.0MB (2784 x 1856 pixels)

(7) RAW: Approx. 25.8MB (5616 x 3744 pixels)

(8) sRAW 1: Approx. 14.8MB (3861 x 2574 pixels)

(9) sRAW 2: Approx. 10.8MB (2784 x 1856 pixels)

With the Canon 5D Mark II, the image resolution of 5616 x 3744 is 21 megapixels, yet the camera likely has more “photosites” within the imager.

This leads to the conclusion that megapixel camera ratings do not necessarily mean what you think they mean. And that the megapixel count may not be nearly as important as some think it is. Ultimately, lens quality, use of a tripod, sensor noise characteristics and noise removal algorithms, sharpening algorithms and general photographic skill may be much more important in image resolution than the megapixel count – however it may be defined.