Fullscreen HTML5Med Res (??MB)HTML4

Now you you can shoot real 3D 3D MOVIES MOVIES with your own camcorder! Last month, we introduced the subject of 3D TV and checked out the liquid crystal shutter (LCS) spectacles you need to view 3D in your own home. This month, we check out a clever accessory which enables you to shoot 3D movies with your own camcorder! by Barrie Smith 12  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au I n technology terms, we are constantly reminded that Australians are a nation of early adopters. Decades back we fell over ourselves to acquire VCRs when they became available; same with CD players; then it was video camcorders. Today the ‘hot’ items are DVD players. But virtually all of these are standalone purchases: once you’ve bought the CD unit, VCR, etc, you can’t deck them out with too many add-ons. This was the case with the video camcorder – until the Japanese majors introduced the Mini DV format. Then all hell broke loose as the computer interests (both hardware and software) delivered post-production solutions so Mum, Dad and the kids could edit their home videos into passably viewable shape. But nothing much has been added to the camera end of the equation . . . until now! Now there is a relatively simple method of shooting 3D TV for home use. 3D fanatic As part of my scrabble through Sydney company Mindflux’s warehouse to prepare last month’s article, I came upon a device that fits to almost any home video camcorder (analog or digital) and converts it to a stereoscopic capture device. At this point I should declare that I am a 3D nut. I own a bundle of working stereo still cameras, ranging from early 20th century wood, leather and brass gems right up to 50s 35mm stereo snappers, as exemplified in the Stereo-Realist and its ilk. And there was the time, in a moment of madness, I happened to be in the USA in the early 80s when the Nimslo 4-lens 35mm stereo camera was fresh on the market: I bought one and was soon able to enjoy the lenticular ‘happy snap’ prints this system could produce. So you could say I’m well and truly binocularly-bewitched and a sucker for anything that can capture the world in real 3D. An early adopter of a Stereo-Realist camera, Dwight D (later to become President) Eisenhower. each eye in some scenes. But I quickly realised I would have to hide this ‘hot’ tape from the littlies who reside in my home and maybe take a more leisurely peek later. Then on to the Nu-View. Thanks to Canon Australia I managed to borrow one of their top new Mini DV cam-corders, the excellent MVX1i model with a 10X optical zoom lens. This I used for all the tests with the Nu-View unit. The adaptor box was opened, the gear taken out, setup instructions read and the device fitted onto the camera. Taking a brave step, I shot a quick test of the family around the house, the front verandah, the cars across the street. Then, preview time. The camera’s output was hooked into the TV’s composite video input least, for what is ostensibly a consumer product. I had already spent some time with a few 3D VHS tapes, a signal decoder and a pair of LCS (Liquid Crystal Shutter) spectacles and so I had a handle on the stereo video experience. The first tape I ran at home was entitled Camp Blood, so I naturally thought it was a horror movie with maybe a bit of ‘in A 1980s attempt to get your face’ 3D action . . . rememstereo going, the 35mm Nimslo. ber these are stereo pictures! But in previewing it, I rapidly discovered it was an R-rated soft porn and the decoder was plugged into the production with an amply endowed TV’s composite video output; the latter young lady thrusting her stereo pair would emit the sync pulses for the LCS into the camera. This was in your spectacles to do their stuff. face, all right – with one D-cup for Don glasses and then replay the Nu-View 3D adaptor As Mindflux’s Mark Giles handed over the loaner Nu-View 3D adaptor kit to me, there was a slightly odd look on his face. He obviously suspected I had no sense of what I was in for. And he was right. The gear is impressive to say the www.siliconchip.com.au Quite a handful: a Canon camcorder and a Nu-View adaptor. November 2002  13 The Nu-View adaptor. Note the two LCS panels, which are actually mounted at 90 degrees to each other but in this shot, the mirror at left makes them appear to be side-by-side. tape. And up she came: a series of full colour, live action scenes in three dimensions on the home TV set. I have to admit I was stunned. It was so easy: just shoot – and play. Principle of operation The exciting thing about this answer to replicating the three dimensional experience is that it is one of the rare systems that have appeared in the 150 year or so history of stereoscopic image making that uses only one lens and one length of recording media. Stereo Realist cameras, the View-Master viewers, even the IMAX 3D cinema process rely on a pair of taking and viewing lenses and separate film frames; IMAX 3D of course relies on a hefty paired camera unit and big, linked 70mm projectors. The Nu-View is an electro-optical device that attaches to the front of almost any consumer camcorder to allow the easy recording of stereoscopic 3D video. It relies on the interlaced field that is basic to the television system. The two fields of 312.5 lines each are recorded to create a single 625 line frame. The field rate is 50Hz (in PAL), the frame rate is 25 frames per second (fps), so in this 3D video plan, each alternate field is used to record/replay 14  Silicon Chip a left-right-left-right sequence of 3D views to create 25 fps of stereoscopic action. This scheme is called “Field-sequential 3D” as noted in last month’s article. The camera, with the Nu-View device attached, records 25 left and 25 right eye views onto the Mini DV tape. Replay the tape, with unaided viewing, and you see a double image. Slip on the LCS spectacles and you see full-depth stereo 3D. The Nu-View apparatus is well conceived and extremely well executed. The components include the shooting adaptor itself and a link arm assembly that fixes the adaptor to the camera, attaching at one end to the camera’s tripod thread, with the other end connecting to a threaded rod screwed into the adaptor’s base. There is also a cable which connects the camera’s composite video output to the adaptor’s video input, an Allen key, a bayonet ring and stepping rings which fix the adaptor’s shooting port to the cameras’ filter thread, a soft cover for the adaptor and one alkaline AAA battery. Some notes on the setup • The composite video connection between the device and the camera’s video output is essential in order to provide field sync pulses to fire the adaptor’s integral liquid crystal shutters (more of this later). The adaptor’s shooting port (through which the taking lens views) connects to the camera’s filter thread and stepping rings are provided to fit 37mm, 43mm, 49mm and 52mm camera filter thread sizes. Step-up and step-down • Setting up the Nu-View adaptor. www.siliconchip.com.au Display Systems The Nu-View is now marketed by Display Systems’ 3D and was acquired from the original manufacturer, 3D Video. The device is manufactured in the USA by ‘i-O Display Systems’. Aside from the Nu-View, this Sacramento, California company (www.i-glasses.com) manufactures personal display devices and other stereoscopic 3D products used in a broad array of applications from company entertainment to medical and commercial uses. It is regarded as the world’s leading manufacturer and supplier of head mounted personal display devices. Looking at the “business end” of the Nu-View 3D converter, here attached to a standard Canon MVX1i Mini DV Camcorder. rings can be bought locally to fit other sizes. An Allen key is provided so that you can adjust the vertical alignment of the mirror, otherwise your stereo pair will suffer from unwanted vertical parallax. The adaptor works with analog and digital camcorders, NTSC or PAL. You can copy and edit any 3D video shot with the adaptor. The adaptor does not work with film movie cameras nor early tube video cameras. • • • • adaptor is simply a shooting port through which the video camera shoots anything it is pointed at. The zoom still works as normal, although some cameras with very wide entry apertures (larger than 52mm) may experience cut off corners from the adaptor. Auto focus works as normal, as do the auto exposure and white balance functions. One negative: I noticed when the zoom was pushed to its maximum that definition fell off markedly – a product of the clutter (Liquid Crystal Shutters, mirrors, etc) in front The scheme of the lens! The adaptor is roughly triangular in In simple terms, shape. Behind its curved front winthe Nu-View dow can be seen a pair of LCS panels, mounted at 90 degrees to each other; the camera lens’ optical path aims straight through one of these panels (the right eye view), with the other providing the left eye view, with its image passing through a beam The Nu-View video signal hookup. The splitter. Most of camcorder’s composite output is fed to the adaptor’s video input to trigger 50Hz the housing’s interior is taken up operation of the Liquid Crystal Shutters. www.siliconchip.com.au by a large front-silvered mirror which corrects right-to-left orientation of the left eye view. And that’s about all. The side of the device has a battery well (for the AAA alkaline cell), an on/ off switch and the video input terminal. At the opposite side of the adaptor there is a knob, centred amidst a pair of sweeping curve indicators and the legend 0 (for infinity). This knob is the convergence adjustment to vary the position of the stereo effect; when twisted it swivels the internal mirror to alter the acceptance angle of the left LCS panel. The adaptor’s inter-ocular distance is 56mm – slightly smaller than the average human’s eye separation of 65mm. Note: the convergence knob does not adjust interaxial separation by any significant amount. Its job is only to adjust the distance at which the optical axes of the two ‘adaptor’ eye views overlap. This in turn sets the ZPD (Zero Parallax Distance) also known as convergence distance. Andrew Woods comments that more on this effect is discussed in the book “Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema” available as a free download from http://www.stereoscopic. org/library This convergence control is the secret to successful and enjoyable (for the viewer) stereoscopic video. You can place virtually any object in front of the stereo ‘window’ (the TV set’s frame) or behind it. Having said that, the unit is very accommodating in that the eyes will compensate for any slight maladjustment; extended scenes November 2002  15 in its position and everything righted itself – but rotational alignment is important. Another time the adaptor came adrift from the camera; perhaps the adaptor-camera link could be better engineered. Becoming braver, I started shooting scenes with to-and-fro movement. My small son, astride his trusty 16inch bike, raced towards me from 20 metres distance, passed only a metre away, then moved off to a distant spot. I ‘pulled’ convergence and so managed to control the stereo window. The result was terrific. Summary And here’s what it looks like from side-on. Sure, it becomes a little unweildy – but you do get 3D! with the wrong setting may give rise to eye-strain; care should be taken to avoid shooting extremely close and very distant subjects in the one scene. Experience On the second day with the Nu-View I had some real fun and found that using the Nu-View was really quite simple. Let’s say I would line up on a tree in foreground, with a distant scene behind. Having set the zoom lens and determined my framing composition I then set the convergence, in this case choosing to set it on the tree; the image of the tree in the viewfinder became a single one, with other subject matter, both fore and aft appearing as double images. You do have amazing freedom with the zoom; in some cases I shot with the lens at wide angle, then occasionally shot subject matter with the zoom fully extended. It does help if you shoot in good light; viewing the tape at home you find that dark or backlit scenes are a little murky as the tonal range is limited by all the clutter that has been placed in the subject-to-lens-to-viewer path: beam splitters, Liquid Crystal Shutters, LCS specs and so on. I also noted that the beam splitter has its surfaces treated with a polariser to reduce internal reflection. Bang, there goes another f stop of light! It also helps if you avoid any flare in the scene as it is most likely the flare will be captured by only one ‘eye’ and replay as a ghost image. On one shooting safari, for some reason, I noticed that the vertical alignment had shifted (it had been perfect straight out of the box). Without resorting to the Allen key adjustment I merely twisted the adaptor slightly Toshiba 3D Way back in 1990, a Toshiba 3D NTSC VHS-C video camcorder appeared – a ‘world first’. The SK-3D7 used two lenses and two 1/2-inch CCD sensors. The 3D images are viewed using an adaptor and LCS 3D specs. The description I have is that the “camera serially records pictures onto a VHS-C video cassette tape at 60 fields/second, each image being recorded on one of two alternating fields that together comprise one picture frame.” This the same Field-sequential 3D system that the Nu-View uses. 16  Silicon Chip Toshiba’s interesting twin lens 3D camera, which is still selling as a ‘collector’s item’. However, the horizontal resolution is only 360 lines; current Mini DV camcorders can capture around 500 lines or more. Video Synthesis, a company in Ohio, currently has four ‘collector’s items’ left – at US$10,000 each! See www.vidsyn.com I became thoroughly enamoured of the Nu-View. If I had the time, I would shoot 3D video from daybreak to dusk. On the job, using the Nu-View on a camcorder is admittedly a challenge in juggling: in my case, the camera, battery and tape weighed in at around 750g; the Nu-View adaptor was another 620g; add the AV cable and the scales hit 1.4kg. A tripod is a help and saves straining your wrist muscles but does limit your shooting freedom. Coping with the camera on/off switch, the adaptor’s power button, the zoom lens plus the convergence control is quite a feat. There is also a downside in viewing any 3D video made with the adaptor, which is the bother of setting up the field sync decoder, arranging the audience and handing out the LCS spectacles. The view on screen is also a trifle dim; admittedly you can help this by cranking up the TV’s brightness, contrast and colour saturation. However, the biggest deterrent for most people will be the continuous flicker caused by the two sets of different 25 field images, the heart of the system. In my book, only the diehard enthusiast is going to persevere with 3D TV at present. But at the end of the day, at the end of the 3D shoot – I just love the technology! Cost of the Nu-View plus the H3D Video Eyewear is $989. The latter includes two pairs of lightweight, wireless liquid crystal 3D glasses, custom TV interface box, two RCA extension cables, manuals and power supply. What to see Until you’re fully kitted up with camcorder and 3D gear perhaps you may like to preview what the pros are www.siliconchip.com.au Canon’s 3D Lens Canon Inc in the USA announced an interchangeable compact zoom lens for the XL1 digital video cam-corder to enable recording of 3D images. The company explains that “While there do exist special attachments that can be placed on the front of conventional video camcorder lenses that enable the capturing of 3D images, problems have arisen as a result of light loss and inaccurate left and right optical axes.” Obviously a tilt at the Nu-View! The new Canon 3D zoom lens is claimed to solve these problems. They explain that a “high-precision 3D imaging optics system employed in the lens optically merges parallax images obtained from the left and right doing with the medium. Much of the material is on VHS or DVDs. Below is a list of some of the available titles. The DVDs are mostly in NTSC, while there are some VHS tapes in PAL and/or NTSC. Most DVDs have a 2D version as well as the ‘deepy’. • Sports Illustrated Swimsuit in Stereo 3D The content is from a Sports Illus­ trated photo shoot featuring nubile ladies. Watch the models pose and the photographers work, all in ste­ reo-scopic 3D. Then there’s a biggish list of titles derived from IMAX 3D presentations. with a 3D ride as Johnny confronts Mr D and fights to free his mother’s spirit. lenses via a high-speed shutter while the video signal is output by only one signal line.” It would appear that this is the same system as the Nu-View but possibly more elegantly executed, using as it does, “a focusing unit that uses triangulation to measure the distance to the subject and a motor to adjust the mirrors inside the left and right lenses accordingly, enabling the angle of convergence to be set automatically. Unlike conventional 3D systems, with the Canon 3D zoom lens, there is no need to set the angle of convergence manually, enabling even novice users to easily record 3D scenes.” It was planned to sell for US$8499 but the company decided not to go ahead with production. • Alien Adventure Look out for invading aliens as they head toward planet Earth, in hope of establishing a new home for their people. They have to face Adventure Planet, a hi-tech amusement park not yet open to the public.... This was the first full-length digitally animated giant screen 3D film. • Encounter in the Third Dimension A ground-breaking venture into the realm of 3D filmmaking, with comput­ er-generated imagery mixed with live action thrills. Includes a recreation of one of the earliest 3D movies ever made, through to classic clips from Hollywood’s 3D heyday during the 1950s. • Haunted Castle Johnny, a young musician, travels to his late mother’s castle to learn of his bequest, in accordance with her final wishes. The castle begins to come alive as materialising spirits show. Ends • Ultimate G’s Experience the thrill of flying in an aerobatics aircraft through the Grand Canyon, Little Colorado River and Lake Powell. The talents of the pilots give the audience the thrill of a lifetime. • Camp Blood My first taste of 3D, with a large dose of mammary input. Not for the kiddies! As far as I could determine, the classic 1950s 3D feature films have not been transferred to 3D video; they have been converted to 3D video but just aren’t available commercially. This is a shame as some of the titles are classics: Hitchock’s Dial M for Murder, Kiss me Kate, The French Line. Perhaps the studios who own these titles will see the increasing interest in 3D and release these titles commercially on 3D DVD. (Many other 3D Video titles are available – listed on Andrew Woods’ Website: http://info.curtin.edu.au/~iwoodsa/3dmovie/videosites.html Where do you get ’em? Nu-View and similar products described in this story can be obtained in Australia from: Mindflux: 02 9416 9619 www.mindflux.com.au Digital Playtime: www.digitalplaytime.com.au/ 3D/index.asp EzyDVD: www.ezydvd.com.au/ Direct 2U: 07 5455 3554 Acknowledgement 1950s features in 3D: Sangaree and The French Line. www.siliconchip.com.au Barrie Smith would like to thank Jason Pang and Mark Giles of Mindflux for their help in providing equipment used in this story and, once again, is grateful to Andrew Woods at the Centre for Marine Science and Technology, Curtin University of Technology, Perth WA for his technical help. We also acknowledge Philip Heggie for a series of emails which provided the initial impetus for SC these articles. November 2002  17