3D camera issues

Lightfield Legacy
1

I’ve been doing 3D since 1976. Multi-camera, various 3D; even true LASER holography. The Leia system has proven fairly decent; similar to my LYTRO, and the 3D ‘effect’ is surprisingly similar to my Fuji W3. Until now…

I had other cameras set up at a wedding, but shot parts in video (hand held) with my RED. I was shocked. The 3D was fine, but the video appears to be ‘zooming’ in and out very slightly with with a small dither. I think the electronics was trying to switch 4 view positions every few seconds. This is NOT camera shake. I don’t think it’s possible to correct in post, at least I couldn’t in PowerDirector. It’s not a dramatic effect, and I’ve not seen it before when I’ve taken video with the camera. In real life, most hand held video shots are 8 seconds or less, and only at something like a wedding where the shots are continuous does this show up. I can post some of the video if you like. I’m wondering if some sort of RAW version of the video could be stored, or some way to prevent the problem in the future.

Any help or discussion would be welcome. Yes, I know the RED is not supported, but I very much suspect the same thing would have happened if I was using the pad.

Larry Elie

2 Likes
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This is an issue related to video capture on the RED Hydrogen as there’s no way to lock focus, it’ll always adjust the 3D focus as you move the device around. The only way to stop it is to keep the device on a tripod and ensure the scene doesn’t change too much, triggering auto-focus to refocus again.

On newer devices you can lock manual focus so this isn’t an issue.

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I knew it was something I had no control over. As the bride came down the aisle, the thing continuously would have been refocusing. A tripod would help, but as the distance changed, it would still be refocusing. Thanks for the quick explication. I had my Fuji W3 running elsewhere (on a tripod), so I’m good for this time.

I’m not much interested in 3D conversions. A real Plenoptic phone would be nice.

The Red is a bit better than my old LG Thrill (but I still keep the Thrill because I can play the Thrill games on my 3D TV directly off the phone) and better than my old ROKIT. Too bad I lost all my RED games when I had to reload. I should have made load files. If someone just gave me access I know how to load them…

I am curious to find a review of the new Opic 3D Cell phone…

Thanks!

Larry

1 Like
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To be clear, photos and videos captured on Lume Pad 2 aren’t conversions. They’re true stereo, with much superior quality to RED Hydrogen One.

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Yes, I know. I had the red for week before I turned on ‘professional’ mode. The pad doesn’t fit in my pocket. What I was saying is iPhone simulated 3d is not for me. The s22 depth map is nice, but a real light-field cell phone like pelican demoed years ago is the future.

3 Likes
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Thanks Nima.

How is focus determined? Contrast? Range-finding? Is the spot, or area? If area, what area?

I really think that information would be useful so I know what part of the frame to keep away from motion.

Larry

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I truly couldn’t tell you. That was one part of it we didn’t do. We were handed the camera SDK, which talked to the sensor firmware, and built the camera app around it. We had no control on how focus worked. We would just pass it the coordinates of where you tap and it would do the rest and auto-focus to that spot, until it disengages to return to standard auto-focus. If you’re doing pure auto focus without tapping, then I couldn’t tell you what it’s doing. It might focus on the middle of the image, it might focus on high contrast subjects, it might try to identify what’s closest to the camera and focus on that, I really couldn’t tell you.

1 Like
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Thanks. That’s interesting.

If you tap a spot in the ‘background’ (greater distance) and the lighting is good enough that the effective aperture is small, than I would assume anything happening nearby would not cause a re-focus.

If you tap, does that location stay the ‘focus’ location until you stop the camera app or choose a new point? Or does software change it on it’s own?

I’m obviously trying to make this work like a traditional camera. Most ‘Light-Field’ cameras, like my Lytro or the Pelican that was never released store all the raw data, and that data can be ‘focused’ (not a good choice of words) or even de-focused after the images are taken by the associations between the various images. Those cameras of course have a larger number of lenses. That is what I though the Red was doing when I first saw the ‘stutter’ in motion pictures; changing which lenses are currently being used.

Larry

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Nima, my guess is the manual was written with an earlier set of firmware. It’s time to find out what the manual does and does NOT say.

My AT&T manual says: "

Setting the focus method 1. When the camera is open, tap . 2. Tap FOCUS. 3. Tap to use the camera’s auto-focus function. Tap to use touch to focus. Setting photo effects 1. When the camera is open, tap . 2. Tap EFFECTS. You can choose the following effects: • Time lapse: Tap TIMELAPSE, select a recording frame rate and capture frame rate, or choose a custom capture frame rate, and then tap to start recording. When recording, tap to pause recording or to stop recording. • Black and white: Tap BLACK & WHITE to select a black and white style for your photos. If you want to quit effects mode, tap the effects icon in the image capture screen. For example, if you are currently in time lapse mode, tap then tap OK to quit that mode.

"

Pretty interesting. Neither Focus or effects show on my 2D or 3D still setup. I think Black and White was replaced by the more useful FILTER, and TIMELAPSE with PANORAMA. Here are pictures of what both my setups are (excuse the poor resolution; these were taken with an inferior ‘high-end’ Samsung cell & it focused on the background):

2D:

image003.png803×418 368 KB

And 3D:

image005.png836×423 399 KB

When shooting, a touch anywhere does bring up a rectangle, normally showing a small brightness adjustment. It appears to be using that rectangle for focus, and I think that’s what you are talking about, but that’s not in the manual. That box stays there for an indeterminate time, then disappears.

The manual also does not mention the Drive-Mode. Drive-mode on most cameras is single or burst mode. The 2D menu has Drive-Modes: S (single), CL (continuous low?), CH (continuous high?), and BH (burst high?), but I have no idea how many FPS each of these are; it’s simply not in the manual.

BTW, my phone was reset by AT&T, so I have missing content such as all the games. I may be missing camera or other functionality as well; I just don’t know.

Am I missing other features? The camera to me is the main feature of any phone. I take 1000 stills/year with my phone as it’s my handiest camera. Tablets and real cameras are too bulky for daily use. Cyberlink Power Director imports all the pictures and video from the Red correctly, both 2D and 3D, works well with 3D, and also easily organizes them. It’s been very useful.

Larry

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You can use this link to update your apps: Final Builds for RED Hydrogen One

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Thanks, but that is the version of the camera I am using. It just doesn’t agree with the manual.

Larry