PL Mount STEREO Lens for EPIC w/Dragon? (3D Side-By-Side)

[michael zaletel]

Does anyone know of a PL Mount Stereo Lens that would record two separate images side by side? Wouldn't the upcoming Dragon Sensor finally provide more than enough usable resolution to make this a feasible solution. RedCINE and Davinci could be upgraded to deal with the side-by-side images per frame for 3D with perfect time match.

Please advise,

- Michael Zaletel

From Wikipedia:

"The beginning of the 21st century marked the coming of the age of digital photography. Stereo lenses were introduced which could turn an ordinary film camera into a stereo camera by using a special double lens to take two images and direct them through a single lens to capture them side by side on the film."

[Robert Hart]

Such an arrangement could be engineered but it would also be severely self-limiting especially with a camera system that offers so much. The creative options which are emerging in 3D require a lot of freedom in varying the distance between lenses to match focal lengths, parallel versus convergence techniques. Maybe look at it this way. If there were good reasons for this implementation, it would already have been lcoked down by the likes of Cameron, Peter Jackson et al., who have the resources to make it happen already. Pedro Guimaraes posted here recently in a topic debate which developed over parallel versus convergence techniques and gave good explanations.

[Maciej Orman]

No, but I built a stereoscopic adapter for the Canon mount EF type lenses.
Check my thread to see the adapter preview images.

[Björn Benckert]

A better option would be to drive the stereoscopic images from a 6k "lightfield" thats where the future of 3D imagery will land eventually. I think Jared stated that a while back on this forum. With a such solution we can drag out two sepeate VR cameras and have the imaged projected onto a depth matte driven from the light field... which would allow us to use the best of lenses and use part of the resolution for sampling the depth of the scene.

[Maciej Orman]

Not good at all since there is no 3D reconstruction algorithm which would distinguish between flat textures and specular reflections or transparencies.
3D reconstruction based on stereoscopic pair or depth cameras kill all the stereoscopic specular effects.

[Björn Benckert]

Not good at all since there is no 3D reconstruction algorithm which would distinguish between flat textures and specular reflections or transparencies.
3D reconstruction based on stereoscopic pair or depth cameras kill all the stereoscopic specular effects.

ok, then if you have two lightfield cameras with a mirror setup that would be optimal offcourse. but there is also huge benefits working form one lens and one image stream. Still yes two optical identical streams with the exact correct distance between the eyes with perfect focus is probably the best. But if you could pull focus / change focus in post and change the lens/eye distance in post all from one lens and image stream and still have enough resolution and little enough artifacts then that would be the choise of most i think. and yes, thats about to happen... Bigger sensors with super dense resolution does allow for lightfields to be created with full focus range covered and that also allows for a good enough dept matte to mapp up your scene in a good enough way to look at it with two virtual eye.. ie drive 3D from 2D in a good way. Still that setup would have issues with things being in a to wide range infront of camera and such. like having a grass straw right infront of the lens when shooting a big landscape.. but hey that is the same when shooting to lenses, but when shoting with two lenses there is nothing you can do about it. with a light field you can at least back out and save youself.

[Maciej Orman]

@Björn Benckert
Yes,
I agree with such method one can add artificial lights to the scene in the post as well as all 3D CG made scene alements and animations.