A walk in the park (in 3D)

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

A few days ago, I took a stroll through Central Park, shooting Christo's Gates (the crazy expensive two week art exhibit for those not keeping track of New York events). I thought people might be interested in this rather cool setup. 3D rig made from two Panasonic DVX-100As. Total weight only about ten pounds. Didn't feel like sacrificing the green screen for an LCD and fly a light load on this windy day so I had to add the steel plate. Still light. Check out the guys web site at www.21stcentury3d.com for more info on the camera. Might just be the most innovative use I've seen for the little DV camera yet.

 

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Three close ups of the camera....

 

[RobVanGelder]

Very nice Alec, I love to see this kind of set-ups.

 

So should I put a Stereo-DV cage in production? :D

 

Brr, I see snow there..... I´ll stay a bit longer in Thailand, for sure! :lol:

[James Puli]

Hi Alec

 

Just wondering what lens system the DVX100 you had was using? I noticed a couple of motors and your BFD's (?) on your sled. I cant remember wether or not that camera has a standard lens that you can use follow focus on. Or were they just there for some extra weight?

 

JP

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Rob,

 

Thanks (I knew you would enjoy this setup). The steel plate IS the plate from the bottom of my practice cage that I brought along on a hunch that I might want it.

 

James,

 

The two M-1 motors are there as a failed experiment and for additional weight. The DVX-100s have a built in lens (non-interchangeable) with an internal forum mechanism that goes from a scale of 1 to 99 (can you say duh? There is a conversion chart out there, but why not just use feet/meters in the first place!). Jason, the inventor, added 32 pitch gear so a modified follow focus may be used (there is a picture on his web site) and it controls both lenses at the same time. Being a manual setup, it is no good for our purposes but it gave me the idea of using two motors to do the same thing. The right way to do this would have been to have a slave cable that controls both motors from one control pot. I have not had such a set up since my old Seitz days (with the little horizontal heden motors). So I tried using two motors, each powered form its own receiver/control pot but set to the same channel (frequency) so ONE hand unit would control both motors. Since mechanical pots are just that, they will vary slightly causing the two lenses to disagree by a couple of percentage points (this should not be confused with inaccuracies within a given receiver/pot setup) . Given the depth of field one has with a 1/3 inch CCD and being outdoors on a sunny (and snowy day - thanks for pointing that out Rob), I don't think this would have been a big deal. Jason (the 3D expert) thought it better to forego this method and simply use fixed focus and depth of field though. I left them on though for the photo op! No, seriously, I wanted the weight and thought it would be nice to have the option for a shot should we really want to focus from near to far.

[Matt Burton]

  Might just be the most innovative use I've seen for the little DV camera yet.

 

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Would love to see some clips :D

 

cheers

Matt

[Mark Karavite]

Hey Alec,

 

Is that your shiny new Universal harness I see in those pix? Very Nice!

 

Having shot a few 3D projects, even subtle differences in focus between the cameras would have compromised the 3D effect significantly. You were right to set it and forget it. It's too bad that those little cameras don't allow for true focus control. Selective focus (and depth of field) should not be an option. I'm sure you saw many opportunities where it would have come in handy.

 

Let us know where we can see the footage in 3D. How will it be displayed?

 

Best regards,

 

Mark Karavite

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Matt, Mark,

 

Hopefully we get the footage in a museum as an art installation (Christo has to approve it though). The goal would be to have it endlessly projected in 3D, set to music. The director has some great ideas for this, but given that it is his baby, I shouldn't get into much. I haven't seen any of the footage yet, but one of these days, I'll get around to it (I have to swing by the company that makes the camera). I believe for now, I'd just watch it in a set of special binoculars that he has (he used them on set to). Each eye sees a small LCD screen of each camera. Very cool stuff.

 

It might be awhile before anything is shown in public, but if/when this happens, I'll be sure to post.

 

And yes, Mark that is the new Klassen vest. And it does kick butt!

[till]

i did a walk through an art-exhibition last year using two mini-dv cams set at an angle of 90 degrees.

they ended up as a synchronized split screen showing always a left/front, fron/right or right/back view of the gallery...

was a real bastard to check both headrooms... (on the built-in displays) but also great fun to switch and turn, according to the gallery layout and the exhibited objects.

 

 

result unfortunately never got aired :angry: , as the production company changed the air-time and the whole thing was recut and they left out the artsy bits.