Perhaps the first stereo SLR-rig for underwateruse, EVER?

Hi!

I'm glad you get so excited about my pictures. Unfortuanetly I have no idea on how you can hemmorrage a bank account, but living now in the year 2010 and beeing only 12 years old will give you a very good chance to shoot 3D sometime in the future! :-)

Good luck and best regards again from Kim! :-)

I asked CJ to get his 3-D specs from out of his Guiness Book of Records. His first reaction was Wow! Stuff the DSLR Dad. I want to shoot 3-D...

 

Have you any idea how a 12 year old u/w photographer can haemorrage a bank account...? :-)

 

(posted in error on CJ's profile)

Hi Eric and all,

This subject of "stereo base" is, as Kim says, complicated and much debated. Here is a link to one of the best sources for formulas and calculators. http://nzphoto.tripod.com/stereo/3dtake/fbercowitz.htm#vase.

When using any of these formulas, you do have to take into account the effect of the housing port and water interface, but it's not hard. Just calculate your underwater field of view (effective focal length) and plug that focal length into the selected formula.

My underwater stereo SLR, which I don't think I brought with me to Wakatobi when you and I dove there in 2003, uses Rebikoff corrector lenses that provide the same angle of view in water as in air and completely optically correct for all plane port abberations and distortions. This. of course, makes the stereo base calculations simple.

I don't have any images from my SLR on my website, but there are (old) examples of 3D macro and close images. undersea3d.com. The stereo base used in these particular images vary from 4mm to 22mm. My SLR rig is setup with a 72mm base and 40mm lenses (also 40mm in water).

For anyone wanting to dip into UW stereo inexpensively, and not needing professional quality results, you can get fair images and learn an awful lot with the new Fuji W-1 digital stereo camera. By the way, the reason the W-1 stereo base is large (77mm) is to make the images look decent with the rather narrow viewing angle of the built in stereo viewscreen on the rear of the camera. When viewed in wider angle viewers or projected in stereo, the images will appear to have more depth than on the camera screen, and thus can be hyper.

Like Kim, I am also finally going digital for UW 3D. Only about a decade behind everyone else!

Take care,

Mark Blum

.

Kim -

 

I'm also interested the separation distance between lenses (and what has worked best for you). I've tried shooting topside with dual SLRs and have had problems because the separation of lenses is so great -- around 5" is the closest I can get them, that that is shooting both vertically. They are even further apart when shooting horizontally.

Correction re 3D images.

I misspoke when I said there are no images from my 3D SLR on my website, i.,e., images with a 72mm base and 40mm lenses behind Rebikoff correctors. In fact image numbers 1 and 5 in the Great White gallery (http://www.undersea3d.com/) are shot with this rig. I also used that camera to shoot the surface GW images, with focal lengths between 50 and 100mm. It's a film based rig and the images date back to 2001. I REALLY need to update my website!

Mark

Hi Mark!

Super to have one of the true pioneers in this forum.... Søren Hertz and Peter Randløv from our Danish Stereoscopic society has told me about you! :-)

Thanks for the link with all the formulars and calculators!

It should definaitely be interessting to see some pictures of your SLR-rig. What kind of digital rig have you made for underwater work? :-)

In deep respect, Kim Meineche! :-)

Hi Eric and all,

 

This subject of "stereo base" is, as Kim says, complicated and much debated. Here is a link to one of the best sources for formulas and calculators. http://nzphoto.tripod.com/stereo/3dtake/fbercowitz.htm#vase.

------------cut

 

My underwater stereo SLR, which I don't think I brought with me to Wakatobi when you and I dove there in 2003, uses Rebikoff corrector lenses that provide the same angle of view in water as in air and completely optically correct for all plane port abberations and distortions. This. of course, makes the stereo base calculations simple.

 

----------- cut

Like Kim, I am also finally going digital for UW 3D. Only about a decade behind everyone else!

 

Take care,

Mark Blum

 

----------- cut

Hi Kim,

I tried to reply earlier, but don't see that appearing on the forum, so here goes again.

If you communicate with Peter or Soren, please say hello. You should join in the UW 3D image folio we circulate. Ask Soren about it.

I don't have any pictures of my UW3D SLR uploaded to a URL which I can link to. However, it's a "siamesed" camera in order to achieve a near "normal" stereo base of 72mm. The housing is custom and controls all functions. The key design feature, as I said, is the incomparable Rebikoff corrector lenses. They maintain the same angle of view as the taking lenses have in air, just like a dome port does, but they are much smaller and have none of the distortions associated with domes or flat ports. I have the mini versions of these correctors built by Dimitri Rebikoff specifically for stereo cameras. See images in his book "Underwater Photography". The first edition has the most pictures. The compact size of the Rebikoff correctors allows the closer lens spacing, and that allows getting closer to subjects.

A dome suitable for a normal stereo base of about 65mm is approximately 36" in diameter, and thus impracticable for most purposes. The Imax camera housing can be fitted with such a dome.

You asked about my digital rigs, and actually those are still in development phase. I am moving there, but not there yet. I may sell some of my film based systems, like the RBT S1b and housing, to support the digital push. You have probably seen Peter's S1b...he has the same thing.

Best,

Mark

It should definaitely be interessting to see some pictures of your SLR-rig. What kind of digital rig have you made for underwater work? :-)

Hi Eric and others who are interested!

As promised, I show you my top-side rig with the dual AF-S18-70mmED lenses and the cameras mounted to the hengeed alubar.

Here is the rig seen from the front, with an extra bar beneath to strengthen the setup while walking arround, etc..

Here is the rig seen from the back... still with the bar to strengthen the setup.

Here the extra bar is scewed off and the rig can be switched from landscape to portrait and back in a second.

Here the rig is in portrait mode.

Best regards again from Kim! :-)

Kim -

 

I'm also interested the separation distance between lenses (and what has worked best for you). I've tried shooting topside with dual SLRs and have had problems because the separation of lenses is so great -- around 5" is the closest I can get them, that that is shooting both vertically. They are even further apart when shooting horizontally.

 

It would be fine if I were shooting large objects from very far away, but I've not found a way to get the lenses close enough together to shoot typical subjects that are close. Of course, it is easy to shoot 3D with two point & shoot cameras...

 

This is all topside -- the optics may change underwater, of course...

 

Also, my tests were with 20mm, 24mm and 35mm lenses. It may be that fisheye lenses are required with such great separation distances between lenses.

 

Congrats on your success in shooting digital 3D underwater!

Kim, those links are broken.... :-(

EDIT: Now it works :-) Thanks!

Are they still broken?

I had some troubles just after posting.... but it seems to work here now!

/Kim! :-)

Kim, those links are broken.... :-(

Hi Mark!

I've send you a personal mail on this...

/kim! :-)

Hi Kim,

 

I tried to reply earlier, but don't see that appearing on the forum, so here goes again.

If you communicate with Peter or Soren, please say hello. You should join in the UW 3D image folio we circulate. Ask Soren about it.

 

I don't have any pictures of my UW3D SLR uploaded to a URL which I can link to. However, it's a "siamesed" camera in order to achieve a near "normal" stereo base of 72mm. The housing is custom and controls all functions. The key design feature, as I said, is the incomparable Rebikoff corrector lenses. They maintain the same angle of view as the taking lenses have in air, just like a dome port does, but they are much smaller and have none of the distortions associated with domes or flat ports. I have the mini versions of these correctors built by Dimitri Rebikoff specifically for stereo cameras. See images in his book "Underwater Photography". The first edition has the most pictures. The compact size of the Rebikoff correctors allows the closer lens spacing, and that allows getting closer to subjects.

A dome suitable for a normal stereo base of about 65mm is approximately 36" in diameter, and thus impracticable for most purposes. The Imax camera housing can be fitted with such a dome.

 

You asked about my digital rigs, and actually those are still in development phase. I am moving there, but not there yet. I may sell some of my film based systems, like the RBT S1b and housing, to support the digital push. You have probably seen Peter's S1b...he has the same thing.

 

Best,

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

It should definaitely be interessting to see some pictures of your SLR-rig. What kind of digital rig have you made for underwater work? :-)