Newport and Stereotech






Canon SD1100 / Ixus80 Digital Stereo Rig
 SOLD OUT! New design coming soon.
This is a professionally built, custom digital stereo camera rig. It is super compact and designed to be ultra portable. It uses a pair of quality used Canon SD1100is 8Mp cameras, Z-bar and integrated switch. A pair of Lithium Ion batteries, 2 2GB memory cards with SDM already installed, a USB card reader, and two battery chargers are included with the purchase.

Stereo base is adjustable on the fly from 67mm to 147mm.
This camera is the first ever to use the design feature that I developed. A single wire with a grounded frame. This design feature lets me tuck the power wire away so that it won't get caught on everything.  The coil lets the wire automatically retract itself so that you can put this camera in a pants pocket or a jacket breast pocket. The SDM shutter switch is firmly attached to the Right camera with an ingenious screw that hooks onto the camera's wrist strap loop, and has it's own wrist strap loop to replace the one being used. Each camera rides on a "sled" that helps keep the cameras aligned when adjusting the stereo base. It also leaves a place for the shutter wire to hide. The switch is a proven choice with easy to replace button cells (3 cells, 4.5v).
 You will take this camera to places you normally wouldn't dream of taking any other stereo camera.
Every one of my cameras is a hand made jewel, designed and built for years of service. I have learned with each new camera, and have learned from other builders as well. I am confident that this is the most convenient digital stereo camera twin rig, yet made. 


Using Stereo Data Maker to take stereo photographs
This camera uses a single switch to fire both cameras. There are two ways to operate it under the SDM program. The simplest way is to full press the button, wait for the cameras to focus, charge flash, etc. until the screens both go blank. The photo is taken on release of the switch. The alternate way is to make a single  quick press first, and the cameras focus, etc..  Then, when you are ready to shoot, you will re-press the switch and wait for both screens to go blank, then release to take the picture. The reason for the blank screen, is that the program writer found the last step before the camera actually takes the shot, and placed the pause there. That last step makes the screens go blank. This removes as many possible places where the cameras could be mis-synched. The result is, synchronization that is up to 1/16000 of a second, with no drift.

Near Perfect Synch

 This image will give you an idea of  the synchronization that is typical with this camera, and this does not drift with time and you do not have to check the synch each time you turn on the cameras. The software loads on the cameras on start up, they remember the setup you had the last time the cameras were on, and you can shoot one pair after another, without any set up in between. All you have to do is power up and shoot.  Most shots with this camera will have synchronization as good as or better than these. You will rarely if ever find a shot that is mis-synched in any visable way. Feel free to shoot splashing water, flapping flags or birds in flight. They will all be in synch.



In this image, the water is  synched perfectly. It is unlikely that you will need better synch than this.

Bright clear images

The shot below is a completely uneditedshot, demonstrating the bright, clear images created by the Canon SD700IS cameras (the rig for sale is using the superior SD1100is cameras). It also demonstrates the close to perfect alignment of this rig. It was taken with the cameras set at 99mm spacing to enhance the 3D effect. The images on this page are Left Right left.  The left pair are parallel view and the right pair are cross view.

Below is a full resolution detail from the above image.  All other images on this page are considerably lower than original resolution in order to  allow internet viewing.


Stereo movies

The above movie above is in parallel but can be switched to many viewing options from YouTube, by clicking the window. Stereo Data Maker does not synchronize the starting of the cameras, but the shutter switch does start both cameras at the same time. Since there is a high frame rate to video, your synch is usually close enough that mis-synch won't be noticed. combining the two movies into stereo is done with Stereo Movie Maker software, which lets you align, crop and match frames for best possible synch.
This is my Father in Law, who is the son of a baker, demonstrating the art of making a traditional Czech Christmas coffee cake.

Hyper Stereo

The shot below is from the Empire State Building, looking towards the Chrysler building. Being able to view your shots before you take them gives you a huge advantage. For example you can create perfect hyper-stereo views with this camera, without a tripod, long bar, or guessing at alignment. I discovered that if you take the right hand image and then review the shot in the right hand camera , you can then take a step or two to the left and align your left hand image to the existing right hand image. The stereo base here is about 20 feet but I am not sure, since I just eyeballed it in the camera.



Flash

With flash switched on for both cameras, the left camera's flash is dimmed, but  the right camera flash fires full. With the close synchronization this allows flash photography using the built in flash. The flash can be turned on or off as needed (but not on auto).

The image below shows an operating fan. The combination of synch and flash make this a remarkable demonstration of the capabilities of these cameras. This image was taken with one of my 8MP cameras, by John Elson. I thank him for the image and apologise for not putting it up earlier. You will need anaglyph glases to view top image, but  the synch is obvious even without the glasses.









Contact me at: newportts@bellnet.ca


These cameras are built by me, Timo Puhakka, an avid stereo photography hobbyist, former Toolmaker, and former Imax camera technician.  It is a complete turnkey, ultra compact, convertable, dual, 8 megapixel, digital stereo camera. The battery and  memory card doors are fully accessable without disassembling the camera at all.

This camera consists of two Canon SD1100is digital cameras. It is extremely compact making it very convenient when traveling. The automatic exposure controls make this camera much faster to set up for a shot than its’ Realist format competition. No need for light meters or manual settings, unless you want to play around (which you still have the option to do).
The images must be manipulated in the computer to make a suitable viewing pair (the Left image starts out upside down). You can find many resources on the internet to learn how to properly align a stereo pair for the best viewing. You can also use the free StereoPhoto Maker software which will allow you to automatically align your digital stereo pairs, and output them in various stereo formats.

 Viewing the images on the computer or on prints can be done in many ways, Freeviewing (parallel), cross eyed, or with optical viewers (one is included with your purchase). 
You could also get photographic slides made by a service company and mount them in cardboard mounts for viewing in a Realist style stereo viewer, or using the 2 X 2 slides you get back, in a viewer like the “Pinsharp” available on the internet. A couple of companies making these slides can be accessed from the following links:
Slides from digital
Gammatech
Colour Slide
If you get some sldes made, let me know how they turned out. I haven't tried any of them yet. You can also create anaglyph prints (for viewing with red / green glasses, or make stereo cards and view them in a Holmes style viewer.

The stereo card below was made using Photoshop and a modified mask from Robert Thorpe's Standard.
If you take this file and have it printed at Walmart, or your favourite photo printer, as a 5X7, you can cut the excess off the print and have an instant stereo card that will fit in any Holmes type viewer.


Alignment on a Mac 

There are several free or pay applications for aligning stereo pairs on the PC, but being a Mac Head, I had to look for a Mac solution  I discovered, to my amazement, that  iPhoto "08 is very well set up for adjusting, aligning, and cropping digital stereo slides, straight out of the box. And it is free when you buy a Mac. The procedure is to select your right and left hand images and open them both by selecting "edit" from the menu (or just by double clicking one while both are selected). The screen shot below shows how the screen looks while you are cropping on both images at once. You can adjust both images side by side, one at a time, while viewing. This example is in cross view.

You can also adjust colours, contrast, sharpness etc. etc., do special effects, all the settings of which you can copy and paste between images. You can correct rotational errors, scale errors, fix red eye, and crop to many standard proportions.  You will still have to go to another program to mate your pairs for display or to do lenticular or anaglyph, but that's a whole lot easier after all the rest of this stuff is done. It is however, absolutley perfect for preparing your images for getting slides made. You can crop for 5, 7, or 8 perf  slides, depending on how you want to view your slides when they are done.

UPDATE!    A new version of   StereoPhoto Maker is being worked on, which lets you run a special version of SPM on an Intel Mac, using Darwine.  I have tested it and, aside from a bug that causes it to pause a long time before opening the save window, it works flawlessly. This has not been released yet, but I will keep you posted.

newportts@bellnet.ca


Powered by WebRing.