Meant to be Seen

I am using 8 inexpensive Mobius cameras to create Stereo panoramic videos. I just added New Years Eve Fireworks.
http://photocreations.ca/3D/index.html

Download and watch on your Rift.

With 8 cameras I can normally capture about 240X120 deg.
I had problems some of the cameras, so I used footage from 6 Cameras to cover a FoV around 190 X 120 deg in stereo. Almost at the end one of the cameras on the right stopped recording so I duplicated the other camera.

This should give plenty to look around as the video plays. I have acquired 6 more of these cameras with these lenses and MicroSD cards to cover 360 deg around. I have only looked at this video using anaglyph glasses.

There will always be seams when creating a panorama with a multicamera rig. The images can only be aligned for the foreground or background but not both.

Having the rig stationary allows the seams to mostly disappear. Except when someone walks in front of the camera very close.

Jim

I have expanded my 360° stereoscopic 3D rig to a total of 14 cameras.
http://photocreations.ca/3D/mobius_camera_rig.html

I have added a new S3D panorama of the sun setting.
http://photocreations.ca/3D/index.html
Unfortunately two of the cameras did not record. The faulty cameras were the left and right view of the exact spot where the sun was going down. The -20°C cold weather meant the cameras did not record as long as I hoped. record time were between 20:48 and 53:50, averaging 37:30 minutes. I compressed the usable 20 minutes footage into a 1 minute timelapse.

I was also testing the quality of locking the white balance of all the cameras; in this case to cloudy. I corrected for the changes the cameras make because of autoexposure but even with whitebalance locked, I should have also corrected for differences in whitebalance.

I have got much better at the aligning and stitching of the videos.

I've updated the rig a bit and added a new video.
360° Stereoscopic view of fireworks.
http://photocreations.ca/3D/index.html

Looks cool, downloading now.

A couple more videos added.
http://photocreations.ca/3D/index.html

I need need to focus a few of the cameras and adjust the overlap. I only had a few pixels in a couple joints making it very hard to align.
I have since replaced a couple of the cables that I use to extend the lenses from the camera that prevented the camera from recording.

Added videos of Bellagio Fountains while in Las Vegas for the IVRPA conference. There are 3D and mono versions.
I think you will find the 3D version much more immersive. Like to know what you think.

http://photocreations.ca/3D/index.html

Hi J1vvy, your videos looks amazing!!!
When I received my first Mobius cam I was amazed by the image quality so the next step was to order another one and build a stereo-camera rig.
Now I have 2 versions, one with IPD of 6.5cm and the second one with approx. 4cm where the cameras was attached together using neodymium magnets.
Both looks great on Rift, but on 3D TVs the separation must be lowered in post processing, otherwise the ghosting is too evident, even with 4cm IPD.
The camera sync problem, I solved somehow with a DIY sync cable which gives me from 0 to approx. 7 frame shifts between videos (usually I see 0-2 frame differences, sometimes at the end of the video ).


Here is what I tried until now.

Thanks. Good idea with the magnets. You got lots of neat projects on your site.

I was thinking of soldering a common button to start recording but my soldering skill have yet to be proven and I suspect I would ruin more cameras than I successfully soldered.

I have asked the developer that if there ever is another hardware iteration that there are offset connectors added for all the buttons.

I would then probably add an opto-isolator so it did not interfere with each other.

Thanks.
It is possible to solder the wires directly to the REC button, but we need to remove the whole PCB to have access to the buttons.

I have asked the developer that if there ever is another hardware iteration that there are offset connectors added for all the buttons.

Any response from the developer?

I would then probably add an opto-isolator so it did not interfere with each other.

It's possible but we need few more components.
It would be easier to use a simple DPST switch like this.

From late Jan, 2014

j1vvy:
Just wanted to let you know what I am doing with these cameras in case you are interested.
http://photocreations.ca/3D/mobius_camera_rig.html

If there is another revision to the board would it be possible to add pins to make it easy to add external buttons for all three of shutter, mode, and power.

eletoponline365:
Thank you for letting us know. Let us know if you have any ideas on how to improve this camera. Thanks.

I saw different Hw revisions of the board as you can see on the net compared with my pics. Looks like they are not really interested for new ideas.
I'm just wondering if any of the newest 360 cameras like Bublcam, Gyroptic, Ricoh M15, will be ( or can be) available (modified) for 3D use or now only the Mobius is the cheapest and available solution for 3D 360 videos (except GoPro 3D 360).

Today I tried another idea with more neodymium magnets and few drops of super glue and an L shaped (scrap) metal plate.
The results are really good.
Everything's perfect aligned (if the camera module aligned [up/down] in the case).
Now I just need to build an adapter for this, to mount on my DIY steadycam.

I have updated the Fireworks S3D Panoramic video.

It should be easier on the eyes. I processed the raw footage again to create new 3D videos. I improved the stitching alignment from the cameras. Corrected the 3D convergence. Corrected the sync problems that was at the end. Lessened the color discrepancy between left and right eye.

http://photocreations.ca/3D/index.html