TRACKING TECHNOLOGY NEWS

« go back

Phantom Flex 3D test

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:58
3D stereographer Celine Tricart
shooting on the Phantom Flex FOR NEWS

On 6 October Alga Panavision France organised its traditional open house in Aubervilliers and asked Binocle to create an innovative 3D workshop based on shooting high-speed stereoscopic footage on the Vision Research Phantom Flex camera.

Installed in a Alga Panavision France studio located in the outskirts of Paris, the Binocle team spent the day demonstrating high-speed stereoscopic shooting.  Alga Panavision made available two Phantom Flex cameras in order to assess the viability and performance for this application. Both cameras were equipped with optical Master premium Zeiss 25mm lenses and were mounted on a Binocle Brigger III stereoscopic rig. The resulting two video streams were managed by Binocle’s visualisation software Disparity Tagger, and were fed to two 46-inch TV screens. An Astro 3D tilt complemented the set-up.

Vision Research’s in-house software for Phantom handled the triggering of cameras on the PC and allowed users to choose specific sequences among the different saved rushes for playback.

The trials were very satisfactory for several reasons. First, as noted by stereographer Cιline Tricart: “We have not encountered any major problems regarding synchronisation as have been observed at these speeds in the past”.

Secondly, the simplicity of storage of the video streams was well received, whereas previous tests required the use of heavy computer equipment for recording. The two Phantom Flex cameras were each equipped with a Cinemag, which included a 512 GB hard drive. Once saved, and without proxy, synchronised images were immediately available and viewable at 25, 100, or 300 frames/sec.

Spilling liquid, spinning hair, shooting confetti and various other sequences were filmed at a speed of 300, 1,000 and 2,564 frames per second, the maximum speed of the Phantom Flex RAW in HD format. This camera can reach up to 10,700 images at lower definitions.

The visitors were equally impressed with this special rendering of S3D footage in high speed. Given the ability to create this slow-motion stereoscopic footage with the economy of Binocle stereoscopic rigs for long form productions, a wide range of creative opportunities are created. These opportunities also extend to other areas where high-speed cameras are highly desirable, such as in advertising or in the scientific field.



« go back