3D photography experiments – P365 Oct02

Sorry about the lack of updates lately! It’s been hard to keep up with P365 lately, especially while I’m still getting over this chest infection and busy with work… My apologies!

Here’s some experimenting with 3D photos.

How to see 3D photos.

The first of the two images above were taken with my Loreo 3D lens-in-a-cap. I got this lens for my birthday last year, and it’s the most challenging lens I’ve ever used. The 3D effect one can get from it is very cool, but the lens has some severe limitations.

First, there is no apeture ring, just a flip switch to choose between f11 (dark) and f22 (VERY dark). That limits you to using the lens in very well lit conditions. Second, the only focus option available is a 3-way slider switch to choose between near, medium and far. It’s very hard to judge where the slider should be, and it’s difficult even to see through the viewfinder if the image is in focus. Finally, the minimum focus distance, even at f22, seems to be something like 1-2m away. That essentially stops me from taking 3d photos of anything smaller than our cat (ie: not very small), so no nice 3D close ups of flowers.

The main advantage of this lens, and it’s a huge one, is that both the left and right views are captured simultaneously. With a single lens 3D photo, the only way to achieve the effect is with the “cha-cha” method. Essentially you move side-to-side taking two photos of the same subject from slightly different angles, one after the other. This is only suitable for perfectly static objects, and eliminates even large trees with their leaves blowing in the wind.

I still need a lot more practice with this lens so I can know its limitations better and work within them. As it is now, I’m taking a lot of very blurry 3D photos. The first 3D photo above was a better one taken with this lens. The second one, of the anime figurine, was taken with the cha-cha method with the camera on the tripod, sliding it a couple of inches between shots. This way I can get a lot closer and take far sharper 3d images.

Look for more 3D images from me in the future as I practice! Let me know if you can see the effect, or if you need more help :)