GoPRO Hyperstereoscopic shooting

. Posted in 3D Cameras, 3D Rigs, 3D shooting

If you buy one of the new stereoscopic GoPRO 3D HERO kits, you are limited to the 45 mm fixed interaxial of the dual waterproof housing. To shoot landscapes or other far away subjects, you will need a larger stereo base (a.k.a. interaxial distance, a.k.a. IoD). So in order to take hyperstereoscopic shots you have to bolt a couple of standard GoPRO housings on a rigid alumimium ruler and extend the electric connection between both cameras. Details and video samples here under.

gopro-3D-hero-2 250px

The stereoscopic HD 3D Hero kit costs 99.99$ without the cameras, but is provided with a lot of accessories. The cameras may be GoPRO HD HERO or GoPRO HD Hero 2.

The 3D Hero Kit

The 3D HERO system is on sale at many locations. It is documented here on GoPRO's web site. In the picture here under, you see the two red connectors used to sync both cameras inside the 3D waterproof enclosure. Note that we always mark our cameras "L" and "R" as they have a few slight alignment differences. So our postproduction settings are always OK.

gopro-3D-kit-back

Extending the cable

Extending the cable between both red connectors from the 3D Hero kit is quite easy.Of course, this will void your warranty, but several people already tested it with cables up to 1000 mm (and you are risking to loose only 99.99$). The modification is pretty straightforward soldering, especially if you use a rainbow colored ribbon cable for the extension. Just be careful to match wires colors at both ends.

Extented setups with 70 and 220 mm base

Just fix the back doors of the GoPRO waterproof enclosures on a rigid aluminium ruler with small 3 mm bolts and clip them on the standard unmodified housings. Here under a setup with the two housing side-by-side with 70mm interaxial and under, a larger setup with 220 mm base (housing doors only). As you need some holes for the connection cables, your enclosures are no more waterproof, so we drilled the hole in the bottom of the housings to minimize problems.

gopro-70mm-base

gopro-large-base

HD Hero2 3D with standard stereo base (45 mm or 1.7 inches)

This 3D stereoscopic video test was shot with the standard 45mm base.

HD Hero2 3D with large stereo base (250mm or 10 inches)

This 3D stereoscopic video test was shot with a large 250 mm base.

GoPRO

You will have to fork 99.99$ for the 3D housing, plus 2 times 299.99$ for both cameras. Add a tripod, a couple of HD memory cards and you are ready to shot HD 3D movies ! Visit the GoPRO web site here.