DIY 3D Rig?

[Hernan Herrera]

Hello everyone... Is there a manual or instructions to build a 3D rig (just like we had them in the good old days of DIY-35mm adapters for our venerable DVXs). Where or who supplies the half-silver mirrors? I'd love to give it a try.... heck I built myself a 35mm adapter, why not a 3d rig!

[Pedro Guimaraes]

You certainly can, many people have done just that. In fact 3D has always been kind of a DIY adventure.

I'll find out where you can get the mirrors (I'll post the info later). Keep in mind they are really expensive!!!

As a fabricator myself, building a beamsplitter is not that hard of a project. THe complexity comes when you start designing devices to easily adjust all the things you want to adjust on a rig like this....

-Vertical Alignment
-Horizontal Alignment
-Roll Alignment
-Pitch Alignment
-Yaw (convergence or toe-in)
-camera mount/placement adjustment

A parallel rig is even easier.

step 0 - get a aluminium plate.
step 1 - drill a 3/8-16 hole for the tripod.
step 2 - drill 4 holes to mount your cameras.
step 3 - mount cameras.
step 4 - shoot.

Now the reds parallel only can get a 6" interocular. Very wide! So don't plan on shooting anything that close to the camera!. Also there is the issue of sensor misalignment. Basically if you put 2 reds on a flat plate you will have vertical misalignment. Of course you can fix alot of the geometric misalignment in post as well......

just do it!

Good luck......


Here is a homemade beamsplitter with JVC HD cameras.

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee298/ddragon76/s3d/DSC_7171.jpg

[Hernan Herrera]

Thank you Pedro for your reply and your expert advice... Indeed a 3D rig is not an easy rabbit to pull out of the hat, but not impossible either. I'll have assistance from a friend of mine who is very handy with tools and machinery... it's the mirror which is hard to locate. I appreciate any information on this regard and congratulations on your rig.... very inspirational.

[Joseph Ward]

I'll find out where you can get the mirrors (I'll post the info later). Keep in mind they are really expensive!!!

Two Way Mirror or something else?

[leehyunmin2010]

here NEW DIY 3D RIG

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Zr--hePs1O0/TRxgHtkGPLI/AAAAAAAAACw/ZT96lLJQ3Z4/s1600/P1010742-1.jpg

http://3deyes2010.blogspot.com/

[chuck colburn]

Two Way Mirror or something else?

No, it's not a two way mirror. Just a piece of flat glass with either mag. fluoride or multi layer coating on it to help control stray reflections. I would recommend using whats called "Float glass" over standard window pane glass. Float glass is cast on a bed of liquid metal (tin ?) and is inherently much more optically flat then window glass. It also does not have that green tint to it that you see when looking a piece of window glass on edge.
Float glass is sometimes refered to as "Water white" glass. I've seen pieces of coated optically flat (window) glass fairly cheap at a web site called "Surplus shed" A good source for all kinds optical/mechanical dodads.

[Kirk Melby]

Ummmm

[Johnny Friday]

Don't laugh...it worked.---well, yeah, go ahead do laugh. but again it worked. I'd have much preferred the ET Quasar, but hell, budget was $25 and i saved $7.

[Kirk Melby]

Chuck is describing AR coated glass. I think you will get better results using a 50/50 beam splitter.

[Dexter Gregoire]

http://www.stereoscopicmirrors.com/

Let us know if it works.

[Riku Naskali]

Wel... If anyone has good tips how to make height / tilt / roll adjustment stages, let me know :-)

This is what I've been looking at lately: http://www.maedler.de/Article/68611000.aspx

[leehyunmin2010]

HERE NEW 3D field monitor

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JfrZO5OLFv8/ToQpVGXnY6I/AAAAAAAAADc/ZoiISZC3hlQ/s1600/3D+field+monitor.jpg

http://3deyes2010.blogspot.com/2011/09/3d-eyes-vison-3dmonitor.html

cost $1900+S&H

[Mark Toia]

You 3d guys are all mad... :))))))

[Michael Hastings]

FYI We are making a fairly low cost (~$4K including high quality beamsplitter) here's a press release:

http://www.aquavideo.com/press/AquaVideoAero3DPressrelease.pdf

It is designed to be very lightweight and extremely rigid. (Patent pending design). Got a little sidetracked on production with summer/diving/underwater housing work and waiting for our custom beamsplitter glass (from a major optical coatings company). 14'W x 10"H Borofloat glass and built to the same specs as Element technica's published specs. But we should get a little break here soon and back to making the Aero3D.

I think you will be hardpressed to make a DIY rig that is solid, square, and lightweight for much less (unless you have your own CNC machine) but we will consider selling the glass separately since we had to do a large order to get proper specs and relatively decent pricing. Haven't set a list price yet on the glass (probably about $600 but for the next few weeks will do for $499 if you mention the code REDUSER DIY

[Martin Hebermehl]

So, i´m selling also at first half of 2012 my new Flip/Flop-Rig.
Mechanical adjustment of all Parameters like
-mirror-angle
-vertical-alignment
-horizontal-alignment
-roll
-camera-mount
-Toe in or convergence

At this time we use cameras like Canon XHG1 or XF-Series.
So you can use cameras from small to the Canon likes.
I will make tests with RED one this winter to check out if the mirror dimensions are enough.

Working hard to bring the rig to a final state and the price at this time i´m calculate with 3K Euro.

You can see pictures here (with Sony CX11 mounted, because had no other cameras on set):

http://www.3d-stereorigs.com/pics_e.html (http://www.3d-stereorigs.com/pics_e.html)

http://www.3d-stereorigs.com/be_master_Dreh_making_of_0687.jpg

[Dave Blackham]

We designed and had our rigs profesionaly built mostly as what was needed wasnt commercialy available. We wanted very robust rigs that dont flex for custom cameras ie high speed, Timelapse and as light as we could reasnoly create. Tilt, roll and height area easy to ajust as is convergence and IA. manual or Motorised.

If you need to know Mirror suppliers then we can point you in the right direction PM me. They are accurate measured to 2% flat to 1.4 wavelength and AR and properly coated.

[Riku Naskali]

Hi Martin,

That's actually one of the best looking diy rigs I've seen :-)

What are those blue parts under the cameras, I'm assuming they are the camera alignment plates? Did you buy them, or were they custom made?

You have the tilt adjustment with tilting the mirror, right?

The camera adjustment plates are the only thing that I haven't figured out on my own budget diy rig...

[Daniel Kunz]

we made an incredible easy 3D Rig that is really fun to work with. Tripod, Steadycam, Helicopter. we did everything with it:
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8947/20111001161522.jpghttp://img256.imageshack.us/img256/8752/20111001161528.jpghttp://img835.imageshack.us/img835/5927/20111001161557.jpg

[Dave Blackham]

We have some rigs proffesionaly built which are super accurate. Make sure you have very fine convergence ajustment and no backlash anywhere so every move is repeatable.

Also the magic happens on the mirror surface. We had mirrors custom built with better than normal AR coatings and flat surface and very accurate split. So they are better than 2% tollerance for 50/50 split, surface better than 1/4 wave length, very good AR coating. You also need very accurate split accross all wave lenghts. These specs are better than most commercial rigs, we think it shows as the images are very good.

Id also build a 1/4 wave retarder for it.

[Dave Blackham]

So, i´m selling also at first half of 2012 my new Flip/Flop-Rig.
Mechanical adjustment of all Parameters like
-mirror-angle
-vertical-alignment
-horizontal-alignment
-roll
-camera-mount
-Toe in or convergence

At this time we use cameras like Canon XHG1 or XF-Series.
So you can use cameras from small to the Canon likes.
I will make tests with RED one this winter to check out if the mirror dimensions are enough.

Working hard to bring the rig to a final state and the price at this time i´m calculate with 3K Euro.

You can see pictures here (with Sony CX11 mounted, because had no other cameras on set):

http://www.3d-stereorigs.com/pics_e.html (http://www.3d-stereorigs.com/pics_e.html)

http://www.3d-stereorigs.com/be_master_Dreh_making_of_0687.jpg

Thats a nice rig !

[Dave Blackham]

Wel... If anyone has good tips how to make height / tilt / roll adjustment stages, let me know :-)

This is what I've been looking at lately: http://www.maedler.de/Article/68611000.aspx

Red Rock make a tilt roll plate that might work for you. Its simple but works.

[John Marchant]

That maedler adjuster is designed for parallel surfaces, so you'd need to articulate at either end in order not to bind up when adjusting

[Riku Naskali]

They also have them with ball bearing on top:

http://www.maedler.de/Product/1643/3/243/252.aspx

Cost seems pretty high, though. Maybe one could achieve something similar with just some threading...