Re: camera rig vs twin lens cameras

Hi Grzegorz,

I have only worked (so far) with twin-lens cameras, so I can only speak to that.

So far, my experience has been very good with the Sony TD10, NX3D1, Panasonic 3DA1 and GoPro rigs. (With the exception of the GoPro) they handle just like an ordinary camcorder, and with my Sonys, the autostereoscopic screen is very useful for seeing the depth while shooting. It's very hard to monitor stereo rig cameras in the field (and I don't know of any inexpensive stereo field monitors). Plus, all but the Panasonic are super portable, and could be flown easily on small steadicams, etc. And of course, the alignment, stereo zoom, etc. are all built-in, so no time wasted working out those details on set.

The most obvious advantages in post is how little correction I have to do. Most of the correction tools in Vegas, Dashwood, etc. are there to solve color correction, vertical alignment, rotation, and keystone issues, all of which are moot, with a twin-lens camera.

The disadvantages that I can see to the twin-lens cameras include: 1. fixed interaxial, so I can't adjust for macro or hyperstereo, 2. no possibility of toe-in (although most experts I've heard from insist on shooting parallel, anyway), and 3. fixed zoom lenses, so it's hard to go extra wide or tight. So far, I use the GoPro, when I want something extra wide.

The major problem in post is: the Sony cameras create MVC (muxed left/right) files, which only Vegas will work with natively. For everything else, you have to demux the files first. There is an elegant solution for the NX3D1 (the CMU software that comes with it), but not a very good one for the TD10. I understand that the JVC twin-lens camera also comes with useful L/R splitting software. If you are cutting in Cineform, it doesn't matter which camera you use, because Cineform will recognize MVCs and carry the mux over to its own wrapper (provided your system will recognize .m2ts files).

Overall, I highly recommend the twin-lens systems, especially for beginners (I'm very new to stereo myself). Being able to see the stereo, in the field, is extremely useful, and it's nice in post to have stereo pairs that easily match up, without sync issues.

Best of luck!

-matt faw