Rig Advice - Black Magic Micro Cameras

As noted elsewhere you have to consider will the 16:9 coverage, especially if you're hoping to get 180 in both directions (including vertical with crop factor), provide enough overlap and how much of a gap will be on top and bottom.
Full fisheye means you're losing resolution on sides. Cropped fisheye means you're not getting full 180.
Some of the lenses people replace on go gopros are beyond 180 to provide even more overlap.
With dual stereo camera rigs there will be a reduction in stereo the more off axis you go.

Mocking up in a graphics program can also help determine actual coverage.

You'd want to get a sync generator to take advantage of the ability to sync these cameras.
Check on specs and devices that work with these and can handle 6 cameras.

You should keep an eye on the 3d category of personal-view.com forums
http://www.personal-view.com/talks/disc ... oration/p5

gl there says he will be working on the Micro camera sync as soon as he gets them

I'd advise against the Micro Studio cameras and for that matter the Micro Cinema as well. There are several reasons that caused me to cancel my Micro Studio pre-order.
1) Micro Cinema is not 4K - I won't use any camera for 360 that doesn't shoot 4k, you get sharper images, more detail and more pixels to stitch
2) Micro Studio is rolling shutter only, no global shutter like Micro Cinema
3) No capture included for Micro Studio. Only a few 4k Video assist displays record 4k, like the Atomos Shogun, which is > $1600 each and incompatible with the Micro Studio's 6G-SDI input (to output raw 4k to capture).

I've since changed my pre-order to 1 Mini Ursa 4.6 for now with hopes of getting 3 more before October (not expected to release till late July - Early August in limited quantities). At $5k you get a 5" IPS display, record capabilities and high frame rates, plus a bigger sensor and all the other bells and whistles. Compare that to getting a Micro Studio for $1295 + $2k for Atomos Shogun and you're at $3295 for a MFT mount camera (need to buy all new lenses since I'm an EF BM camera mount owner now) vs an EF or PL mount capable Mini Ursa. Just my two cents.

"contempt" wrote:


I've since changed my pre-order to 1 Mini Ursa 4.6 for now with hopes of getting 3 more before October (not expected to release till late July - Early August in limited quantities).

But the Mini Ursa is a much larger camera which would restrict the sort of 360 videos you could shoot with it. I agree though about 1080p being pretty hopeless for circular fisheye use. I did some raw video tests with a pair of Canon DSLRs with Magic Lantern and no go ...

The flip side is 1920 x 1080 is made up of at least 4 cameras so still exceeds current resolution of Gear VR.

I have been thinking about a Metabones adapter for Canon lenses for the Micro cameras -- I presume there will be one as they have versions for other Blackmagic cameras. It will reduce the focal length by about 0.6X maybe so the 15mm image circle of the 4.5mm Sigma DSLR fisheye will be about 9mm and so the image circle will fit lengthwise at least into the Micro format.
https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/view ... es#p217711

I am working on a Micro rig, the biggest question is over lenses at the moment. Are people writing off the Rokinon/Samyang 7.5mm due to the crop factor? I read even though its a 4/3rds lens, it will crop 3x on BMPCC, so presumably the same on Micro sensor?

More useful as it is a manual focus, not sure how you would manage the Sigma's focus, MediaVR?

Been looking at some other options like machine vision 1-3mm lenses, they are quite wide but only rated to 5mp so might drop the quality quite a bit.

More useful as it is a manual focus, not sure how you would manage the Sigma's focus, MediaVR?

Been looking at some other options like machine vision 1-3mm lenses, they are quite wide but only rated to 5mp so might drop the quality quite a bit.

Sigma has manual as well as autofocus. There are quite a few M12 and C mount machine vision fisheye lenses rated at more than 5 megapixels .. but megapixel ratings are a somewhat nebulous concept
eg. http://mark-peterson-f065.squarespace.com/ty180ir/

http://focusafe.en.alibaba.com/product/ ... amera.html

Michel Thoby has a comparison review of the Sunex and the Sigma 4.5mm
http://michel.thoby.free.fr/Sigma4-5mm/ ... Part1.html

Btw, for some vr uses (eg. stereo still 360 panorama capture) full circle coverage is not necessary. eg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwzCMPeS6JE Sometimes just full coverage on the long dimension (or diagonal) is all you need.
.. to be able to do this using synced raw video would be an advance in some respects.

I own both the Sigma and the Sunex lenses and use them with the Blackmagic Production Camera 4k.

Personally the Sigma feels like I wasted my money. Just not happy with it overall while I love the Sunex despite it's limitations.

The Sunex definitely has a lot of CA while the Sigma looks soft when focused to infinity (Sunex is fixed everything).

To be honest I have yet to be happy with anything I've gotten from the Sigma and I bought it in May.

Last shoot I did 2 weeks ago I didn't even pull the Sigma from my bag.

The Sunex is great but the left and right of the circle is clipped with the BMPC4K so I shoot in portrait mode which gives full zenith and nadir coverage at 90° (4 positions/cameras).

When I get my hands on the Mini Ursa 4.6k I'm going to switchover to the Canon fisheye.

I'm not convinced on the quality of the Sigma. The Sunex is interesting, quite a slow lens but I guess that helps with Depth of Field (min. 50cm), no need to change focus which is somewhat useful. Its going to suffer from APS_C to S16mm crop again though so measures 16 or so mm.

The machine lenses I was looking at were theia's, they're possibly the 'best' widest c-mounts on the market, but the 1-3mm I have warps at the edges and features all sorts of CA. Also the build quality is iffy at best.

What about the lensbaby? Its around the same sort of length with manual focus control and it's faster and cheaper. Never been too impressed with lensbaby optics though.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... m/alsVwDtl

I'm focusing on full 360 with mono z & n. Using 2 cameras at 45degrees at top to get coverage, think a circular fisheye is pretty much a requirement for my purposes.