Consumer electronics firm GoPro, makers of the new 3D HERO System, is developing a model featuring three lenses to increase the range of stereoscopic convergence, writes Adrian Pennington.
The GoPro units are popular for capturing point of view action on extreme sports such as surfing, snow boarding and off road cycling. Launched at NAB, the HD HERO System allies twin GoPro HD units with synchronized lenses, in a 130mm x 62mm waterproof housing, to capture 1080p at 30fps or 720p at 60fps. It records 2.5 hours of video to 16GB SD cards and has rechargeable batteries.
The L and R eye images can be recombined when downloaded from SD card to Cineform software, which GoPro acquired just at the end of March. Cineform’s Studio 3D editing software has been available for free to download.The next step, and showing in prototype on GoPro’s booth at NAB was a unit housing three lenses, arrayed side by side and in sync but with only two operational at any time.
“Most GoPro producers use the camera to shoot close-ups and with a fixed interaxial of 33mm that gives them a convergence range of 3ft to 25ft,” explained GoPro’s Rick Loughrey. “We wanted to give users the flexibility to shoot stereo over longer distances so by adding a third lens they can select convergence points up to 150ft away.”Each HD HERO costs $259 and a complete 3D kit would cost around $600.
www.gopro.com
