I got back late last night from a big budget cinema commercial shoot where I was shooting with a pair of F3's on a Hurricane Rig. All went very well and the DoP was impressed by the F3's. The overall light weight of the complete system really helped us when moving from position to position. We used a ton of Chapman grip equipment including sliders and dolly's.
We shot using 2 sets of band new Zeiss Ultra's, mainly at 32mm and 50mm (very nice) as well as some older and very heavy Arri 100mm macro primes. Our only small issue was that the follow focus motors were shifting the camera very slightly due to flex in the tripod base plate on the F3. You probably wouldn't notice this at most normal focal lengths in 2D but in 3D small shifts are very obvious. So a stiffener plate for the base will be needed to prevent this (as well as general flex) or a pair of 15mm rails mounted to the top holes on the F3 body.

We were recording to a Nano3D (2 x Nano Flashes) as well as to a Mac workstation recording ProRes in the video village. The video village allowed for instant playback on 50" 3D monitors in a blacked out tent for review and tech assessment by the lead stereographer.

It was an outdoor shoot in great weather. As well as the F3's there was a second rig with a pair of Phanton HD Gold 35mm high speed cameras shooting 3D at 1000fps. So even thought the sun was shining brightly, many shots were done with 2 or 3 18kw lamps!!

The end of day was spent shooting some blue screen effects shots that will be matted in to the finished commercial.
I'm under NDA so can't talk about the subject just yet, or post any pictures, but once the ad is released (2 weeks time!!) I'll be able to post some grabs and photos.

Nice setup Alister...waiting to see the end results.

A week ago we did a small tv commercial for a local supermarket chain in Beirut,
we used the F3 with the Sony primes, the dop was impressed by the look and workflow.
It was a sunny day, and only small HMI's and butterflies were used.
here's the link YouTube - Le Charcutier Aoun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEiy2NDVI4Y)

Attached is a picture of the twin F3 rig on a genus hurricane 3d rig sitting on a nice O'Connor 2725 head on a Chapman 6ft slider. The lamp behind us is an 18k that was spotted and being panned to follow the action! Lens were 50mm Zeiss Ultra Primes.

How do you check for the 3D result?
is it realtime or have to record and process first

Also how do deal with slight lens or sensor differences, does it really matter?

The video village had a MacPro with a dual stream decklink card, so it was able to record and then review the shots in real-time. The Nano3D can also playback both of the recorded 3D streams in sync so if you have a 3D monitor, 3D playback is possible.

The lenses we had were two matched sets, and any differences were too small to be of any real concern. Primes tend to be easier to match than zooms. There should not be any sensor differences, other than slight centering issues but those can be adjusted out by the rig.

What rate did you shoot the nano's I-frame 200mbs?

Our only small issue was that the follow focus motors were shifting the camera very slightly due to flex in the tripod base plate on the F3.

Thanks for your notes from the shoot. I can't wait to see the finished work.

It's utterly beyond me why the F3 continues the same mounting mistakes as the EX1/EX3 cameras, right down to the same 4 very small screws that secure the tripod mounting plate to the camera bottom. With the goal of S3D shooting built into its genes, and knowing that the cameras would be mounted in vertical positions, I can't fathom the logic.

On the other hand, the little NXCAM has a better physical form factor for S3D, and the best series of robust mounting points top and bottom I've ever seen on a video camera, prosumer or otherwise. Of course, lacking genlock, it's useless for serious stereo.

Regards,

Jim Arthurs

If you have the right gear, it's solid as a rock.

Griptech - Griptech Sony F3 Riser Plate (http://griptech.net.au/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=83)

The trouble for me is that last thing you want to do on a 3D rig is raise the camera body using a riser.

3D is enabled already? what do you need?

No its not but you can simply genlock both cameras together and link timecode for 3d.

Hi Alister,

Curious about a few of general things in setting up a 3D rig like that. Once you have all the bits required to set up the cameras running vertically & horizontally with the beam splitter how long does it take to set it up? I know there were a few hands on deck but if it was one or two doing it, how long would it take? Further to that when you are changing to a different set of shots in the same scene, how long does it take to do a lens change and then make the rig tweaks to get the 3D in sync? Finally how much does a F3 3D beamsplitter rig weigh, not including the tripod head and with the assumption the lenses are in the 1.5kg/3lb range?