Shooting a 3D Screen

[Marcus Durham]

Got a bit of an odd one coming up. I'm going to be shooting in a room where a 3D display will be present. In fact it's one of these new ones that doesn't require glasses, namely one of these:

Magnetic 3D | Auto-Stereoscopic 3D Displays, 3D Content & 3D Digital Signage

Now obviously the EX1 can't see 3D, It won't see any effect at all, but has anyone shot with one of these screens in view? It's LCD based so I'm assuming it won't flicker, but will I end up with a mess or will it look like a standard LCD and remain solid (presumably with some patterning from the lenses that create the 3D effect)?

There's no opportunity to test this and the screen will have to be in shot.

Any ideas?

[Vincent Oliver]

Try a quick test shooting at 1/50 and another at 1/60, you should be able to determine the quality from the playback preview. The reason I say try the two shutter speeds, is that my computer LCD displays at 60mhz and my LCD TV displays at 50mhz, using a shutter speed that matches the Mhz should cure the problem. You can also fine tune flicker removal via the ECS mode.

As for the 3D, keep fingers crossed and hope the camera captures this. I haven't seen one of the new generation glasses free displays. Maybe do a track across the display and see if you can capture the 3D effect.

[Marcus Durham]

Originally Posted by Vincent Oliver

Try a quick test shooting at 1/50 and another at 1/60, you should be able to determine the quality from the playback preview. The reason I say try the two shutter speeds, is that my computer LCD displays at 60mhz and my LCD TV displays at 50mhz, using a shutter speed that matches the Mhz should cure the problem. You can also fine tune flicker removal via the ECS mode.

As for the 3D, keep fingers crossed and hope the camera captures this. I haven't seen one of the new generation glasses free displays. Maybe do a track across the display and see if you can capture the 3D effect.

Thanks. Tracking might be worth a try. The spec suggest the display runs at 60HZ which should prove fun with any fluorescent lighting in the vicinity!

It is going to be challenging which I don't mind, I just don't want it to end up looking bad. Whatever i capture needs to look solid and good. That may be hard as although the effect was impressive, the image looked somewhat like those rulers you had at school which you moved and then the image changed.

[Jeremy Hughes]

Very interested to hear how that comes out. Will you be able to post a video of it when you're done?

[Marcus Durham]

Originally Posted by Jeremy Hughes

Very interested to hear how that comes out. Will you be able to post a video of it when you're done?

Possibly. Depends on a number of factors including how it comes out!

[Marcus Durham]

Just an update on this as I've just returned from shooting the screen......

Worked quite well. No real gotchas. Shot at 1/50, no flickering. The usual LCD patterning was evident when you were zoomed in or quite close. Due to the way the lenses in the screen work the resolution is lower than normal so patterning is evident earlier than it would be on a normal LCD.

In general, providing the viewing angle worked when you had one eye closed, it looked OK on camera. Just be warned there are angles where the screen looks blurred to the eye so it will also look blurred to the camera.

So as a rule, where the 3D effect looks the best to the naked eye, it will look the best to the camera. And be aware of the patterning issue. You will never get the screen to look quite as good as a normal LCD but I was quite surprised at how good it did look.