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I’ve been doing a lot of 3D stereoscopic shooting recently. Primarily with my XDCAM EX side by side rig and also with one of my mirror rigs. When your shooting 3D the camera separation (interaxial) is crucial. The minimum separation limits how close you can get to objects you are shooting. With my side by side rig (which now uses a modified upside-down EX3 Lens) I get a minimum interaxial of 110mm (4″). This is pretty good for a full HD rig, but means that as a rule of thumb you can’t have anything in the shot closer than about 4m (12ft). So for interviews or working in confined spaces I need a rig with less lens separation. This is where the mirror rig comes in. One camera shoots through a half silvered mirror placed in front of the other camera. By using a mirror you can get any amount of separation you want from zero up to around 150mm (5″) with the rig I have. The problem though is that mirror rigs are bulky in addition the camera that shoots through the mirror sees a flipped image so monitoring can be tricky. The sheer size of the rig makes handheld use very difficult, and it’s just not practical for the kinds of expeditions that I do.

So I put together this rig:

It uses a pair of Sony HXR-MC1 mini cams that are controlled by a special LANC based sync box. This gets the camera running within 1/1000th of a second of each other which is essential for 3D video. The camera separation is adjustable from 50mm (1.9″) up to 100mm (4″). In the pictures it is set to 75mm (3″). The cameras are full 1920×1080 HD recording to AVCHD. If the light is good the pictures are excellent. It has twin handles and is very easy to use handheld. The controller will also allow synchronized zoom control and exposure offset. I’m going up to Arctic Norway tomorrow for a few days and I will take the rig with me. While I’m in Norway I will also be putting the new Sony PMW-350 camera through it’s paces as well as trying out a Canon 7D.

Here is a clip from the Goodwood Revival, shot using an EX3, HXR-MC1 and NanoFLash.

Here is a little short video I did that features footage from my HXR-MC1P minicams. It was all shot in an afternoon at Middle Wallop during a shake down for the 2009 airshow season. The MC1P’s never cease to amaze me, the picture quality is so good from such a small camera and it cuts well with the PDW-700 used for the regular shots.