Canon Introduces Their First Dual Fisheye Lens for Stereoscopic 3D 180° VR Capture in 8K

When I was a kid in the 60's, my father gave me his old Exacta Varex SLR and he also had the 3D adaptor for it.
This consisted of a screw-on mirrored adaptor for the 50mm lens and it also had a stereo viewer that replaced the penta prism so you could see and focus in 3D.
The camera is long gone, but I've still got lots of 3D colour slides and a viewer.

Let's hope this new lens sells well and then they can bring out other focal lengths.
 
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Looking at 3:48 in that video, it seems that some of the image is lost due to each lens being visible in the image of its neighbour. Presumably that can be dealt with in post by cropping, but I wonder what the true resolution ends up being in the VR headset. It's surely not 8k.

The patent says the image height (= radius) is 8.75mm. So each image circle covers 240mm^2, or about a quarter of the 864mm^2 full frame sensor. (240/864)*44.8 = 12.4MP. More than enough for 4K (ignoring distortion correction), but certainly not enough for 8K.
 
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Chig

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Yes, I was thinking that this would be of use in real estate. Based on the Canon video, it seems that you could share a video that allows the potential customer to scroll around in 2D, but if they want to and have a 3D viewer, they can view the same footage in 3D and get a much more immersive experience. I imaging this could also be combined with drone footage or even mount the rig on a large drone to extend the 3D experience to the exterior.

I few years ago, we hired a company to do a virtual tour of the college, that allowed potential students to scroll around various buildings on campus. It was very similar to the video Canon produced when viewed in 2D. I'm guessing that students who have grown up on digital content would be very receptive to a 3D campus tour.
Would this be good for wedding videos ?
 
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LogicExtremist

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Under $2k? Can't wait to see how this is used. So interesting!

***We, on the forum, pretty much "screwed the pooch" on the price prediction for this lens.***
Under $2K in the US, so using Canon's typical international pricing that will be over $4K in Canada and Australia! Slap the lens on a R5 which sells for $6K in the latter locations and you have a $10K VR setup!:oops:
 
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LogicExtremist

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In the Canon USA video they sure mentioned "paid subscription service" a lot. And only provided 3rd party support for, you guessed it: a paid subscription service, from Adobe.
Yes, it said "Canon is currently developing two paid subscription-based software solutions as available options for completing the post-production process."

Buy the lens, then rent the software to use it! Canon have gone for the Adobe cash-grab option here.

It's a rather curious situation where you can buy a lens that needs additional software to be able to use it, but that software doesn't come with it, and you can't buy it either, you can only access it by incurring an additional ongoing cost.

That magical $2K USD price isn't the real outlay, and depending on what Canon will be charging to rent the software, you'd be wanting to be shooting a lot of 180-degree VR video regularly to justify the ongoing expense. If you're a big video production house, the cost might be nothing at all though. :)
 
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LogicExtremist

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I’m wondering if Canon is also talking with Apple. The rumors have Apple investing $$$ in AR and VR tech and have at last 2 products in the pipeline for release next year. If the Apple faithful jump on it in mass that could ramp up the demand for VR content… :unsure:
I hope Canon is not talking to Apple, otherwise the R1 will be glued shut, with a non-removable battery and memory card. It will come with various memory options, each costing many times more than the actual value of the cards lol! :ROFLMAO:
 
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For those that have asked yes the lens does 3D, that’s why it has two optics. But it also does more than that.

If you use a headset, which can be an Oculus or just a simple Google Cardboard box that your smartphone slots into. You get a video were you the watcher have the ability to look around the frame. Given the 190deg angle of view this provides you are able to see all the way to the left and right and up and down. As I said that is controlled by the person watching the video, not the one recording it.

As someone said, you could shoot house interiors and let people look in any direction, all in 3D, unlike the current flat rotatable VR tours that are offered.

I’ve also seen such systems used in cars to record customers laps in around a circuit in say a Ferrari. You would be able to look out of the window or at the dashboard to see the speedo. Just by pointing your head in that direction. The headset figures your head movements and shows you the correct angle of view.
 
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The lens sounds like a great idea and most seem to be very happy with the price. The one thing I don't like is that you have to have a subscription to process the images and videos, if you are running a business that does this type of work regularly it won't be a problem but if you are hobbyist that just wants to use this lens occasionally it's going to be a pain to cancel the subscription or just to keep paying for it even though you don't use the lens that often.

I'm wondering what this subscription idea would mean for future releases of Canon's Digital Photo Professional, will DPP 5 only be available on subscription with future generation cameras? I hope not.
 
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Canon delivers!

Amazing! Much more compact than I expected. I really like the ability to adjust the distance between the lenses, and to have an aperture of F2.8 available in such an optic is fabulous. If this is remotely affordable I can see it becoming a huge seller.

As an L lens, I’d expect very high sharpness, but I have some reservations about flare, which is apparent in the video, and means that the lens is probably best used when the front elements can be shielded from direct sunlight.

Gimmee, gimmee gimmee!
You cannot charge the distance between lenses. Only the focus difference between eyes.
 
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Under $2k!?! cheaper than 2x 8-15mm fisheye
Compact and dedicated SW!?!
Would appear to be a sure winner for those in the niche area and cheap enough for newbies to play with it - at least for initial rental.
love that the tripod needs a lateral post extension. I wonder how long it needs to be to avoid tripod legs in frame
Given the angle of view is 190degrees. It can see backwards. The distance requires will vary with the height above the ground.

If I’ve done the maths right the distance should be given by:

height / cos(10) x sin(10)

where 10 is in degrees. For a height of 60” (5 foot) it should come out as 10.6”. [height / cos(10) provides the hypotenuse of the triangle, and sin(10) the length of the base. The top angle being 10 degrees past the 180 upright. If the camera is not level the angle changes. Point up it decreases, down it increases. ]
 
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So on an R or RP which crop in video mode, this lens would be only useful for stills. Did I get that right?
Yes as the image circle fills half the frame the crop would fail to record significant parts of the video.

The left side of the left eye, the right side of the right eye. All of the top and bottom would be gone.

Given that the right side of the left eye and the left side of the right eye can only see the other lens the results would be poor indeed.
 
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Would this be good for wedding videos ?
In a way. You could film the first dance, pointing at the couple, for example. You could then watch it back and see what uncle bob was doing in the corner at the time. On second thoughts maybe not such a good idea ;)

But joking aside. You would get a 3D video of the dance and the ability to see the audience.
 
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Let's hope this new lens sells well and then they can bring out other focal lengths.
As this lens is aimed at VR it’s very unlikely to be produced in other focal lengths. 5.2mm is what is required to give the 190degree angle of view required for VR.

Something like 50mm version would only be a 3D lens, not a VR one. Unless it sells in large quantities and then is only ever used for 3D I can’t see them making others.

I suppose if the talk of an APS-C camera come to life we could see a crop version released. That would have to be 3.25mm to do the same job!
 
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Del Paso

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Canon's strength has always been about innovating.
I don't understand this lens, and I'll certainly never need it, unlike several or many others.
But if you need it, you'll have to enter the Canon biotope, no chance for Sony/Panasonic/Fuji users.
And, according to what I've read on this forum, there will be a demand for such an exotic lens. Good for the RF system!
 
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unfocused

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Would this be good for wedding videos ?
I may be missing something, but I wonder if it might be too intrusive for many wedding couples. It's a fisheye so the videographer would have to be pretty close to the subjects during the ceremony and reception and positioning would be important. If you care more about the wedding video than you do about the actual wedding, it might be okay.
 
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The patent says the image height (= radius) is 8.75mm. So each image circle covers 240mm^2, or about a quarter of the 864mm^2 full frame sensor. (240/864)*44.8 = 12.4MP. More than enough for 4K (ignoring distortion correction), but certainly not enough for 8K.
I agree I can’t see how they can get 8K from half the sensor. Given the left and right will overlap when rendered.

Unless they are using half pixels as whole ones. I.e. left and right sides of the dual pixel to double the horizontal resolution. It would be the first time such a thing had been done, to my knowledge.

It would surely darken the image as only half as much light would hit each half pixel. interesting idea though.
 
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I may be missing something, but I wonder if it might be too intrusive for many wedding couples. It's a fisheye so the videographer would have to be pretty close to the subjects during the ceremony and reception and positioning would be important. If you care more about the wedding video than you do about the actual wedding, it might be okay.
It’s never going to be a lens for close up work. Wide angles are very bad at that, unless you are trying to film Pinocchio. It would be more about capturing the whole room, wall to wall and allowing the viewer to look around where they wanted. I’m not sure it would be used for the wedding service, as it would preclude the photographer being in front of the camera, making the more traditional shots very difficult to achieve at the same time. I would think that the goal of a wedding photographer is to not be in their own shots.
 
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I agree I can’t see how they can get 8K from half the sensor. Given the left and right will overlap when rendered.

Unless they are using half pixels as whole ones. I.e. left and right sides of the dual pixel to double the horizontal resolution. It would be the first time such a thing had been done, to my knowledge.

It would surely darken the image as only half as much light would hit each half pixel. interesting idea though.
My understanding is the lens projects two 17.5mm tall (circular) images side by side. The real world view overlaps, but each image gets a separate part of the sensor to be projected on. Software is used to combine the two images into a 3D model of the scene. AFAIK, the model's resolution can't exceed that of each image, which is well under 8K.
 
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