Greetings from the RotoPix front.

Haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd fill you all in on the latest... We've finally got the thumbs-up from the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana to do an aerial VR tour of their city. However they want HDVR (which we've been developing) to create full-screen, high definition zoomable aerial panos. So we're sinking around $14,000 into a new camera/lens/laptop system. Coastal Optical Systems makes this lens, which has a 22mm output, which is perfectly matched to the Kodak DSLR's 24mm image sensor. The lens itself weighs 8lbs. (3.6 kg), so this will be a heavy rig to hold onto while I'm dangling out of a helicopter. But, the clarity and resolution should be amazing. I hope to have some samples to show you in about 10 weeks. It takes that long for them to build this lens. Hope it's worth the wait.

Cheers,

Brian Jackson

P.S., If anyone's interested, HERE'S a schematic of the lens.

Can't wait Brian!

Bring them on....

Regards, Smooth

Will do, Smooth!

The only problem is that the client wants to get started around the 1'st of October, which isn't enough time to have the lens built. Would take at least an additional month... which is kind of strange. Coastal Optical lists this lens as one of their "Standard Products", yet each one is custom built. For $8K it'd better mix drinks and do dishes... but I suppose I have a wife for that (don't tell her that though!)

My only other concerns are the wind loads (drag) acting upon the lens in flight. The rig will end up being about 60" grip-to-lens length, so it has to protrude from the helicopter during flight. Typically we fly slow from one location to another to avoid excessive aerodynamic drag on the camera/lens/mount. But this new lens is freaking huge! I may have to construct an airfoil shaped fairing around the camera & lens to lessen the effects of wind resistance in flight.

Also, the city of Fort Wayne will be providing their own chopper, so we need to be sure it has removeable doors. A fixed-hinge door isn't useable because the length of the VR rig prohibits bringing it completely inside the chopper in transit. Unless of course we designed a telescoping exte... Hmmm. I'll get back with ya. I feel a brainstorm comin' on

hey brian,

why do you need such an expensive lens? whats so special about it compared to the regular fc-38?

how many megs are u expecting the full screen panos to be?

Clarity will be the answer.

This I believe will be used on a Kodak full frame sensor camera up around 13 to 14 mega pixels. Image size could end up being 12000 x 6000 pixels. Where as my full screen images are displayed at 4000x2000.

This of course would need to be displayed with a "Zoom" image serving. Such as Zoomify where clarity on zoom is displayed on demand at any given view.

I for one will love to look at images this clear and crisp.

Regards, Smooth

VT360,

The output diameter needs to be sized to the physical dimensions of the camera's image sensor. In the case of the Kodak sensors, their minimum dimension is 24mm. Other lenses might only output an image circle of 14mm, where most of the sensor's area would be wasted. Also, this lens' optical characteristics are superior to other lenses in many respects. So even if we reduced the final pano to 4000 X 2000 pixels, you'll see the sharpness and detail right away.

Kodak makes a 22 megapixel sensor that is square (36mm X 36mm) and is used by Imacon Systems. This would be the ultimate HDVR system, but the cost is prohibitive. Working with the Coastal Optical engineers, it would have cost us just under $20K to develop a lens suitable for this larger output size. Coupled with the sensor and custom machined MF body, total cost would have exceeded $50K. So looking at it purely from a "bang-for-the-buck" perspective, going with the smaller 16 megapixel rectangular sensor over the 22mp square one will yield about 75% of the resolution for 1/4 the cost. Pretty attractive deal.

Cheers,

Brian Jackson

Quote: Originally posted by RotoPix on August-17-2004

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 So even if we reduced the final pano to 4000 X 2000 pixels, you'll see the sharpness and detail right away.

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You will have to using Panoweaver 3.01 Pro as this image size is the limitation of the software.

Again, I believe the next version will address this problem.

Regards, Smooth

sounds like something we all would love to see!

best to ya mate!