LucidCam: The 180° Virtual Reality 3-D Camera

The LucidCam is an amazing 180° virtual reality 3-D camera that is simple to use and produces great 3-D photos and video. The camera weighs in at only 8 ounces and records in 2K, 3K or 4K resolution.

There is no built in viewfinder on the camera. Instead, the camera has built-in Wi-fi to connect to your smartphone. Using the LucidCam VR app, the camera pairs to your smartphone and uses it as a monitor. You can see exactly what you are filming on the smartphone. The app also acts as a remote control so you can operate the camera right from the phone. Additional settings are available to adjust white balance and other camera controls right on the smartphone.

For the short videos most people will use this camera for it becomes easy to use the app as your monitor. LucidCam also offers an accessory phone clip to house the camera and smartphone together. Other accessories include a 360° rig clip, iPhone case viewer, chest mount, head mount, and lens cover replacement.

The test videos we made were immersive and had great natural 3-D effect. Looking at the videos without VR glasses appears to look like the output has a fish-eye look to them. However, when viewed through the VR glasses this wide-angle look is minimized.

This camera captures great 3-D vistas. It would be desirable for those wanting to capture action 3-D video much like the GoPro system. The advantage to this camera over GoPro's 3-D is don't need two GoPro cameras and the GoPro 3-D rig to capture VR 3-D. Also, you don't need to combine the separate videos from the two GoPro cameras using extra software.

Videos and photos are easily downloaded to your smartphone via the Wi-fi connection. They can then be transferred to your PC. The files are also available on the LucidCam app after you create your profile.

The two lenses extend out of the body of the camera. Lucid Cam advises to not lay the camera face down on the lenses to avoid damaging them.

The LucidCam website offers tutorials and more. You can download a conversion tool to easily convert LucidCam content to top/bottom format for stereoscopic viewing on YouTube VR180. Just hit the convert button on our tool, inject the metadata, and upload directly to YouTube!

LucidCam has reduced the price to $399 on their website. The basic kit includes the LucidCam, with MicroUSB and a drawstring bag.

3-D Review Online Magazine awards an Editor's Choise "Must See 3-D™" Award to the LucidCam. We look forward to seeing what else LucidCam comes up with for the 3-D market in the future.

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Ted Whitten's 2-D to 3-D Conversions

Check out Ted Whitten's 2-D to 3-D conversions created with what he calls "The Select and Shift Method" using Adobe® Photoshop®. Whitten did an intentionally flat-looking conversion of Batman and Robin from the 1966 TV series.

"This one, in case it's not obvious, is done intentionally bad, as a joke," wrote Whitten. "What I mean is, normally when doing a 2-D to 3-D conversion, the goal is to give the image realistic looking depth, with people and objects appearing to have actual girth. When a conversion is done poorly, a common criticism is that it looks 'like a pop-up book' - there is depth, but only between flat things - the people 'look like cardboard cutouts'. For the conversions, I intentionally gave them only one layer with no depth at all except the depth between the flat foreground and flat background."

"I do my conversions in Adobe Photoshop, using a very manual process that I call 'The Select and Shift Method', which basically means you select something, and then move it to the side," wrote Whitten. "I start by making a duplicate of my original photo and laying them side by side. The original image is used as the right eye image, and no changes are made to it. All alterations are made to the left eye image."

"If you, or anyone else reading this, is interesting in learning more, or trying to do a conversion yourself, I highly recommend you pick up the book Mastering 2-D to 3-D Conversion by Michael Beech. And join my Facebook group 'Let's Convert 2-D Images to 3-D'".

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Rebecca Kilbreath - Gizmondo's Show Me Your View-Master® Nerd

View-Master® collector Rebecca Kibreath was featured on Gizmondo's Show Me Your Nerd. Check out the video showing her passion for all things View-Master®.

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1909 Indianpolis Motor Speedway Stereoviews

A 1909 Indianapolis Motor Speedway stereoview sold for $500 with one bid. The Indy 500 card shows several cars in parking spaces at the inaugural 1909 race. The card was produced by Stereo-Travel Co., Corona, New York City. This is card No. 19. The caption reads, "Cars in parking space I.M.S. Copyright, 1909, by Stereo-Travel Co. The I.M.S. stands for Indianpolis Motor Speedway. The interesting thing about this view is that these are the cars in the parking lot, not the race cars. Several other stereoviews from the series were also being offered for sale.

Stereoview No. 10 from the same series with a photo of the race was being offered for $500 with no bids. The caption reads, "Stopping for repairs. I.M.S. August 1909. Copyright, 1909, by Stereo-Travel Co.

Stereoview No. 15 is a photo of the raceway and grandstand. The caption reads, "Grand Stand, Judges, Stand, etc. I.M.S. August 1909. Copyright, 1909, by Stereo-Travel Co.

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