As 3D field acquisition becomes more popular, the need for better tools to analyze the image has risen just as fast. Matrox recently released the MC-100 and it is loaded with features including a 3D analysis mode. It’s a small box with big punch and I had to test it out.

The hardest part of this test was getting two identical cameras. I have several cameras, but no two that are exactly the same with an SDI interface–which is what the MC-100 uses. After a night of shooting a Skyforce basketball game their cameras were available and the test began.

We put the cameras into a parallel configuration. Ideally with cameras of this size we would need to use a beam splitter to get a more realistic interocular distance. That’s fancy talk for distance between the center of both lenses. The Panasonic HPX370 cameras we used were just to big to get close together. Being this was a just a test, we went with what we had.

We lined them up and set focus and framing on the same object and then fed the signals into the box. We got amazing results. On a simple field monitor we were able to analyze a 3D image. There are different modes in which to do this and the pictures below were done in anaglyph–one eye is red the other is blue. You can see the two different colors merge closer together in the pictures as adjustments were made. When we had correct alignment the red and blue tint went away and revealed the correct colors. Incredibly simple.

I did send the unit back after the test as it was a dedicated demo unit, but I will be purchasing shortly. The 3D analysis mode is just one of several functions this Matrox box is capable of. I’ll save the other info for another post.

Thanks for looking and stay tuned. There is so much more to come.