Canadian photographer Eric Paré has built a bullet-time rig using 15 Raspberry Pi cameras synchronised to record pictures at exactly the same moment from different angles. The cameras then create a series of images that show the subject, usually someone jumping in the air it seems, from multiple viewpoints. These images can then be put together as a video to show the person frozen in mid-air as the camera appears to pan around them. The technique, made popular by the fight scenes in the movie The Matrix, requires that the cameras used are all pointing at exactly the same spot and that the shutters are tripped either at the same moment or in sequence.
Eric usually uses a collection of EOS DSLRs for his bullet-time videos but thought it would be interesting to use the tiny Raspberry Pi cameras as the lenses can be placed much closer together to create smoother motion in the final video. To do this he mounted 15 cameras on an aluminium rail and synchronised them using a single dashboard that could also control the settings of each camera.
Problems arose due to the wide angle lens of the Raspberry Pi camera and because the cameras are mounted on their PCB using a gum glue that doesn’t hold them in a specific position. This meant that while the boards were all facing the right way the cameras were not, and the footage produced was jerky. Eric solved this issue by remounting all the camera units directly to the boards using a thin adhesive.
Each camera in the rig was connected to the laptop via an Ethernet cable to a switch and Eric triggered the set-up using a Bluetooth presenter controller. He says he didn’t need to make any custom electronics for the rig when shooting with continuous lighting, but he did make a new control board to fit in the rig when he wanted to use flash.
I've watched The Matrix many times. The lobby shootout was my go to scene when showing off my projector and I'm pretty sure I wore out the DVD by playing it so much. But I've never noticed any scene like this. Surely you guys are just being sarcastic?
yeah, you see it at conventions all the time. multiple cameras to do 3d images. Dpreview just needed more content, it isn't new but he described it very well..
Whether it stops time or slows it down is a question of the camera programming. In the Matrix when he dodges the bullets the camera is slowed down to *almost* frozen. In, say, Lost in Space it’s a straight freeze pan.
GoPro should have expanded more into such areas. With the older GoPro Hero 4 Black, they had a hero bus that allowed the cameras to integrate into complex rig systems. The hero bus allowed one to accurately sync the cameras and adjust camera settings.
Examples include 8k 360 GoPro Omni, Google/GoPro 3D 360 ODYSSEY, Google Light Field, GoPro stereo 3D. There are also plenty of bullet time rigs built using arrays of GoPros and the hero bus.
The bus communication still exists on the newer GoPro, but GoPro freaking locked everything up (probably to sell their overpriced accessories). As a result, the development of multi GoPro rigs is all but dead now.
I think too many here are comparing this to Hollywood productions with huge budgets.
One of the videos on his website seems to show a business with people lined up to get portraits made this way. Looked like a very creative business model to me.
Indeed, the cat makes it more special. But I see the guy uses DSLRs with mirror, why not mirrorless cameras like EOS-M instead of the APS-C EOS xxxD ? Faster and less mechanical wear as there are no slapping mirror boxes.
And this is even more interesting: ultra high speed of exploding oxyacetylene:
It's a massive rig, probably optimized both for position and software. Canon only came out with decent mirrorless recently, but if you have mirror lock up activated, it doesn't really make much difference in this scenario.
This is a result driven by the love of the tools instead of tools driven by the love of a result.
Since we have already seen much better final results from other endeavors, perhaps this could be hot in a computer forum but I find it of marginal interest in a photography one.
There's a big gap between buying gear, and making custom rigs to make shots you want.
One is love of the tools.
The other is art.
This has been done better, as some post point out, but that's okay. I enjoyed viewing the video, and would love to see more content like this on DPReview.
I wouldn't call setting up portrait lighting with lamps "love of the tools." I'd call a review of a fancy new lighting system "love of the tools." Only there's a thousand articles on the internet about how to set up lighting. There are only a few on things like bullet time.
As the tools mature, articles about how to use them seem like a natural evolution.
The footage still looks jerky, e.g. the short sequence with a person holding a cat (near the beginning). Not sure if that's intentional or a technical limitation. Several years ago someone had a similar bullet time project using a bunch of venerable Nokia N8 smartphones which arguably had one of the finest camera hardware in a phone at that time.
Modern video editing software (e.g. Vegas Pro) have integrated algorithms to create interpolated frames and to artificially create SloMo footage. I guess such a process would make that Pi-camera bullet time footage look less shaky and jerky.
When BGH1 was released a couple of days ago, I thought it will be the RaspPerry Pi / Arduino for the professionals. It's 100 times more expensive of course, but probably also 5 times better.
Unless he (Eric Paré) made money doing all this, it seems like a complete waste of time and money. I saw a lot of small cameras, but did not seem many pictures they took?! Maybe if seen after eating majic mushrooms, or LSD these images would look better.
Art is not about making money. Artist do whatever they want to do or what they find important. Artists make art even if they are not getting paid. If they get a grand price, they use the money to do more art.
@Leonp Art is NOT about doing something new or original. Art is much more. Art CAN be original or new but doesn't have to. If we only search for new/original in art there would be very little of it left. Everything that has been painted since Leonardo's times has been done already. Portraits? Not original, done for a thousand years. Yet still can be art. Art is done for Art's sake, nothing more and nothing less. Original or new or old as dirt.
Thanks Lensmate, those two links only show that most people that think they are 'Atsy Farsy' have more money than sense. Most also worship Leica and consider themselves better than most common people. ;) Art is in the eye of the beholder, and what some think something looks like art looks like what is in your second link, without the can.
Thanks Lensmate Most people that think that they are artsy farsy don't know the difference between those two links and real art. Most people think of art as something they can sell. Others think are looks like what is in the second link, without the can.
lensmate, that is the BEST reply to any of my post that I've ever had. It made me smile, thanks! BTW, if taken with a Leica camera and lens, it would taste much better, LOL!
@lensmate, that was the best reply to any post I've ever made. The only thing that would make their 'Art work' better, is if it was taken by a Leica camera, LOL! Some people have more money than sense, what can I say.
Unfortunately, not impressed. Already done in cheaper and more elegant ways. And the video was too much talk, too much pictures of Ethernet connectors and too little examples on what has been made with it.
"the video was too much talk, too much pictures of Ethernet connectors and too little examples on what has been made with it" --- thanks for the warning. Glad now i didn't even look at the video (suspecting in advance what you confirm here)
His art is geared for those that enjoy the process and the tools involved and the hundreds of ethernet connectors are part of it and excite his followers and fans. It's similar to a jeweler showing his tools and anvils and all the other equipment prior to showing the jewelry he/she makes. Or the artist showing the brushes and the paints. It's part of the package, the tools and the art go together.
GOS - I looked at his web site. I think the one with the dancing girl hanging in mid air is his best one. And that is the one that is here. All those portraits of random people with light tubes. Nah! Could be someone standing still nearly. And do not fancy all those light tubes. So maybe I missed something, but I did not really see anything very interesting. And ... he really use lots of gear for it. Those set ups are impressive. And most are using lots of DSLRs, not any raspberries.
So little meaning to YOU? Is that what you are saying? Cause meaning is individually driven, many see meaning in it. The fact that one person like yourself doesn't see meaning? Ok, great, now we know what it is to you. Hope you are not actually pronouncing for the rest of the people looking at this?
He's pushing the tech, experimenting, solving challenges and being creative, ....and he's making a living out of his passion.
What a great position to be in, I would love to play with this gear.
It would be interesting to incorporate a large rotating turntable or subjects on a moving platform. I love mixing low ambient light exposures with flash...but to add this effect to the setup of a tracking shot of an action scene would be fun.
Actually, it is all built on the work of Eadweard Muybridge in 1878 (although he used his array of 12 cameras to scientifically show motion, rather than to freeze motion). It is just the difference of having the cameras fire over time instead of all at once.
No. It was not built upon the work of Muybridge. The idea to freeze an object while moving around it is novel. Has nothing to do with his multiple triggered cameras. Those cameras just implemented a virtual dolly.
@Foskito He never claims it is his invention or original. MANY people use ideas invented previously by others and continue on. So what? What a negative acerbic derogatory comment that really doesn't add anything.
I'm going to guess his choice was based on either what he thinks/knows will work with his existing software. If he had to write new code to do what he wants, the extra cost of the Raspberry pi's could easily be offset by that.
lilBuddha: Nothing wrong with the Pi choice, but CHDK doesn't require writing any software -- it does very precise sync (generally better than 1ms) on detection of power applied to the USB port. Actually, back in 2018 my group published "Lessons from design, construction, and use of various multicameras" at Electronic Imaging; the paper is at https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2470-1173.2018.05.PMII-182 and slides are http://aggregate.org/DIT/ei2018MULTIslides.pdf . The key idea is really that you want programmable cameras that agree on global time, etc., rather than just sending a "fire" signal -- and Pi, ESP32-CAM, CHDK, and Magic Lantern, etc. all allow that.
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