Kimmeineche

Hi Eric! I just measured the lensdistance (center to center) on my top-side rig to be 16,4cm, which is also consisting of 2 x NikonD200 like my underwater rig. That said, all my topside stereopictures so far are taken with dual NikonAF-S 18-70mm 3,5-4,5ED, mostly between 18 and 35mm with a distance to the subject between 1,5 to 10 meters..... look at this webpage and go down to the gallery of "Kim Meineche: Frigate Jylland 2008": http://stereoskopklubben.dk/stereobilleder.html These are all pictures from my early topside setup and shooted vertically.... later I mounted the cameras side by side on a homemade aluminiumbar which can be switched by a henge for vertical photography in a second. My underwater rig has the camerahousings mounted inside the underwaterhousings at the moment and I'm too lazy to take them out, but tomorrow I can get hold on a 5th. camera to take a picture of my topside rig.... then you can see how it's all made. Are you sure your problems aren't connected to the mountingpart of the pictures.... it's very important that the pictures are mounted correctly, so the front of the subject on both pictures match each other.... that's here you get a very big help from the "Stereophotomaker", the free program, that will more or less find the socalled stereo-window automatically when it retceives the left and the right picture that you take from the start.... go an take a look at this webpage from were you can also download the "photostereomaker": http://3ddigitalphoto.com/make3d.asp If you still have problems, just feel free to send me some of your sets of stereopictures and I will mount them and save them in singlepictures before I return them to you. It's very very easy as soon you know how to do it. Underwater I mostly shoot in distances between 1 and 1,5meters and as I menssioned, this works quite good as well with fisheyelenses... I think there is a big difference in using a rectangular 20mm lens, compared to a circular 10.5mm fisheye .... but again.... ALL my pictures goes through a mountingprocess in the "Stereophotomaker" before they can be seen as an exact stereopicture! Best regards again from Kim! :-)

Hi Mexwell. First of all, thank you very much for your commend! You are right about the 6,5cm distance between the lenses, but this rule is basically connected to a setup with 35mm lenses in FX-formate. Roughly said, the distance between the lenses (35mm in FX-formate) must be about 1/30 of the distance to the front of the subject. More distance between the lenses will for sure result in socalled hyper-stereo with the miniature-look. But if you ask me and perhaps many other 3D-photographers, you can often get away with somthing quite far from this rule.... even this subject is discussed like a "religion" between some other people! :-) My rig has 17cm between the lenes, but I use fisheyelenses (16mm and 10.5mm) which seems to compensate a lot for the bigger distance between the lenses. I think the mathmatics in my case are rather complicated because of at least two things: 1: Affect from the domeport when getting underwater 2: The mathmatics on fisheye-lens is quite different from a rectangular 35mm lens? Another thing is, that these fisheyelenses themselves can make big subjects like people, etc. looking small because of the big DOF.....it just depending on how far away they are in the picture. It could be nice and interesting to see all the mathmatics on this subject on a pice of paper, but unfortuanetly I'm more a guy who goes to see if things works out in pratice so I just made some experiments and find it to work nicely.... see the results (For instance http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...3855&st=80) and judge for youself, if you like! :-) I know that different people looks through different eyes so commends are more than welcome and should be interesting to discuss. The very best regards from Kim Meineche! :-)

Hi all Wetpixel members! For me, 2009 was one of the most fantastic years of underwaterphotography. In February, my dream of a decade came true when I tested my homebuild slr-stereo-underwatercamera. Finally I'm able to put the undewater-nature and the wrecks of all kind in 3D The pictures I share with you (Sorry for breaking the one-picture rule, but I really want to show you both WA and macro and that it can be done in both blue and murky waters!!) are for socalled CROSSEYE-VIEW. It might take some practice for most of you.... but the instructions are as followed: Look at the right picture with you left eye, and look at the left picture with your right eye... if you succeed you'll feel that the pictures popping out of the screen. Some months ago, I wrote a small arcticle about the project in the DIY-section.... if you like to read it, the link is: http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=30336 The last picture shows the use of my newbuild 3D display, made from 2 LCD digital photoframes (10") and a stereoscopic mirror. With polarized glasses it is possible to see the 3D-images in topquality with no loss of colors and light.... If you have seen the last movie of James Cameron, "Avatar" you should have an idea what it looks like..... the biggest difference is, that my pictures are from the real world! Happy New Year and all the best whishes for all of you in 2010! Kim Meineche! Wreck of a small stone-transporter. Croatia S/S Nicomedia from the Uboat massacre in 1915. Baltic sea Small hermit crab in Lillebælt, central part of Denmark My newly build 3D-display in use. (Image by Peter Randløv)

Hi Walt! Amazing picture with nice details and colors! :-) I wonder how far from the subject you were with that lens? Looks more like a real wideangle picture to me, but perhaps it is not possible to get that much details then? Best regards and thanks for sharing! Kim Meineche! :-)

Hi Wetpixelmembers! My girlfriend and I are in first steps of planing a trip to the Azores! Personally I go for the chance to see and photograph the spermwhales, but I have a few questions to you who already knows about the Azores and might have been there with an underwatercamera before! To freedive with the spermwhales I've been told that you have to get a special permission from the pourtogize autourities... is that really true and in case it is, how/where do I get it? I am also considering another photographic solution.... simply mount the underwatercamera on a 4 foot long stick with a cable on the trigger and then go lucky-shooting with a pre-adjusted camera in the water, from the boat, but the big question is: Will I get close enough to fill the frame or at least close enough to get enough in the frame? In connection the to the question above, which lenses would you prefer for shooting spermwhales? I have both the 10.5 and 16mm fisheye and intend to bring both (I'm shooting DX). In case I get the chance to freedive with the whales, how close do you think I can get then and will it be warm enough to go in a 5mm wetsuit (July-september). Another question: I don't know yet which compagny to fly with, but what are your experiences in bringing your cameraequipment on a plane to the Azores. I intend to bring my wideangle stereorig (http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=30336), splitted up in two... one for me and one for my girlfriend and then collected again when we arrive. I think strobes are not necessary so that will save at least a couble of kilos incl. arms, I guess. Any advice on a trip to the Azores will be highly appreciated. So far thank you very much in advance from Kim Meineche, DK! :-)

Hi, this is excellent work, Jenny! Stunning colors and good compositions! Did you modify the housing by your self or did you returned it to Nexus for the upgrade? All the best from Kim Meineche! :-)

To those who want to see a few live-pictures of my macro-system I was on local television today to show my project and tell about my experiece in underwaterphotography! http://www.tv2r.dk/reg2005/player.aspx?id=485840&r=6 Unfortuanetly only in danish language! Best greetings... KiM! :-)

Basically seen every stereoscopic photo consist of two images. These images are shot at the same time with the cameras in line, separated in a distance which is very close related to the distance from the cameras to the subject. To watch the pictures like one stereoscopic picture, it is necessary to sepparate the pictures to each eye and this is exactly what the polarizationfilters can do together with polarization glasses.... this makes it possible to watch only one of the pictures to one of the eyes and you get the 3D-vision exactly like you perhaps know from the cinemas with 3D movies. unfortuanetly in danish only, but an ilustration on this site http://www.geocities.com/stereoskopklubben/projektorer.htm should give you an idea! Best greetings... Kim! :-) Quite

Thank You Allen and Duncan! So far the lobster is my favourite macro-subject too... easy to get in position and very impressive in 3D with the claws and antennas. When I do 2D photography I prefer to look at the subject from the side... when I do stereo-photography I mostly look at the subject from the front og from the back, making the subject come out of the screen. Quite a different way of thinking/looking! :-) The best again from Kim! :-)

Ok.... never thought that overheating could be a problem to any underwater photo/video rig! Perhaps you could get rid of the problem by building one or more of the housings sides in aluminium if it doesn't make it all too heavy? What is the brand and model of the camera actually? They doesn't look like anything I've seen before?! Hope it is not to much work for you to replace the cameras (Different pos. of the glands etc...)... I sure wish you good luck and looking forward to hear more of the results! Best greetings from Kim! :-) PS: If you still can't get rid of the problem with too much heat.... just come to the nordic waters.... specially from nov. to march! :-)

Hi Hani and all others who might be interested: Hunting for more stereo-images and wanting to get more comfortable with my new macro-setup, I was out in my local area this weekend, but the viz was very poor (less than 2 meters) so all I can show you for now is these (in anaglyph): http://www.photosub.dk/wetpix/anaglyph_odd...d170509_035.jpg http://www.photosub.dk/wetpix/anaglyph_odd...d170509_072.jpg http://www.photosub.dk/wetpix/anaglyph_odd...d170509_009.jpg http://www.photosub.dk/wetpix/anaglyph_odd...d170509_022.jpg http://www.photosub.dk/wetpix/anaglyph_odd...d170509_030.jpg http://www.photosub.dk/wetpix/anaglyph_odd...d170509_031.jpg The best greetings again from Kim! :-)

Hi Dan! Very cool to see that I'm not the only one who is messing around in the underwater stereo world! What is the stereobasis on your rig? Can we see the testshot somewere? The best greetings and good luck with your future shots... Kim! :-)

Thank you All! Nice to see how interested you are in this subject! The anaglyph way is not the best way of watching these images, but since a lot of people having a pair of these red/green-blue glasses it seems to be a good choice for the presenting of my project here on wetpixel. Compared to the polarized way the anaglyph is missing a lot of color and is quite sensitive to the socalled ghosting-effect in high contrast areas with big diversion in the image. Well, ghosting can also be a problem with the polarized way, but the colors are much, much better. The LanC-controller is from www.Berezin.com (http://www.berezin.com/3d/slr_shepherd.htm) To use it for my underwater setup, I also needed an extra pair of cables, that was cutted in pieces the same day they arrived, and soldered with new connectors to fit the wires from the Ikelite and Nexus bulkeheads. For those who are interested, the mirror for the macro setup is from www.stereoscopicmirrors.com I bought the 50/50 1/8" mirror and so far it looks to resist the water..... To prevent it form dry salt, calcium, etc,. I do flush the mirror with freshwater and dry it with compressed air after diving..... don't know how much it actually can stand from drying it with towls, papers, etc. Have only been using (Gentely) a cloth that is meant for glasses and this kind of tool doesn't seem to harm the mirror. It's another part of the story, but in these moments I am also finishing my new 3D display, consisting of 2 19" LCD monitors. To see what it's about please take at look at Uwes (German Genius) setup at: http://3dbruce.blogspot.com/2008/01/poor-m...3d-monitor.html With this I'll be able to watch my images directly on the mirror, with polarized glasses in top quality. Nice for a couple of people at the time...... For a bigger audience I got my digital images (After mounting them in "Photosteremaker") converted to slides and show them with 2 slideprojectors with polarized filters and glasses. This kind of view demands a socalled metalscreen/silverscreen because the light can't get polarized on a normal white screen. In the future I probably buy 2 DLP projectors, but at the moment, these are still outrageously expensive and still seems to miss a lot in performance compared to real slideprojection! :-) Thanks to the new digital age, it is VERY cheap to buy slideprojectors of top quallity, second hand for a resonable price, since many of these seems to have retired over the last decade. Well, I'll keep you informed with my projects... things are running pretty fast right now... Half part of me wants to finish the projects at my home and the other part wants to be in the water, using both the wideangle and macro rig to do some more stereoscopic underwater images! Questions are more than welcome. All the best.... Kim! :-)

With the risk of beeing called something between totally mad and crazy I want to show what I've been experimenting with for the last 12months and dreamed about for more than a decade..... Actually I've been dreaming of doing this since I meet my dear friend Søren Hertz-Christensen in 1997 http://www.sitecenter.dk/sorenhertz . At that time, Søren was using his homebuild/modyfied Nimslo pocket-cam, doing underwaterstereophotography. I remember how impressed I was on this strange thing and words can’t describe the breathtaking feelings I went through when I saw his stunning stereoscopic images on the silverscreen showed and viewed through polarized filters and glasses with a double (homebuild) slideprojektor..... Totally lost in an almost unreachable dream of doing something like Søren, I continued to do normal underwaterphotography with my Nikon F90x. Learned a lot from a lot of other photographers, but the stereoscopic dream still ghosted around in my mind untill I bought a second Nikon D200 camera for backup. Suddently, some day......with two Nikon D200 housings in my hands, the dream could possibly become real... at least above the surface!!!. Googling words like “stereophotography”, “stereoscopic”, etc., for days and nights I found a suitable LANC-controller to syncronize my two D200 cameras with the strobes. A few days after I also bought two 18-70 optics, second hand and before I realized it myself I took my first real steps into stereoscopic photography! Pretty happy myself with the results from my “above surface stereo-rig” I almost lost interest for doing underwaterphotography for several months. With just a little hope, I did some few experiments underwater with one camera, mounted on a slidebar..... coulden’t almost belive that this seamed to work as well, even it demanded quite good viz. With a beathing heart I ordered a second Nexus housing with domeport for my second D200 to prove if my dream could stand. With priceless help from another very good friend of mine, I made an underwaterhousing for the LANC-controller. Stealing bulkheads, glands and cables from my old Ikelite F90x housings, and F100 Nexus housing I managed to connect the LANC-controller to the two D200’s in their Nexus-housings and the strobes. Except from the first time I entered the water with my homebuild/modyfied rebreather I can’t remember any time being more excited than the day I left the surface with my underwater stereo-rig (2x16mm Nikon fisheyes behind FP170 domeports) for the first time. Returning home from the testdive, I was flushed by an incredible feeling when I had the prove on the monitor, right in front of me! Some of the images was mounted in “Photostereomaker” (A free program that means the same for stereophotographers as Photoshop does for other photographers). I feelt so releaved........ YES.....it WORKS, it WORKS!!!!! FINALLY..... 10 years of dreaming had turned into reallity!!!! While I almost can’t wait to visit wrecks in the Northsea, Norway, Croatia, etc.... I was still not able to do stereo-macro-photography underwater. More nights and days followed by googling and finally I found a suitable beamsplitter for separating the two cameras optics. Mounted with 2x60mm Nikkor Micro AFD2,8 optics I put the cameras into a macro setup. Full of happiness I discovered that this rig is working at least as well as my wideangle setup. You might ask me if it worth it all but after all this I can only say YES, ABSOLUTELY!!!!! I know it’s a very heavy and bulky rig (About 14kg above the surface) but nothing I’ve ever seen in trade can do the same as my rig.....I’ve been dreaming for so long to put the wrecks and underwater wildlife from the dark nordic waters into Stereo/3D and now I fianlly have the tool in my hands! May be something much smaller and perhaps even better might show up in the trade in the future but the happiness of building and developing something yourself is definately not included then! More to follow will probably show up, but so far you got these images to cover my story! The best greetings from.... Kim Meineche! All the redish/blu-green pictures must be seen with the socalled anaglyph glasses The "double-images" are socalled crosseyeviews for those who mastering the technique! :-) http://www.photosub.dk/wetpix/anaglyph_eri...09_0122_web.jpg http://www.photosub.dk/wetpix/422-hummer-i-stereo3d.jpg http://www.photosub.dk/wetpix/oddesund050909_05cw.jpg http://www.photosub.dk/wetpix/stereomacrouw01web.jpg http://www.photosub.dk/wetpix/stereomacrouw02web.jpg http://www.photosub.dk/wetpix/warig01.jpg http://www.photosub.dk/wetpix/warig02.jpg http://www.photosub.dk/wetpix/warigdok01.jpg

Hi Tristan! This is a fantastic photo! Think the videographer brings in a lot of scale to the anti-aircraft gun. On the first, it looked like he was your model, simmulating shooting with the gun! Almost unbeleavable that a diver on his first wreckdive is able to take such a nice image! Congratulations and Keep up the good work! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and all other members on Wetpixel! :-) PS: Don't know what happend, but this post was meant to be related to the post from Tristans beautifull image of the Thistlegorm. Perhaps one of the moderators can move it to the place were it belong? :-)

Hi DIY-people! :-) I wonder if someone here can help me to identify the two connecters on a Nexus hotshoe, as shown on: http://images.google.dk/imgres?imgurl=http...%3Doff%26sa%3DN I'm in the proces of a project, were I need to connect wires through the Nexus bulkheads and to make it all a lot more easy, I hope it's possible to buy such connectors right away from a dealer of electronic components. To me, they look like some kind of molex connectors but what is the real name? Best regards and thanks a lot in advance from Kim Meineche! :-)

Hi Gudge! I tried out your settings, but I get about exactly the same exposure as with the control knob set to TTL?? I do see your point about setting it to the B-position "Super sTTL", but as far I know, sTTL stands for optical Synchro TTL and just below the "TTL" stands "Optical" on the strobe, what makes me belive that this is the right position when using optical connected fibercables?? Just to kill any mistakes, I point out, that I talk about the Z240 type II. Don't know the difference from type I? I think Inon making good products, but reading the manual on at least this strobe is a true mess....... I really can't get anything good from it. Best regards again from Kim Meineche! :-)

Hi Guys! Playing around with my new Inons Z240 for a couble of weeks, I have had problems getting the S-TTL working properly with my Nikon D200 (Nexus-housing)! Sometimes it almost worked and sometimes not, but definaitely nothing to rely on. Even I tried out all possible settings I could imagine, the problem continued and I had absolutely no explanations on why it seemed to work sometimes.... or at least almost worked!! After reading and seaching a lot on available Internetforums, I never solved the problem, before I decided to test with only one strobe at the time! Shooting with only one optic fibercable connected to the camerahousing, I discovered that the other strobe fired too????? With the disconnected fibercable in my mouth, I pulled the trigger again...... and the disconnected strobed fired again?? Looking at the cap of the fibercable (Where the fiber connects to the strobe) I saw a small space between the cap and the strobe. Now things started to clear up in my mind! Light from the other strobe simply passed through this small space and confused the signal from the internal strobe. In a hurry I grapped a piece of gaffertape and covered the space between the strobe and the cap with the fibercable. Doing some more shots (Left botton set to: STTL, right botton set to: optical TTL, magnetbotton pulled in) and the STTL was doing JUST fine (Well... looks like I have to use EV-1 consistingly, on the camera, but I can live with that! :-) It don't know if this just had happend to me, due to the fact that I'm not using original Inon fibercables, but at least I want to let the rest of this great forum know about it! Best regards from Kim Meineche www.photosub.dk

´ Hi Andree! Googling/comparing the GN and the coverage of the Inon Z240 and the S&S YS90-Auto, they seem to be pretty much like the same..... Inon Z240: GN 24, Coverage: 100degrees S&S YS-90Auto: GN22, Coverage 105degrees The coverage of your S&S looks sligthly better than the Inons, while the Inon's looks sligthly more powerfull. Have you tried using a diffuser on your S&S's, which should make it a little more easy to fill out the coverage of the 10.5mm fisheye? Looks like many guys here using the Inon's for WA with great success and comparing the two strobes right out from the data, your S&S's should be able to do almost the same?? I'm quite courious to see what experinces other guys can come up with, since I'm about to buy the Z240 myself! :-) Best regards and good luck from Kim Meineche

Hi Bruce! Hopefully the idea with the tape is working proberly, but about the srew/blindplugs, my housing only has one screw/blindplug..... placed in the middle of the top (See pictures of 1st. generation housings)...... think it is not possible to mount two ports then or is it reaally possible to get a fiber optic port for two cables???? All the best..... Kim! :-)

Hi Bruce! I could easily drill those holes myself if necessary, but I think it is not possible on the oldstyle housing, since there is already some kind of screw/blindplug installed, just beneath the focuslight hotshoe??? Another question is if all the needed parts to install the ports are availible from nexus/dealer?? Are we speaking about two different things here?? The reflections I talk about are those who might appears when the Nikon D200 flash fires, in the nexus housing, to trig the Inons through the fiber optic ports. Best regards from Kim Meineche! :-)

Hi Bruce! So far it has only been possible for me to find limited information about the reliability of the optical fiber connection, but as I read from you, it seems to work properly! Actually I didn't knew that there are to types of Z-240, but if/when I buy Z-240's I'll go for the mkII for sure! Installing ports for the optical fibers on my first generation D200 Nexus housing, means that I will have to replace the existing Nikonos bulkhead connections with the ports for the optical fibers...... but what about reflections in the domeport (FP170) from the internal flash, when doing WA (10.5mm and 16mm)?????? Perhaps it can be prevented by mounting a sleeve of black neoprene between the port and the lens?? Best regards and thank you from Kim Meineche! :-)

Thank You James and sorry for the way I wrote my last posting! I really appreciate your help! I always do my wideangle work with the strobes in manual mode and do not expect iTTL to work proberly here anyway.... but getting a couble of lightweighted strobes, that is powerfull enough for WA and furthermore could work properly in iTTL-mode for macro, together with my D200 in my Nexushousing, thats what I really want. Even the Ikelite iTTL-converter could work with my DS50's, I will still need my SS200 to get something powerfull enough for WA.... no problem when going by car, but really a minus when going by plane. I might just have to wait and see what shows up in the future....... I really don't know if the fiber optic cables are reliable enough??? I saw at www.nexusamerica.com that the Nexus D80 can be ordred with fiberoptic ports instead of the Nikonos bulk heads, which migth makes it possible for me to mount a second fiber optic port in my housing.... but the question is still: How reliable is this strobe connection and furthermore..... how much power will it take from the cameras battery? Best regards again from Kim Meineche!

Hi James! Exactly.... and this is the reason why I still would have to bring my two SS200 with me on the plane, if I go for the Ikelite iTTL-converter for my DS50's! Cheers Kim

Hi Guys! Still waiting for a trustworthy TTL solution for my Nikon D200 in a Nexus housing, I can't descide which way to go. I had almost ordered the S&S iTTL-converter and a couble of Inon Z240 strobes, when I found the horroble readings about how it had begun eating up several Nexus housings, due to galvanic corrosion. Just a few weeks ago, I discovered, that Ike has comming up with their new iTTL-converter, nicely connected to a cable with a Nikonons plug at the other end. Having three DS50 Ikelite strobes with serial numbers from 70008+ in my cupboard, I've been thinking about buying the new converter (Ikelite item number 4302), supplíed by the needed cable (Ikelite item number 4103.52, blue band). My concerns are now: Can I really be sure that my DS50 strobes will work properly for macro-photo with the Ikelite iTTL-converter .... looks like some people here have problems with DS50 even if they have some with a 70k+ serial number??? Still thinking about the Inon Z240, I guess a couble of these would be powerfull enough for wideangle photo too, which would be a big advantage when going by plane, compared to my old and bulky Ikelite SS200 which I am forced to includ in my luggage so far, together with my DS50 that I use for macro work. My housing only has the possiblity for the mounting of one light-cable port, which might makes it impossible to connect more than one iTTL-working Inon Z240....... and furhtermore: How reliable is this kind of strobeconnection???? Any suggestions what to go for, or should I simply wait for another solution comming up?? Best regards and thank you very much in advance from Kim Meineche!