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Did anyone have any luck capturing stereoscopic videos at any meaningful quality? This used to be only possible with the Pi Compute module (unobtainium for a ve

Did anyone have any luck capturing stereoscopic videos at any meaningful quality? This used to be only possible with the Pi Compute module (unobtainium for a very long time) but the Pi5 finally exposes both camera ports.... while also dropping hardware encoding, which is likely to be a huge roadblock since I doubt there's enough CPU power + bandwidth to compress 2 4K streams at 60fps in realtime and store it. And I'd love to go even higher actually. The official forums are surprisingly devoid of anyone trying this, which is not super encouraging. I'd really like to experiment in doing some underwater VR180 photo/videography, I promise to share the results if anyone has any useful pointers (not strictly rPi related, but other platforms are even less promising. Happy for any unexpected hints tho!) (Sorry for the barely-on-topic (if not outright offtopic)) but this is a rare chance to tap into HN's hive mind on this particular issue due to a Pi-camera related thread on the front page.

geerlingguy 2y ago
The best hardware option currently is StereoPi: https://stereopi.com https://stereopi.com But the software has a ways to go, it seems. I wonder if a potential CM5 would be able to stream the two video feeds better than the CM4.
- gruturo 2y ago
  Thanks Jeff! I had read and promptly forgotten about StereoPi, I'll give it another look now that CM4s are no longer impossible to get. Regarding CM5... who knows (Probably you? :-) ) but given the loss of hardware encoding I'm keeping my expectations low for video at any decent resolution and framerate (unfortunately a 2x2064x2208x60fps video is close to 1.5 GB per second, and at 72fps (which should really be a minimum) it's 2GB/sec, hardly the realm of software encoding, unless I want to bring an Epyc/Threadripper underwater and somehow power it from a battery.)
JKCalhoun 2y ago
Happy you brought it up. I've been in and out of stereo photography for decades now. Initially I built a contraption with front-surface mirrors to expose two photos side-by-side on 35mm film. In later decades I tried dual digital cameras — at times even just sliding horizontally with a single digital camera (no moving images of course). Fuji had a decent stereo camera years ago. I had one briefly but have been unable to find it for years now. I either misplaced it or it was stolen.... eBay is where I head now to find the Fuji cameras. But it is disappointing that there is not a current commercial stereo camera that I am aware of. Perhaps someone can take the Pi and come up with something fairly high quality.
- fsflyer 2y ago
  Canon has the RF 5.2 dual fisheye, you can even get it refurbished. https://www.usa.canon.com/shop/p/refurbished-rf5-2mm-f2-8-l-dual-fisheye https://www.usa.canon.com/shop/p/refurbished-rf5-2mm-f2-8-l-...

geerlingguy 2y ago

The best hardware option currently is StereoPi: https://stereopi.com https://stereopi.com But the software has a ways to go, it seems. I wonder if a potential CM5 would be able to stream the two video feeds better than the CM4.

gruturo 2y ago
Thanks Jeff! I had read and promptly forgotten about StereoPi, I'll give it another look now that CM4s are no longer impossible to get. Regarding CM5... who knows (Probably you? :-) ) but given the loss of hardware encoding I'm keeping my expectations low for video at any decent resolution and framerate (unfortunately a 2x2064x2208x60fps video is close to 1.5 GB per second, and at 72fps (which should really be a minimum) it's 2GB/sec, hardly the realm of software encoding, unless I want to bring an Epyc/Threadripper underwater and somehow power it from a battery.)

JKCalhoun 2y ago

Happy you brought it up. I've been in and out of stereo photography for decades now. Initially I built a contraption with front-surface mirrors to expose two photos side-by-side on 35mm film. In later decades I tried dual digital cameras — at times even just sliding horizontally with a single digital camera (no moving images of course). Fuji had a decent stereo camera years ago. I had one briefly but have been unable to find it for years now. I either misplaced it or it was stolen.... eBay is where I head now to find the Fuji cameras. But it is disappointing that there is not a current commercial stereo camera that I am aware of. Perhaps someone can take the Pi and come up with something fairly high quality.

fsflyer 2y ago
Canon has the RF 5.2 dual fisheye, you can even get it refurbished. https://www.usa.canon.com/shop/p/refurbished-rf5-2mm-f2-8-l-dual-fisheye https://www.usa.canon.com/shop/p/refurbished-rf5-2mm-f2-8-l-...