Sony PMW-TD300 Operating Instructions Manual page 15

Parallax Guidelines
To shoot comfortable 3D images, we recommend the following points as parallax guidelines.
Parallax angle should be less than 1°
θ
The parallax angle ( ) is obtained by subtracting the angle (
subject position from the angle (
optical axes of the left/right lenses intersect. The parallax angle is negative for subjects that appear to pop
out of the screen, and positive for subjects that appear to recede into the distance. The parallax angle for
comfortable 3D images is less than ±1°.
Since measuring the parallax angle is difficult when shooting, it is common to display an overlay of the
left and right images on a screen and check the size of the image mismatch (amount of parallax). When
images are viewed from a distance approximately 3 times the height of the screen, the amount of parallax
on the screen due to a parallax angle of 1° is roughly 3% of the screen width. When shooting, this guideline
translates into keeping the amount of parallax within 3% of the viewfinder screen width in order to
produce natural stereoscopic images.
α
Amount of parallax on the screen should not exceed space between eyes
When the amount of parallax on the screen exceeds the distance between the eyes of the viewer, it
becomes impossible to form the left and right images into a single image, making the viewer feel
discomfort. Since the space between the eyes is an individual trait, a rule of thumb is to keep amount of
parallax on the screen to less than 5 cm (2 inches). If the screen is small (77-inch type or smaller),
maintaining a parallax angle of less than 1° ensures that the amount of parallax cannot exceed 5 cm
(2 inches). However, if the screen is large (77-inch type or larger), the amount of parallax on the screen
becomes larger as the screen becomes larger, and it becomes easy to exceed the 5 cm (2 inches) guideline.
Consequently, it is important to consider the screen size when shooting.
γ
) between the left/right lenses at the convergence point, where the
θ γ α
Parallax angle = –
α β
or ) between the left/right lenses at the
β
(or )
Convergence point
Amount of parallax
3D Images 15