Pre-Release: Physical Camera 0.6.1 Addon

I will release this Addon with a full documentation on every aspect of it later, what i would like at this stage is some User Feedback on usability and whatever comes to your mind.

This Addon simulates EVERY aspect of a Real Physical Camera - based on the correct Mathematics.

“Blender’s Camera is Physical” - You might say - well, correctly so, but not completely. There are “links” between things, like Focus Distance affects Focal Length and Exposure and so on. This Addon simulates every single one of them.


(Options inactive)



(Options active)

Update 0.6.1:
-Fixed Keymap Bug
-Set Defocus Key to F (was D - conflicted with GreasePencil)
-removed WIP Menu.

Some Notes:

-Click Focus - Use F Key in Viewport (best in Camera View Mode :wink:

-The Physical Camera works fully with Cycles and most Renderers (just not yet completely with other Renderes than Cycles. So far, yafaray, vray, luxrender, mitsuba, Blender Internal are supported. Again - not everything is working there - but most things are.)
This Function i consider as one of the Main uses - One Camera to rule them all. Let me now you suggestions for more Renderers or what else.

-The Physical Camera is “calibrated” to match real World. I will explain this further in the Release Documentation. The Camera comes with “Sunny 16 Rule” settings preset - So just increase the Sun strength until the Image is nice and bright. (You will then have a “correctish” ratio between Sun and other Lamps)

-Some things are quirky - it’s a pre-release - Sensor Size, FPS, DOF_Object do not work fully properly.

-The Presets System is most likely subject to change - not quite sure how yet - some input is welcome.

-The UI tries to explain as much as possible by itself - like functions might turn things Grey - inactive (Well, mainly the exposure function does this). I would like to hear some opinions on this.

-Please take some time to Read the Informations (Hover over things) - Again, feedback welcome.

-At last: This Addon will most likely change ALL your Camera parameters - you might do some tests before using it on production files… hehe.

And last but net least: I hope you enjoy it - please give me some feedback. If you don’t like it - give me feedback.

Physical Camera 0.6.1 Pre-Release

Great! :slight_smile:

Thank you, will have a look asap!

Nice work!
I hope to see Cycles compability soon, this would be really great!
Can you post a comparison render with and without the physical camera?

Cycles is fully and completely supported. I will change my text since it is a bit misleading.

Atm, i won’t post any comparison. The differences could be called “Nuances” - so i will need to make the proper Documentation to explain everything.

The most “differences” you will notice in how you work with Light (exposure function) and by rendering animation and animate Physical Camera Values - Like a animation from 10m Focus Distance to 50cm Focal Distance - you will notice that the Focal length gets longer (Focus extension) and the exposure gets dimmer (Focus Distance affect Exposure).

Mostly Effects you try to avoid at all costs in Real Life :wink:

Hi @bashi,

I don’t know what words to say but thanks a lot entirely sincerely!

great…

It should be in the trunk when it will be completely finished :).

Thanks all.

Not sure this will ever happen. As far as i know “they” (Ton :wink: don’t like redundant stuff, and i have quite a few of those (Like using Color Management Curve for WB, Set Motion Blur time from Shutter Time and so on)

But other than that, from my side this would not be a Problem.

you are right but it’s easier , at least for me, use some real reference number for ISO, shutter speed, WB and so on, instead using some tricky CM curves or similar and in a single file & single scene you can have mutiple cameras with multiples setups.

I’m really sorry but i have to say i don’t really understand what you mean.
(btw the Addon works with multiple Cameras, no problem, each is it’s own Camera. EDIT: Well, some functions don’t work yet with multiple Cameras, i will fix that…)

I was saying that I find an addon like this useful because I prefer to use camera settings like in the real life instead of the color&exposure management tools we find in blender today.

I hope it’s clear… :slight_smile:

Nice idea!

Now it’s clear…

Great addon !

wooow realy amazing… 0_0

Very nice, although it looks like render engine checking still needs a little work. I don’t have V-Ray installed and updates fail with the following traceback.

~/.config/blender/2.69/scripts/addons/Physical_Camera06.py", line 905, in mb_shutter
    v=c.vray
AttributeError: 'Camera' object has no attribute 'vray'

What do you think about not only setting the sensor size in mm but also the image size in px? It looks like you might already have some logic in there for doing this. Being able to set per camera rather than per scene render sizes alone would make this a must install addon for me.

It is possible i missed something with(out) vray - i will check on it.

Sensor Size/Pixel Size: This functionality is already built in - enable options in the Camera Body - There you have second to bottom Resolution Checkbox.

Hahaha…Looking forward to it.

please re-download and try again, it should be fixed now.

hi bash,
I unsuccessfully tried to install the addon from:

  • Preferences \ install to file
  • Copy in the addon directory
  • Alt + p in text windows

but I do not see the “Physical Camera” in Blender\Cycles.
I’m doing something wrong?

win7-64bit
blender 2.69.0 r60995
blender 2.6.9.10 hash 7c69215