Capture Requirements
- Nathan Dunne
- Rhys Howell
For your Capture System to be compatible with Marso, it must:
Capture images in RAW format, with manual exposure
Capture with the flash enabled, and little to no ambient light
Capture against a dark background, ideally black
If you are unsure whether your system will work with Marso, follow the recommendations below, or contact info@m-xr.com to discuss the details of your system.
Recommendations
- 1 Camera
- 1.1 Lens
- 2 Light(s)
- 3 Capture Scene
- 3.1 Ambient Lighting
- 3.2 Background
- 3.3 Markers
- 4 Framing
- 5 Coverage
- 6 Files
Camera
Marso has been designed and developed with professional & prosumer cameras in mind, such as DSLRs, mirrorless cameras, and some smartphone cameras.
If you are capturing with multiple cameras, they must all be the same model. Marso can only work with one camera model for each capture.
Ensure that you can
Save images in a Raw file format
Set manual exposure (shutter speed / ISO / Aperture)
Disable any image stabilization, either on the lens, camera or both.
If shooting with an iPhone/iPad, the Halide Mark II - Pro Camera app is recommended to shoot in RAW.
A high aperture number will offer better results, by keeping more of the object in focus
Lens
We suggest use a lens around 28mm (wide). Marso requires the whole object be kept in frame.
Read more here.
Ultra-wide and telephoto lenses are not recommended, due to the increased distortion making a photogrammetry solve more difficult.
Light(s)
Usually the best option for lighting is the on-board flash, either on your DSLR camera or smartphone. If you don’t have an on-board flash, or wish to use an existing light setup, see External Light Sources.
Capture Scene
Ambient Lighting
Ideally the scene would have no ambient light at all. Failing this, the flash must be powerful enough to overpower any ambient light
| Perfect | Okay | Bad |
|---|---|---|---|
Flash Off |  |  | |
Flash On |
Background
In addition to reducing the ambient lighting, it is also important to reduce any bounced or reflected light. This is quite easy to do by ensuring that you are shooting against black, or by avoiding too much white in your surrounding area.
Good | Bad |
|---|---|
Markers
Markers are recommended to improve the accuracy of the photogrammetry solve.
Marso also requires the solved scene to be accurately scaled, so it is a good idea to have at least two markers and measure the distance between them, as this can be used to scale the scene.
If the subject is moving, for example on a turntable, it is crucial that the markers also move along with the object.
Framing
It is important to keep as much of the object within the frame where possible.
Perfect | Okay | Bad |
|---|---|---|
|
Coverage
Marso requires a high level of coverage of the subject in the captured photography. See Coverage for more information.
Files
Marso expects that all captured images for a single subject will be in a single folder. Files must also be named so that they sort alpha-numerically into the order they were captured in. Most cameras do this automatically.
Good | Bad |
|---|---|
Names are in order |
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|
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If you are using Multiple Lights, the captures for each position should be grouped in the order they were captured when sorted.
The simplest way to do this is to name the files with the position first, followed by the light:Position_X_Light_Y.dng