The demand for multi-dimensional imaging has grown greatly over the past few years. Reaching well beyond technical applications, the use of 360°, 3D and VR photo imaging has been incorporated into many retail websites as a means of giving online shoppers a really good look at products. To this end, Ortery has introduced a selection of tools designed to simplify and streamline the process of capturing and outputting advanced multi-dimensional product photography.
For capturing 360° stills and video for commercial and technical applications, the Ortery Photosimile 300 (36 x 36 x 59” interior) and Photosimile 400 (36 x 36 x 78” interior) can prove to be a real boon to your workflow. 
Designed around an Ortery PhotoCapture 360M turntable, both models allow you to capture 360° product animations with clutter-free backgrounds, lit from 3 sides (left, right and above) by daylight-balanced light sources. Both units feature 22” embedded turntables that can support products weighing up to 100 lb, and can be used for a number of eCommerce, product design and quality-control applications.
More than animated light boxes, the Ortery Photosimile 300 and 400 come with Photosimile Image Creation software (Mac and Windows compatible) that allows you to carefully orchestrate repeatable capture sequences, including control of many camera functions, from your computer’s keyboard using a “Preview, Rotate, Crop, & Snap” workflow. In addition to camera controls, the Photosimile Image Creation software also processes, resizes, stitches, annotates, watermarks and saves your images in a choice of Flash, GIF and HTML + JavaScript formats.
For lighting your subject(s), both models incorporate a dozen dimmable fluorescent, daylight-balanced (6500°) bulbs that produce a soft, even and shadow-free “wall of light.” Products can be photographed straight-on or from above through a camera portal located on the top of the unit. In every respect, Ortery’s Photosimile 300 and 400 is designed to produce high-quality product photography without need of an advanced degree in studio-photography technique.
Note: Depending on the operating system of your particular Mac/Windows computer system, the Ortery Photosimile 300 and 400 are compatible with a number of digital cameras from Canon, Nikon and Ricoh.
If your imaging needs include hemispherical and/or 360° cylindrical image capture, what you want to look at is the Ortery Photosimile 5000, which goes a step further than the Photosimile 300 and 400 in that in addition to standard 360° imaging, can also program your camera to globally capture photographs of your subject for true 3D image presentation.
With an interior workspace of 28 x 28 x 28″, the Photosimile 5000 has a maximum target size of 25 x 18 x 14″ for topside shots, 22 x 22 x 22″ for side shots, and 14 x 14 x 11″ for spherical shots. Other features found on the Ortery Photosimile 5000 include an embedded turntable with a maximum weight load of 25 lb, and eight 6500°K fluorescent lamps that envelope your subject(s) in a soft, shadowless wall of light.
The Ortery Photosimile 5000 employs Ortery Real3D imaging software, which the like software that drives the Ortery Photosimile 300 and 400, has a “click-and-drag” interface that’s easy to use regardless of how much or how little prior photo experience the user may or may not have. Once installed, Ortery’s Real3D software allows you to control camera movements (including zoom and tilt), turntable movement, lighting, as well as the entire capture/edit/stitching sequence for output as GIFs or Flash file formats.
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To round out the system, each Ortery Photosimile 5000 includes a 10.1MP Canon EOS Rebel DSLR and an 18-55mm zoom lens, both of which can be controlled (including lens zoom) using your computer mouse.
Note: The Ortery Photosimile 5000 is Windows-only compatible (XP SP3 or higher, Vista SP2 or higher, and Windows 7).
A second option for capturing hemispherical and spherical product photographs is the Ortery 3D PhotoArm 3000, a free-standing device designed to capture multi-dimensional photographs of items too large for the confines of the Photosimile 300, 400 and 5000. Featuring a 75.6″ vertical arm and a reach of 39″, the 3D PhotoArm 3000 can capture extremely complex cylindrical, hemispherical and full-spherical photo sequences (Ortery PhotoCapture 360-series turntable not included).
Using the included TruView 3D Software (Mac and Windows-compatible), you can program and control a shopping list of photo sequences, camera movements and zoom controls from your computer via USB connection using system-compatible digital cameras from Nikon and Canon. As with the aforementioned Ortery multi-dimensional capture devices, the Ortery PhotoArm 3000 features an easy-to-learn, easy-to-use workflow and outputs your efforts in the form of Flash, Silverlight, or HTML+JavaScript formats.
