Arcturus Vision Camera Tested on Steam Frame: Our 3D Camera Comparison

In our new video, we compare it with the handheld XREAL Beam Pro puck and Quest 3’s built-in cameras, accessed through the 3D Camera feature in our app immerGallery.

More VR headsets are gaining ways to capture spatial photos and videos, either with their built-in cameras or an add-on. That makes them an interesting alternative to dedicated 3D cameras, especially if you already own the headset.

Watch the full review of the Arcturus Vision Camera on YouTube.

From recording to playback

Arcturus offers a choice of recording resolutions, frame rates and image-processing settings. We look at those controls, the visibility of the electronic level and the missing photo mode in the app we tested.

The recordings contain a separate video stream for each eye, plus timing and camera-motion data. We test an innovative playback feature in the official app: when the person filming looks down, the virtual screen tilts down too. It follows the recorded camera orientation.

For playback in other players, Arcturus provides desktop tools to convert the fisheye images into rectified stereo video. We look at SBS and MV-HEVC exports, the issues we worked around, and whether a direct side-by-side recording option could make things easier.

How well do the resulting videos play on other VR devices, and on Steam Frame itself? The video covers our Quest 3 tests and the differences between native Linux apps and Android apps running through Lepton on Steam Frame. Our earlier Steam Frame versus Quest 3 playback tests provide the background.

Image quality and practical tradeoffs

Our camera-chart examples compare fine detail in Arcturus, XREAL Beam Pro photo and video, and Quest 3 API captures.

Chart crops from Arcturus Vision Camera video, XREAL Beam Pro photo and video, and Quest 3 Camera API captures. Enlarged to comparable chart sizes.

We also examine noise indoors and outdoors, differences between the eye views, image artifacts, uneven recording intervals and flicker under an LED ceiling lamp.

How well does a square image per eye work for stereo viewing, and what happens when you crop it for a wider virtual screen? We discuss that alongside the image comparisons, playback results and verdict.

We also tried accessing the Arcturus cameras ourselves in a new development sample app on Linux and through Android/Lepton. The video shows what worked and what still stands in the way of integrating them into another VR app.