Helicon 3D
Mineral Matters #1045
I use Helicon Focus for my image stacking, and have been for a few years. Earlier this year, I upgraded my PC and now stacks of 60 images take 5 or 6 seconds(!) to process. A significant improvement.
I had to reload Helicon on to my new PC, and hadn’t noticed, until very recently, that Helicon 3D Viewer, a free standalone utility included with Helicon Focus, had also been installed. It is designed specifically for viewing and manipulating 3D models generated by Helicon Focus.
So I gave it a try!
There are a number of options for generating 3D models from my focus-stacked images and then using Helicon 3D Viewer to explore and share them. Here is one that I tried out. I created a short video that shows the minerals specimen in 3D. Not as good as the image below, but not too bad. I am able to create a higher quality version. I might give that a try in a little while.
And here is the stacked 2D image: Turquoise, Apatite, and an unidentified olive-green mineral, Silver Coin Mine, Valmy, Humboldt Co., Nevada, USA. Width of view 5mm.
Very cool!!!