Camera parameters

Render courtesy of Dan Abrams (http://folio.superbaka.com)

Please note that plugins may have a slightly different parameter structure and some parameters may not appear. This list is built from the structure found in Maxwell Studio (Camera Parameters panel).

Type

General settings for the camera, including type: 2D or 3D camera.

Parameter name	What it controls
Hidden	Camera will be hidden in the viewport. Useful when you have many cameras in your scene and the view gets cluttered
Locked	Locking the camera will prevent any accidental changes in camera position and settings. You cannot navigate in the viewport using a locked camera, only view your scene through it.

Coordinates

The position of the camera and the camera target in world space.

Parameter name	What it controls
Camera Position:	X, Y, Z world coordinates of the camera.
Target Position:	X, Y, Z world coordinates of the camera target.
Target Distance:	Distance from the camera to the camera target. The camera target represents the point where your render will be in perfect focus. Changing this parameter will move the camera target closer or farther away from the camera
Roll Angle:	Rolling angle of the camera (in degrees).

Optics

Controls for the virtual lens of the camera. These settings affect DOF, field of view and exposure.

Parameter name	What it controls
Lens	Allows you to choose the type of lens to render with. Options include Thin Lens (the default), Pin Hole (no DOF), Orthographic, Fish Eye, Spherical, Cylindrical. For details on each of these lenses please see the Camera Lenses page.
Focal length	The focal length of the camera "lens". See the Camera page - Focal Length section for an indepth explanation
Lock Exposure	Allows you to connect the Shutter and f-Stop parameters together so that when you change one, the other updates to maintain the same exposure. For example if you change the f-Stop the Shutter will automatically change to keep the same exposure. if you change the Shutter, the f-Stop will change to maintain the exposure.
Shutter	Controls the Shutter of the virtual Camera. The shutter is a mechanical "curtain" inside a camera that opens and closes very quickly, determining how much time the film or sensor is exposed to light. The unit is in hundreds of a second, so a shutter-speed of 100 means the sensor is exposed to light during 100th of a second. Faster shutter-speeds decrease the exposure and produce darker images. This parameter is useful when doing animations, or still renders with a moving object, because it also controls the amount of motion blur seen on the object - longer shutter speeds (ie 1/2 a second, or 1 second or more will produce more motion blur on the object). When doing a render of with non moving objects this parameter can be ignored. You can still use it to control the exposure of the render if you like, but changing the ISO parameter in this case will have the exact same effect.
f-Stop	Controls the size of the aperture of the camera "lens". This parameter affects both exposure and depth of field. See Camera page - F-stop section for an indepth explanation
EV number	Stands for Exposure Value. It lets you easily change the exposure of a scene in predefined steps. For example if you wish to make the render twice as bright, decrease the EV by one whole number (ex. from 11 to 10). Changing the EV number will automatically update the Shutter parameter to adjust the exposure.

Sensor

Controls for the virtual "sensor" in the camera which affect resolution, aspect ratio, exposure and Render/Blow-up region.

Parameter name	What it controls
Preset	Common camera presets. A camera preset changes the Filmback parameter to correspond to the physical size of the digital sensor or film in that camera. This will ensure your render will have the correct image aspect ratio for easier compositing of a render in a photo taken with that particular camera.
Resolution	The horizontal and vertical (width and height) resolution of the render in pixels. The lock Icon allows you to lock the aspect ratio so when you change one parameter the other updates.
Filmback	The physical width and height of the digital sensor or film of the camera.
Pixel aspect	Width--height proportion of the pixels. Useful when the rendering output will be displayed on devices which have non-square pixels, such as television sets.
ISO	The measure of a photographic film’s sensitivity to light. The lower the ISO, the lower the film’s sensitivity, requiring a longer exposure to light or more light. A film with a high ISO only needs a short exposure to light. This parameter can also be set interactively while rendering. Raising the ISO will not add noise to the render – contrary to a real world high ISO film which adds noise/grain to a photograph.
Response	Specify the sensor model, regarding its sensibility to color. Each camera sensor model presents a characteristic response curve to color, that controls the way the lighting information is registered by the sensor and converted into an image. Aside from the default Maxwell sensibility curve, you can choose from a selection of the most usual sensor models in the market: Advantix, Agfachrome, Agfacolor, Ektachrome, Fujifilm and Kodak, each of them presenting a different and characteristic color rendition. This setting works from the spectral information from the render, so it can be interactively tweaked during of after the render without damaging the original data.
Selection (Origin/End)	Specify whether you want to render the full frame at the desired resolution, render a particular region (defined by the Origin and End numeric fields), or blow up a region (defined by the Origin and End numeric fields) at the desired resolution. You can also draw the desired region using the marquee icon. For more detailed information about Render region and Blow-up region see the page: Render region - Blowup region

Diaphragm

Controls the shape and number of blades that make up the aperture.

Parameter name	What it controls
Aperture	Circular or Polygonal. This controls the shape of the “bokeh” effect caused by bright spots in the parts of the render that are out of focus. See Camera section - Bokeh for more details.
Blade	Number of blades in the Polygonal diaphragm.
Angle	Rotation angle of aperture opening (for Polygonal diaphragm).

Rotary Disc Shutter

These settings mimic the behavior of a film cameras shutter, which works differently from the shutter of a still camera. These settings are only relevant if you are rendering an animation, or a still from an animation and you want to have motion blur visible in the render. For more detailed information see the Motion Blur page.

Parameter name	What it controls
Shutter Angle	The angle of the opening in the film cameras rolling shutter. Lower angles produce more motion blur.
Framerate	The intended framerate of the animation. Lower frame rates will produce more motion blur.

Z-clip Planes

Allow you to set a near and far camera "clip" planes - anything outside these two planes will be clipped, or invisible. See Z-clip planes for more detailed information.

Parameter name	What it controls
Z-clip	Turn on/off Z-clip planes
Range	The distance (from the camera) of the near and far planes specified in meters.

Shift Lens

A Shift lens is usually used in architectural photography to correct for perspective distortion and create a 2-point perspective. See Shift Lens for more detailed information.

Parameter name	What it controls
Offset	Sets the lens offset in Y and X axis (in %)