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The VRayPhysicalCamera uses real-world camera settings such as f-stop, focal length, and shutter speed to set up the virtual CG camera. It also makes it easier to use light sources with real-world illumination, such as VRayLight with physical units or VRaySun and VRaySky.

vrayCreateVRayPhysicalCamera()

^{Image courtesy of Ken Vollmer}

Targeted Type – Specifies whether the camera has a target in the 3ds Max scene or not. If enabled, you can This helps to determinate the type of the camera. This mostly has an effect on the motion blur effect produced by the camera.

Still cam – Simulates a still photo camera with a regular shutter.
Movie cam – Simulates a motion-picture camera with a circular shutter.
Video cam – Simulates a shutterless video camera with a CCD matrix.

Target distance Targeted – Shows the distance from the camera to the camera target, when when Targeted is is enabled.

Focus distance – – If enabled, specifies the distance at which objects are in focus.

Show cone/grid – Controls whether and when to show a preview of the camera field of view and focus plane.

Selected – Only shows the preview when the camera is selected. 
Always – Constantly enables the preview. 
Never – Constantly disables the preview.
Cone only – Displays the cone in the viewport but removes the grid for the camera view.

Show horizon line – When enabled, displays the camera horizon line in the viewport.

Image RemovedImage Added

Field of view – When enabled, sets the field of view directly without having to set up the Film gate and Focal length.

Film gate (mm) – Specifies the horizontal size of the film gate in millimeters. Note that this setting takes into account the system units configuration to produce the correct result. Vertical film gate size is calculated by accounting image aspect ratio (vertical film size = horizontal film size / aspect ratio). 

Focal length (mm) – Specifies the equivalent focal length of the camera lens. This setting takes into account the system units configuration to produce the correct result.

Zoom factor – Specifies a zoom factor. Values greater than 1.0 zoom into the image; values smaller than 1.0 zoom out. This is similar to a blow-up rendering of the image.

Film speed (ISO) – Determines the film power (i.e. sensitivity). Smaller values make the image darker, while larger values make it brighter. For more information, see the Film Speed (ISO) example below.

F-Number – Determines the width of the camera aperture and, indirectly, exposure. If the Exposure option is checked, changing the F-number will affect the image brightness. For more information, see the F-number (s-top) example below.

Shutter speed (s^-1) – Specifies the shutter speed, in inverse seconds, for the still photographic camera. For example, shutter speed of 1/30 s corresponds to a value of 30 for this parameter. For more information, see the Shutter Speed example below.

Shutter angle (deg) – Specifies the shutter angle (in degrees) for the movie camera.

Shutter offset (deg) – Specifies the shutter offset (in degrees) for the movie camera.

Latency (s) – Specifies the CCD matrix latency (in seconds) when the camera mode is set to Video cam.

Depth of field – Enables the depth of field effect. Note that depth of field depends on the Focus distance and F-Number parameters. For more details, see the Depth of Field examples below.

Motion blur – Enables motion blur. Note that motion blur depends on how fast the objects are moving, as well as the camera's Shutter settings. For more details, see the Motion blur examples below.

Exposure – Specifies how the F-number, Shutter speed, and Film speed (ISO) settings affect the image brightness. For more information, see Exposure, Field of View and Focus Distance example above.

No Exposure – Shutter speed, F-number and ISO settings do not affect the image brightness;
Physical Exposure – Image brightness is controlled by the Shutter speed, F-number and ISO;
Exposure Value (EV) – Uses the Exposure value to control image brightness. Grays out the ISO parameter and uses Shutter speed and F-number values only for Motion Blur and Depth of field respectively.

Exposure value – Controls the exposure value when the Exposure Value (EV) option is selected.

Vignetting – When enabled, simulates the optical vignetting effect of real-world cameras. The strength of the vignetting effect can be specified, where 0.0 is no vignetting and 1.0 is normal vignetting. For more information, see Vignetting example below.

White balance – Allows additional modification of the image output. Objects in the scene that have the specified color will appear white in the image. Note that only the color hue is taken into consideration; the brightness of the color is ignored. There are several presets that can be used, most notably the Daylight preset for exterior scenes. For more information, see White Balance example below.

Custom balance – Specifies custom white balance.

Temperature (K) – Specifies the temperature (in Kelvins) when White balance is set to Temperature.

Override 3ds Max resolution – Enables resolution override for the VRayPhysicalCamera.

Width – Specifies the override width for this camera (in pixels).

Height – Specifies the override height for this camera (in pixels).

Aspect ratio – Specifies the aspect ratio for this camera with an option to lock the W/H values to the ratio.

X2 – Doubles the override resolution.
/2 – Halves the override resolution.

Swap W/H – Swaps the Width and Height values.

Auto update – When enabled, the 3ds Max resolution (specified in Render Setup > Common tab) is updated when the camera is selected or any of the parameters are changed.

Update – Updates the resolution only when this button is pressed. The Auto update must be off.

Automatic vertical tilt – When enabled, preserves the vertical tilt when the camera is being animated.

Vertical Tilt – Vertical tilt that allows the simulation of tilt lenses for 2-point perspective.

Horizontal tilt – Horizontal tilt that allows the simulation of tilt lenses for 2-point perspective. Changing these parameters is similar to applying a camera correction modifier.

Horizontal shift – Horizontally offsets the camera field of view as a fraction of the current view. For example, a value of 0.5 will offset the camera one-half of the current image width to the left.

Vertical shift – Vertically offsets the camera field of view as a fraction of the current view. For example, a value of 0.5 will offset the camera one-half of the current image height upwards.

Use the Guess vert tilt and Guess horiz tilt buttons to achieve 2-point perspective. For more information, see the examples below.

These parameters control the bokeh effects when Depth-of-field is enabled.

Blades – Defines the shape of the camera aperture. When disabled, a perfectly circular aperture is simulated. When enabled, a polygonal aperture is simulated, with the specified number of blades.

Rotation (deg) – Defines the rotation of the blades in degrees.

Center bias – Defines a bias shape for the bokeh effects. Positive values make the outer edge of the bokeh effects brighter; negative values make the center of the effect brighter.

Anisotropy – Allows stretching of the bokeh effect horizontally or vertically to simulate anamorphic lenses. If you want the ratio of height to width of the bokeh to be k:1,  then the value for anisotropy should be sqrt(1/k)-1. For example, for anamorphic bokeh, which is 2.39:1, the anisotropy value should be -0.353. 

Optical vignetting – Controls the strength of the optical vignetting, also known as cat's eye vignetting. This effect is due to the fact that the shape of the bokeh highlights resembles the shape of the aperture. As the distance to the optical axis increases, the bokeh highlights are progressively narrowed and begin to resemble the shape of a cat's eye. The larger the distance from the image center, the narrower the cat's eye becomes. Optical vignetting tends to be stronger in wide angle lenses and large aperture lenses, but the effect can be noticed with most photographic lenses.

Bitmap aperture – Enables the use of an image (specified in the field below) to control the aperture shape as well as any dirt or scratches that may affect the bokeh. White signifies transparent areas and black signifies opaque areas.

Affect exposure – When enabled, the bokeh effects will affect the overall exposure of the image.

Bitmap resolution – Specifies the resolution at which the texture will be sampled when calculating the bokeh effects.

The options in this roll-out control the lens distortion of the camera.

Distortion type – Specifies how the distortion is determined.

Quadratic – The default distortion type. It uses a simplified formula that is easier to calculate than the Cubic method. 
Cubic – Used in some camera tracking programs like SynthEyes, Boujou, etc. If you plan on using one of these programs, this distortion type should be used. 
Lens file – Uses a .lens file generated with the V-Ray Lens Analysis tool and specified in the Lens file field. 
Texture – Uses a texture file generated in a third party application (i.e. Nuke) and specified in the distortion map field.

Amount – Specifies the distortion coefficient for the camera lens when the Distortion type is set to either Quadratic or Cubic. A value of 0.0 means no distortion; positive values produce "barrel" distortion, while negative values produce "pillow" distortion. For more information, see The Distortion example below.

Lens file – When Distortion type is set to Lens file, this slot specifies the lens file, containing distortion data. 

Map – When Distortion type is set to Texture, this slot specifies the map that contains the distortion data.

Similar effects like those of the Cubic and Quadratic distortion types can be achieved with the help of a UV map. The map must be generated via a third party plugin (i.e. Nuke) or via the V-Ray Lens Analyzer tool. For a more accurate result, we recommend that you save your UV map as 32bit exr.

In the Distortion rollout of the camera parameters, set the Distortion type to Texture and link a UV map in the Map slot.

Resulted render

Resulted render

UV distortion map

UV distortion map

These parameters control various additional aspects of the camera.

Clipping – When enabled, turns on the camera clipping.

Near/Far clipping plane – Specifies the near/far clipping range when Clipping is enabled.

Near/Far environment range – Specifies the near/far environment range (used by some atmospheric effects in 3ds Max).

The Rolling shutter rollout becomes available if Motion Blur option is enabled.

Mode – Specifies whether the rolling shutter effect is enabled as well as the direction of the shutter.

Disabled
Top to bottom
Bottom to top
Left to right
Right to left

Duration (s^-1) – The time for the shutter to pass through the image in 1/seconds.

Enabled – When enabled, a custom camera type can be applied using the texture slot, e.g. a fish-eye camera or a custom-made camera.

Texture slot – A slot for a camera shader. It works only with the VRayOSLTex.

Custom – When enabled, allows the user to customize the guides. Up to 10 Rows and Columns can be applied in this mode.

Rows – Determines the number of rows, when Custom is enabled. Change the color, using the corresponding color box.

Columns – Determines the number of columns, when Custom is enabled. Change the color, using the corresponding color box.

Golden grid – Applies a 'golden grid' guide to the camera.

Golden spiral – Applies a curved representation of the 'golden ratio' guide. Change the color, using the corresponding color box. Flip horizontally or vertically, use the Flip hor. and Flip ver. checkboxes.

Golden triangle – Applies a 'golden triangle' guide. Change the color, using the corresponding color box. Flip horizontally or vertically, use the Flip hor. and Flip ver. checkboxes.

Flip hor. – When enabled, flips the guide horizontally. Available for the Golden spiral and Golden triangle guides.

Flip ver. – When enabled, flips the guide vertically. Available for the Golden spiral and Golden triangle guides.