Panasonic Consumer 3D camera and Micro4/3" 3D Lens

[Alister Chapman]

Oh well, shame the lenses are not anamorphic. It is interesting that the camera is 50P/60P. Maybe it's time to dig back out those old Nu-Views and shoot 25P/30P per eye at full resolution but with the inevitable miss-sync.

I'm sure someone will bring out a single sensor (or single 3 chip) camera with 2 lenses. If you take a micro 4/3 stills camera you have a 10MP sensor (or more) so it would only be a case of writing the appropriate firmware to read the two images of the sensor at 1920x1080 each. The problems will be getting a sensor that can read out that much data fast enough for video without overheating.

IBC is just over a month away, I'm sure there will be lots more toys to play with by then.

[Petri Teittinen]

I know of one interesting toy being introduced at IBC: 3D-enabled Sony Vegas Pro. I'm sure it won't beat Cineform's offerings but could be interesting and useful nevertheless.

[Pavel Houda]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

...
I'm sure someone will bring out a single sensor (or single 3 chip) camera with 2 lenses. If you take a micro 4/3 stills camera you have a 10MP sensor (or more) so it would only be a case of writing the appropriate firmware to read the two images of the sensor at 1920x1080 each. The problems will be getting a sensor that can read out that much data fast enough for video without overheating....

I have a feeling that you hit on one of the popular architectures for camcorders that will not use adjustable stereo-base. Great many timing, color sensing, zooming and other "matching" issues can be solved with using "single" lens and sensor. The sensor can be dual ported on the silicon, if there is a throughput issue. It is my understanding that the reason why DSLR's overheat processing video is that the CPU is overtaxed. My son, when he did my latest rig video, kept blowing fan on it every 10 minutes. CPU overheat can be fixed with dedicated H/W. They will no doubt be using convergence, that can be tied to focus (like human eye). Keystone effect and other stereoscopic violations can also be "processed out" on the fly with more H/W, once the algorithms are known. The Panasonic pro model fixes keystone effect "in the camera", according to their representative at CES. Now if it that just happened by the next Christmas....

[Adam Stanislav]

I would not say that the camera lens focus is anything like the focus of the human eye. I mean, there are similarities, but there is one major difference, which matters especially when it comes to convergence:

The camera lens focuses on a plane. The human eye focuses on a point, or actually a small quasi-circular area surrounding a point. The difference is easy to verify:

Point a camera at this screen, focus on this text and take a picture. Chances are the entire screen with all of the text (and whatever else) on it will be in sharp focus.

Now, try reading this text by focusing your eyes on this text and then read the entire contents of this screen without moving your eyes. Hard as you may try, you can't. Not with the human eyes. It is not possible. It does not matter how close to the screen or far from it you are: Hook up a projector to the HDMI output of your computer and project everything on a large screen. Move closer, move farther away, it makes no difference.

The only way you can read this text is sequentially, scanning the screen with your eyes left to right, then down to the next line. And this is not just because the text consists of words which consist of individual letters. It is because your eyes cannot concentrate on an entire plane the way a camera lens does.

Nor does it make any difference whether you are reading with both eyes or close one eye. Same result (don't just believe me, try it right now).

The camera always looks straight ahead (unless you use a Lensbaby or something similar). The human eye looks around, not always looking at whatever is straight ahead of it. The camera does not use a lens but an objective, the assembly of a number lenses. It focuses by changing the distance of the lenses. The human eye uses a single lens and it focuses by changing the thickness of the lens.

This is why I do not like toeing in and prefer to just change the distance of the lenses in 3D photography and videography, always keeping them parallel. It is not how the human eye sees, but it is how the camera sees. It might be interesting to try two parallel cameras, each with a Lensbaby, but it would be extremely difficult to control.

If a camera is designed with two lenses and convergence in mind, it would need to change the angle of the lenses without moving the sensors. And it would need to be able to work like the eyes, not just toeing in, but using a different angle for each lens depending on what object it is focusing on, not just what plane it is focusing on. Now, that would be one heck of a 3D camera!

[Alister Chapman]

This latest document from Panasonic now suggests that the conversion lens IS anamorphic after all.
HDC-SDT750 | HD Camcorder | Panasonic Global

[Heinz Bihlmeir]

The document specifies the recording/encoding format (960*1080) not the acquisition format. Look at the 3D lens alignment process shown here (sorry in Japanese):
http://magazine.kakaku.com/mag/camera/id=246/.

I have the strong feeling there is not much communication between PANASONICs product development and marketing division. Hopefully Photokina will reveal the truth about this mystery camcorder.

[Tim Dashwood]

Now that I have seen this pic on that Japanese site I will concede that the lenses are not anamorphic. The aperture is perfectly round. When you look down anamorphic lenses the aperture looks oval.

This is really illogical and unfortunate to only capture 960x540 area per eye but I suppose it is also to be expected from the consumer division. I assume these inexpensive consumer "toys" need to be handicapped in some way so they don't cannibalize "professional" sales for the AG-3DA1.

[Pavel Houda]

Camcorderinfo tried a prototype of the HDC-SDT750 a did a review here: Hands-on Review of the World's First 3D Consumer Camcorder: The Panasonic HDC-SDT750 - Panasonic Flash Memory Camcorders .

[Petri Teittinen]

So what are those three dials used to calibrate the lens? I-O seems fixed, so that can't be adjusted. Convergence... and something else, then?

[Michael Przewrocki]

News : Panasonic HDC-SDT750 3D Camcorder :

[Heinz Bihlmeir]

Footage from HDC-SDT750:

Balkon in 3D on Vimeo