Sunday 20 February 2011

Standing out

On Friday I was lucky enough to be invited to the Panasonic Convention 2011 here in London.

This show is about highlighting the new equipment that will be appearing in the shops over the next few months; and although most of the equipment on show was home entertainment of some sort, TV's, Blu-ray player, Home cinema there was a big selection of cameras and video cameras which held the biggest interest for me.

Over the last couple of years there has been a big upsurge in 3-D films and 3-D televisions, this was noticeable at the show plenty of 3-D TV's on show, including a 150 in one!!!

So what's this to do with the outdoors, I hear you ask. Well Panasonic are introducing cameras and lens that are capable of taking 3-D pictures.

3-D this is nothing new as we have fads of it back in the 50s and cinema has always dabbled in it, I even have some stereoscopic pictures that go back to the 1860s.

Panasonic are not only making lens for their G Micro cameras but also for their video cameras too, which means that amateurs now get the chance to make 3-D movies.

I had a play with both the G2 and the GH2 with the 3-D lens attached and was really surprised at how good the results were, although these were viewed on a 50 in TV.

The 3-D lens for the video cameras also seems to process good video.

Obviously these new lens come at a fairly high price but it is good to see the ability to capture 3-D is coming to the digital amateur market.


1903 stereoscopic print

3 comments:

  1. Interesting - though in all honesty I still find 3D to be a gimmick.

    Having watched a number of films at the cinema in 3D I can honestly say it made no difference to the enjoyment of the film compared to if seen in 2D. If ought, it made me feel queasy at times and the colour is faded etc.

    With regards to 3D video, this is something I've looked into. And it would appear that to get the full effect of 3D you literally have to scrap the book you may have learnt with photography. Be it composition, movement or focus.

    Which then leads me to think (bearing in mind the thought of our landscape in 3D video) it is therefore - just a gimmick (again).

    I suspect these manufacturers are flogging a dead horse, mate.

    Blu Ray has not reached the levels they hoped (digital online viewing doesn't help and will continue to plough ahead) and I don't think 3D technology in any shape or form will even reach those numbers.

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  2. I've always enjoyed 3-D still photography and although its not in the mainstream I don't see it as a gimmick, its been around for a long time :-)

    As for the video side I've not had a real chance to play with that and I have been told that the 3-D depth is around 6 metres so not that great for the outdoors but should work if there is enough items in the foreground.

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  3. 3D was just a gimmick however with the introduction of glesses free 3D this will become main stream.But the lenses do look bulky on the cameras.

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