Fujifilm W1 3D camera

[Bob]

The select group of subscribers at last night's pub get-together were amongst the first in the country to see Fujifilm's new 3D camera. It's a sleek, piano black camera measuring about 12 x 7 x 3cm, so easily pocketable.

On the front is a lens cover which slides down to turn on the camera and reveal the two lenses - one for each eye-view. The camera has a pair of 10 megapixel CCD sensors to simultaneously acquire the stereo pair. There is a 3X optical zoom achieved by moving internal lens elements - the entire lens assemblies are inside the body, so there are no lenses extending out of the front with delicate gears that are easily damaged.

On the back there is a 2 3/4 LCD screen and an array of buttons.

There is a shutter release, zoom toggle and IR port on the top. One end is plain, the other has an anchor point for a wrist strap and a properly engineered metal flap covering the 5 volt concentric charging socket and the micro USB port. On the base is a tripod bush and a sliding cover for the SD card slot and the rechargeable Lithium Ion NP-95 battery pack.

Up till now, if you wanted to take 3D pictures, the easiest way was probably to use a 50 year old camera with a "one-time-use" sensor (otherwise known as film) or, more recently, to mount two identical digital cameras on a bar and somehow get them to fire together. Now, with the W1, taking 3D pictures is simplicity itself! Just slide the lens cover down and, after the camera has started up, just shoot as you would with any other digital camera. But there is one other little detail that I didn't mention when describing the camera above. When you compose your shot in the LCD screen you see it in 3D!

This is achieved with a remarkably clever bit of technology which "page flips" the left and right eye-views alternately, 120 times a second, and synchronised with it also changes the direction of the back light! So, when the left eye-view is showing, the light points at your left eye and vice versa for the right eye. This is a great aid to composirion and the camera also has the power to analyse the scene and adjust the display so the image is framed correctly in space!

Naturally, the screen can also be used to view the images that are on the SD card.

To keep everything tidy, the camera stored the two eye-view files in a single "container" resulting in an "MPO" file. This is a new standard for multi-picture files, but as yet relatively few applications can read it for the full stereo pair, but most will see the left-eye image only. However, splitting out the pair is trivial and lossless, so the jpg pair can be easily accessed.

Whilst Fujifilm are currently marketing this as "3D without glasses" in practice the full potential can only really be realised by using viewers which come in an amazing variety of formats. And, probably the best piece of software to use (sadly, for the Windows platform only) is StereoPhoto Maker which is capable of directly reading and manipulating the MPO files. Google for it - it's a totally free program!

Bob

[Steve]

Bob,

It was neat to see the new kit.

The ladies on the next table seemed impressed with the camera and your talk to them on it too didn't they....

That you'd spent the afternoon with a Rock Star who was interested in 3D Photography was interesting too.. and the photos.. I wonder how many of his fans know of his interest.

So, afternoon with a Rock Star, evening with ukexpert subscribers... what could be better... Lew our famous actor member was at the evening do too wasn't he... so quite a day....

Then there were the 3D images of your car on fire... that was quite something too!

Steve

[Bob]

Yes. I'm planning to upload one image in the original MPO format - to see what the system makes of it

But I'm also planning to select a few of the better images from the new Fujifilm camera and put them in the stereoscopic images area. The free StereoPhoto Maker program has improved so much in the last few years, that making alternative formats (like parallel and cross-eyed) pairs isn't anything like the chore that it used to be...

I have a few other things to get done first, but I ought to select some images anyway.

Bob