Like the local bus route when you are not looking for a bus along comes two, this happened with the recent delivery from H Preston Media I not only got the long awaited Sony NEX-VG10 but also the Panasonic domestic 3D camcorder. My priority has been to review the VG10 then the 3D camcorder.
Yesterday I had a play with the 3D camera and I did not realise that you have to align the 3D part at the front, fortunately I only shot about 30s worth of footage to see it back to realise there was something seriously wrong with the 3D picture. It’s quite easy as it’s almost like registering a video tube camera…that’s something that was done regularly about 20 years ago.
Once you have aligned the 3D head the rest is child’s play…now you have to understand 2 important rules about filming 3D.
1. Everything is shot at the same focal length in other words you cant use the zoom as it is disabled so you are restricted to one wide shot.
2. 3D depends on the subject matter if you are going to achieve a good 3D image you have to think foreground…3D looks far more impressive if you show something in the foreground…that gives it depth.
The camcorder is childsplay beyond the initial 3D head setup. I filmed my dog walking friends this morning and we noticed a large amount of spiders webs due to the type of morning. It was a tad misty therefore causing all the invisible spiders webs to become visible. Watching the footage back I was stunned by the depth of the spiders web and when I filmed two together you could perceive one in front of the other, fantastic.
This one £1,300 domestic 3D camcorder from Panasonic will in my opinion make the 3D plasma a worth while investment. I have not had much time to look at the instruction book so far so I don’t know if you can copy the footage as non 3D footage or if you can burn a Blu-Ray that will playback 3D from a 3D Blu-Ray player.
I think this camcorder will spark the imagination of young families who want to impress their friends with the latest in technology, 3D like it or loth it is here to stay and that’s mainly thanks to the introduction of the affordable Panasonic HDC-SDT750 3D camcorder.
Thankyou for the positive review of the 3D Camcorder! The file format for recording 3D is AVCHD so theoretically you can burn it to normal DVD and play back in AVCHD compatible Blu Ray Player – the only requirement is the 3D TV! You can also use the bundles software to convert to 2D but this will be the left eye image only. Hope this helps.