by linuxluver » Fri Sep 13, 2013 8:31 am
If you want good 3D still images, get the Fuji Real 3D W3.
If you want good 3D video with excellent sound, then get the Fuji Real 3D W3.
A few things about the Fuji Real 3D W3:
1. The stereo base is 75mm - like human eyes. This means you start having problems with parallax if the subject of the photo is less than 2 metres away. There is a parallax adjustment capacity in the camera, but it isn't the same as having the optimal interaxial distance.
2. The two lenses can be vertically mis-aligned. I have two of these cameras and in one of them the mis-alignment is greater than the adjustment possible in the Settings. I correct for this when i edit the videos or stills. No big problem, but it's there.
3. If you want the camera to be "online", then buy an SD card with Wifi. I have 2 x "EZ Share" 8GB SDHC (class 10) cards for my Fuji. I can turn the wifi on and copy photos to my phone....and edit'align them on the phone using 3D Steroid Pro (only "Pro" can handle large images and MPO). It's a bit cumbersome, but it works for a few photos at a time.
4. The sound recording capbility of the Fuji is AMAZING. I have recorded audio that sounded terrible to my own ears, but in the video recording the extraneous noise is filtered out and the sound is much clearer. This was unexpected and it's really nice to have it.
5. Video is only 720p. Not really that great. But the sound often makes the Fuji the better choice over a camera with higher resolution (like the DXG-5F9V).
LG 3D Max
I also have an LG 3D Max phone. It has a small stereo base (25mm), so is best used for close-ups / portraits. Great for anything between 400mm away and about 5 metres. After that, the images go flat. I usually have to adjust the contrast and saturation after taking any photo as the cameras in the LG make things look very slightly washed out. Easily corrected. I sometimes must correct the alignment...and in the phone I do this with 3D Steroid Pro. Auto-alignment is usually good enough. The phone also does video at 720p. Its OK. Same minor issue with colours being slightly washed out. if the phone hasn't been rebooted recently or you have other apps running in the background you can sometimes get "choppy" video due to several taks trying to use the MicroSD card at the same time (read and write). I usually avoid this by rebooting the phone and / or turning all background sync activity in the settings. You want to minimise competing I/O in order to have good video. However...the sound recording is TERRIBLE. If the noise is even a bit too loud you get a lot of distortion. Really bad. But if you have control over the sound level in the environment, this is avoidable.
I love this device. Online all the time. Good 3D - incluiding glasses-free 4.7" 3D display and the ability to convert 2D to 3D on the fliy for both stills and video. You can also play 3D games on the phone. The Avatar game looks great in 3D.
DXG-5F9V
This video camera was cheap (US$150) about 6 months ago. It records video at 1080p, but still images are fairly low res - only about 1920 x 1080, I think - same as the video, but small for stills. For high res video, this camera is pretty good....BUT...the sound recording is poor. The sound is like you held a pillow over the camera and tried to smother it. If I record video with this camera, I tend to add the sound later....usually just music.
GoPro Hero3 (2 cameras)
For comparison, I have also experimented with 2 x Gopro Hero3 "Silver" video cameras. I mount them on a custom mount at 100mm interaxial. For stills, this is awesome because they are 11MP PER SIDE. You can get very hi-res 3D images you can zoom into and they don't pixelate until you;ve really drilled into them. This can be awesome. For video, they can also make very good 3D...but you must be careful about the "fisheye" characteristic of the GoPro. It can make aligning the two streams a bit painful. To "sync" the two streams, I start both cameras at the same time manually (best effort) and then clap my hands - visibly and audibly - in front of the two cameras. When editing, I locate the frame in both streams that best matches...and lock them together. I can still be out by up to 1/24th of a second (at the most) as this i9sn't a hot-sync....but for most things this method is "good enough".
In all cases, I edit video with Magix Movie Edit Pro 2013 Plus (or Pro MX Plus before it, or v17 Pro Plus before that) . The "plus" version supports 3D editing. The non-"plus" version does not, so make sure you buy the right version. I have uploaded many video to Youtube from all four sourcesL Fuji, LG 3D Max, DXG and GoPro pair.
Which is the best? It depends on what you want. I want a stereo camera pair with 16MP each side, with an adjustable stereo base that I can hot-sync for video or action stills. This way, everything from close-ups to landscapes could be shot with the same configuration. To me, this is ultimately the most flexible, desirable 3D solution.
But overall a Fuji Real 3D W3 combined with an LG 3D Max gives you the best mix of close-up 3D and general 3D with reasonable quality.