Panasonic was showing off one of its newest Lumix cameras out at the IFA show, which has already been home to a variety of exciting new gadgets. This particular Lumix, though, has an exciting new feature that you don’t often see on most compact digital cameras.
The new feature in question, as you’ve probably surmised from the pic above, is none other than 3D shooting. Panasonic had a couple of their prototypes under glass out at the IFA show, and even talked about getting another model out on shelves by the wintertime.
Meanwhile, the Lumix that they were showing off was set to have a matched pair of 4X zoom lenses, folding optics, and optical image stabilization. That stabilization would extend to both video and stills, at last report, and would even be able to handle video and stills simultaneously, which considering the thing has two lenses, wouldn’t be that big a stretch. It’s also set to pack stereo microphones, a tripod mount slot, support for SDXC memory cards (necessary considering we’re talking about 3D images here) and even an HDMI output so you can put your 3D images up on much bigger screens that likely also pack 3D capability.
It seems there are progressively more companies offering 3D capability on their stuff, be it televisions or cameras, though I find myself wondering just how far this will go. Sure, companies are likely dying for something new to sell given that the flat-panel television is getting down to commodity pricing level these days, but people making 3D home movies doesn’t seem like a huge demand item. Consider your last Thanksgiving family gathering and think how much better that would have been if the home video from it was in 3D. If you’re not seeing a big change, well, you probably won’t be looking to upgrade your camera capabilities to 3D.
No word yet on pricing as far as this goes, though a release before Christmas seems like a possibility. But what do you guys think? Is 3D video our future? Or will people be too slow in adopting it to make it worthwhile for companies to get into?
