I hope to have more comments on 3D business and technologies soon. However, the last day I came down with a nasty cold, fever, headaches, aches and pains. A bit worse than the usual sore feet problem.
Consequently, no big updates for a bit.
Monthly Archives: January 2013
#3D is dead, #3D is alive and future is bright #CES #CES2013
CES: Nobody Cares About 3D – says 3D is dead.
I don’t expect much from IGN and they do not disappoint:
Each major manufacturer had at least one 3D demo at their booth, but gone are the elaborate 3D installations that would greet you as you entered.
Hello? LG had the world’s largest 3D video wall on display – you CANNOT MISS IT as it encompassed the main entry to Central Hall.
3D was on display but 4k – and sometimes 8k – (all with 3D built in) is the main item promoted big and loud at CES. Yet, there is no 4k content available for all those consumers clamoring to buy a 4k TV.
Then we have this Fox News item – 3D is dead – (its a content free news story by the way).
But then we get to “The Future of 3D” which says 3D is here to stay with some actual reporting that backs that up.
I am anxious to write up an explanation of the 3D business, where we’ve been and where we may be headed. 3D is far from dead.
More from #CES2013 – #3D info and more – #CES
Joutec will be shipping soon this wireless add on 3D camera for smart phones. They will have apps for iPhone and Android.
The camera shoots 3D video and transfers to an app on the smart phone via WiFi, where the stream can be recorded to memory. This is a nifty way of adding 3D capability to a smart phone.
(Click on any photo for a larger version)
Modular robotics based on behavioral robotics concepts. Each module has different capabilities – motor drive, sensors, communications – and so on. By assembling them together, one creates a device that will interact with its environment, without any programming. Perhaps hard to explain in a few words and especially if not familiar with behavior-based robotics that sort of sense – do, rather than sense – plan – do. Anyway, very neat idea.
This display is out of Russia. Its a humidifier output stream being lit up with computer generated imagery (Disney does something like this already). However, this one has a group of sensors that sense your hand position and you can interact with the content of the screen. Sort like a touch screen in the air. A future version will provide volumetric 3D capabilities.
Projections on to a four-sided sort of prism used to create volumetric 3D.
I liked this shirt…
Some inexpensive (not!) Nikon optical hardware:
The new Nikon Android-based camera
Nikon’s Wi-Fi dongle for a large set of their cameras, adds Wi-Fi transfer capabilities direct to your smart phone
#CES2013 #CES A more nuanced view of #3D camera offerings
As noted yesterday, the consumer 3D camera space seems to be dwindling as there are broad hints or outright statements that some of the consumer 3D cameras are no more or are likely to fade away in 2013.
But the situation is a bit more nuanced than how that first sounds.
First, 3D is far from dead. Its in everything but no one makes a big deal out of it anymore. It just “is”.
Next, the Fujifilm bridge cameras, the HS50EXR and the SL1000 both have the Fujifilm W3’s “cha cha” mode built in. That is, the W3 has an advanced 3D mode where the camera can take separate left and right images, and you can move the camera as little or as much as you want to change the stereobase. The W3 than aligns the photos in camera and outputs that to an MPO file. The software for this feature was basically ported from the W3 implementation into these new cameras. Thus, some of the W3 feature set lives on and 3D is still a component of the camera line.
Update: We would prefer to see some upgraded 3D integrated camera tech – new sensors with upgraded dynamic range, improved optics and on some cameras, better video. Sadly, that is not happening right now – except for the Sony TD30 and the Samsung NX300. A lot of us shoot stereo shots with two cameras – but convenience, physical size, synchronization, etc all leave room for the integrated 3D camera.
SL1000: (click on any photo for a larger image)
HS50EXR
All of the Sony NEX cameras have a “3D Panorama” feature. This is a video feature that let’s you record a slow pan and then it creates a 3D video sequence using the frame offset method. If you are not familiar with this idea, here’s a brief explanation. When we pan the camera, we create a 30 fps sequence of images. We can create a fake 3D from a panned video sequence by taking the original track as the left image and then offsetting by 1 or 2 frames and taking the offset sequence as the right sequence. This creates two sequences – one for the left, and the other for the right eye. Think of it as if you were moving your head from side to side. At one point you capture one eye’s image, but a moment later, your eye has moved a bit further, and we pretend that is the right image. This really works, by the way. I do it all the time.
The Sony WX80 is a new camera that has built-in Wi-Fi and appears to support a 3D “cha cha” mode for still subjects. Unfortunately, the rep was not familiar with the feature in this new camera but it was there on the menu.
Sony has upgraded the TD20 3D video camera to the TD30 model. This appears to return to a 30mm stereobase and lowers the price to US$999. I tried to interpret the specs – it looks like it has a 20 MP sensor which can be used to create high resolution 3D stills as well. I’m not positive on the 3D stills resolution but my interpretation is that these are high res 3D images.
My sense is that the camera makers first tried to have relatively low priced 3D cameras that would appeal to the less sophisticated photographer. These include the W3, the 3D1, the Sony Bloggie 3D, the Z100 and perhaps some others. They did a good job of providing ease of use, but each was also lacking on some key features. The W3’s video capability was weak. The 3D1’s weakness was a 2D display instead of a 3D glass free LCD panel. The Sony Bloggie 3D’s key advantage was low cost, but 8 GB internal RAM and internal battery. The Z100 has its own quirks. In other words, these were compromises – all great little cameras but compromised in terms of appealing to a more sophisticated photographer.
There may have been a mismatch between the product and the customer – these are great cameras for the lower end consumer. But the lower end consumer was not the early adopter. Instead, it was more sophisticated shooters – those of who spend $500 to $1000 on mirrorless and DSLR type cameras and prefer fewer compromises.
The Sony TD10/20/30 is a high priced camera that tries to avoid compromises to yield great 3D video image quality. This is a camera that targeted a more discerning and more advanced amateur or semi-professional audience. And note that Sony has not discontinued this product but continues to refine it – and even lower the price! This suggests they’ve done a bit better match of customers to features and price.
An issue for all the 4k TV sellers is – where does one get 4k content? There isn’t any 4k content now and there is no convenient way to deliver it to the end user. I understand that if you buy the Sony 84″ 4k monitor (price of a nice car), Sony gives you a hard drive filled with 4k movies.
However, Sony has also taken their 2k to 4k image upscaling technology used in their Cinema 4k digital theater projection system and has no coalesced into a new 4k display (I did not get a price). This was demo’d next to a conventional 2k display showing the input to the 4k display. The 4k display upscaled this and did a superb job, in real time, of interpolation, sharpening, color grading, contrast adjustment and noise reduction – it really looked good.
A related issue is where do you get 3D content?
Samsung has added 3D content over the Internet to their TV explorer. The menu has both Youtube and Explore 3D channel, delivered over the Internet:
In addition, Netflix announced that, depending on your ISP, streaming 3D movies will be available to regular Netflix subscribers.
The message: 3D content is coming.
My own belief is that 3D content is going to come over the Internet and may surprise people.
At some point – days or a week or two from now – I hope to write down some thoughts on the business of 3D and what’s gone right and wrong, and what may transpire in the near future to grow this market. Many technologies, business activities, content and consumer demand are slowly coming together to catalyse the 3D market.
#CES2013 #CES Report on consumer 3D cameras
Consumer 3D cameras are not selling.
The Lumix 3D1 is still being sold but I picked up word that sales are slow and it might not be continued, perhaps later in 2013.
Fujifilm is no longer manufacturing the Fujifilm W3 (confirmed) but is continuing to sell from existing inventory. I was told by a Fujifilm staff member who knows the issues well, that sales have dropped off sharply on the W3 – if demand were to ramp up, they can immediately run another production run. However, reading between the lines, its not ramping up – to illustrate, B&H Photo and Walmart.com both listed the camera as discontinued. At least from their sales. But if two huge vendors discontinue selling the product, then sales volumes will not be ramping up.
Toshiba has no cameras on display at the show and no one had any information on the Toshiba Z100, which is pretty much half priced at Amazon and B&H right now.
The Sony Bloggie 3D is no longer being made, but they are showing the new Sony TD30 which updates the TD10 which updated the TD10 video cameras. These uniquely record two full 1920×1080 video streams, producing very high quality 3D video images. Sony is also showing their digital recording binoculars, which view and record in 3D. They were also showing a prototype of a new model that is smaller and lighter and which will be available this coming year – no info on time or price.
The big announcement though, is Samsung’s NX300 and the new integrated 2D/3D lens. The 3D images I saw looked very good. Here’s a view of the camera with the dual 2D/3D lens in place:
The camera can output a live 3D video over HDMI, and they were using that to show live pictures of convention goers. The Samsung reps I talked to felt that the other 3D cameras on the market were too low end (my thoughts too). The early adopters for 3D are not low end consumers, but the semi-serious amateurs who buy $500 to $2000 cameras and look for quality.
The NX300 is an APS-C sensor, a very high quality camera system, and the world’s first single lens 3D camera. The parallax is quite good based on what I could see (both naked eyes and using active shutter glasses on their monitor). Here is what the parallax looks like – click on the image for a bit bigger version (due to being on a cellphone link, I’m using smaller picture sizes than usual):
I am very impressed with the NX300 3D image quality. If a wider angle lens version of this became available, I could see using this as a primary 3D still and video camera.
GoPro is the other vendor that continues to have a 3D solution. They have a package that combines two GoPro Hero cameras and a sync cable between them, plus some 3D alignment capabilities in their Cineform Studio (free and pro versions).
Consequently, a mixed bag on 3D consumer cameras – sales are confirmed as not being great at the low end.
But Samsung might have figured it out, though. The 2D/3D lens is a darned good 2D lens and will likely be bought just for that. If sales are decent, Samsung will introduce more lenses featuring the 3D capability.
Everyone is showing 3D TVs, including 4K 3D TVs (I don’t know where you’ll get 4k content for a while yet – there will be a new Bluray spec for 4k but its not done yet.) I really liked the Samsung Ultra 3D TV (4K) – wonderful image quality. It seems that the extra resolution enables some very fine parallax to be used – something to think about. Such fine detail would be lost in lower resolution renderings.
3D is being shown, but its not all over hype at this point. It’s just 3D. Stream TV, an R&D firm from Europe was showing the best, hands down, glasses free 3D display. They also have a tablet glasses free 3D display.
The technology pieces are coming together. I don’t think the marketing has been where it needs to be yet, on consumer 3D image capture.
I cross posted parts of this to two 3D related photo groups on Yahoo.
Other items of interest
LG had the world’s largest 3D video wall. Their sample video made outstanding use of “theater space” projecting images 20 feet or more in front of the screen and at times, nearly over the viewer.
The Winbot is a great idea – it is a window cleaning robot. I think the price quote was $299.95. Considering the bother of cleaning windows, this is an amazingly well targeted product. Cleans an entire window like this in a few minutes.
This year’s new thing is giant smart phones – how big is too big? I have no idea. But 5 inches and I think even 6 inches are being shown in places.
Sony has a lot of software accessories now. Some, not all yet, are beginning to understand how software can add value and differentiate their products from competitors. Another example would be Nokia, who is adding a large number of software-based features, available only to owners of Lumia phones.
