Panasonic has introduced some new lens teleconverters that work with their 14-42mm lenses.
Click on the image for a larger view.
And a couple of “concept lenses”. Panasonic expects to expand their lens line up to 20 total lenses by the end of 2012.
The Internet access at the hotel is so slow that I may not be able to post much in the way of much of anything. This was torturous just to get these two photos uploaded.
Ritwika Mitra shows how to build your own dual camera mount featuring an adjustable interaxial distance for 3d stereoscopic photography or video. Ritwika is a high school senior, by the way. Cool young woman! She and her sister are also the founders of the non-profit Rennow.org.
The details begin at about 2:30 into the video. I built this but I also use a fixed mounting bracket that is simpler and smaller. At some point, I will post photos of my set up for 3D.
I decided this week that I will start shooting 3D video.
I have had an interest in 3D going back to the 1980s, when I visited an exhibit on holography. I read a couple of books on holography but alas, holography was not something I was in a position to pursue.
I recently came across one of those lenticular-based 3D images on the cover of a product and that got me reading about 3D technology once again. After some tests using a single camera to shoot some 3D video of static objects, I found myself hooked! I now plan to get a 2nd camera so I can shoot true stereographic video. (But do not expect to see much here for as much as 1 to 2 months as I have too many other things to deal with before I can get to creating great 3D videos worthy of posting!)
3D, other than in video games, seems to still be stuck in the pre-fad stage of a few experimenters. But this will change, and soon. First, Youtube is providing very good support for 3D – once a properly formatted 3D video is uploaded, Youtube offers to present the video in all of the popular 3D formats – have it your way! Second, Peter Jackson’s movie version of The Hobbit will start to come out in about one year. The Hobbit is being filmed in 3D and I suspect will greatly propel interest in 3D forward.
3D TV will take a long time to arrive, though, because so many people have only just acquired an HDTV and are not in a hurry to rush out and purchase a new 3D HDTV. Over time, as more and more 3D TVs are in use, then 3D content will become more popular. May as well start shooting 3D now as the originals shot today and can be converted to any desired format in the future!
Go here and take a look. I wonder how much “wobble” is really needed in the photos? The effect does work, but after looking at the whole series of photos, my eyes feel a little wobbly too!
It seems odd, even to me, a software engineer, to be updating the firmware in my camera lens – but its for real. Panasonic released firmware updates for several of their camera lenses, including the standard 14-42mm kit lens: 43 Rumors | Blog | Panasonic firmware update for four m43 lenses!.
The improvement is said to improve auto-focusing, image stabilization, and reduce potential focus noise when recording video. I have installed the update on my 14-42mm lens via the camera today, without any problems.