List Price: $999.99
Sale Price: $998.00
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I bought this camera exclusively for the 3D function, as I'm sure you will. A couple things about the product advertising. They were not deal breakers, but I prefer honesty in advertising. You are not buying this for 2D, DLP LED projection, lens options, or anything other than just 3D so don't throw away that 2D camera if that's what you wanted.
1. 1080i is the only 3D format. 1080p is not available in 3D, no frame rates, no bitrates, no codecs, nothing.
2. You can not take a picture in 3D. This was unexpected as several Sony 2D cameras can do a 3D picture.
3. Low light performance, is not HD. Instead it is adaptive to the light in that part of the picture. Brighter objects get higher resolution and frame rate. On a big screen, it appears distracting like a cheap low bitrate webcam with low res and a slow frame rate on dark areas, high fps high res on bright objects. There is no way to disable this, so either record with the built in light, which is surprisingly bright enough or have some regular lights on indoors. Oh and prepare for friends and family to ask you "how much did you pay for this again?" As with any Sony camera I've owned, auto focus in lower lighting doesn't work, it keeps guessing every few seconds. Usually in the wrong direction, but you can go manual from the touchscreen.
4. Ps3, can only playback the 2D portion from the 3D recording. So use the hdmi cable instead.
5. No adapter ring to fit a UV/dust filter, neutralizer, polarizer or water housing.
6. The sony 2008 waterproof housing fits, and operates the camera functions fine, you'll have to use construction paper to block reflections, and software to adjust the waters pink color balance. If you don't own the water case, they only made it with cheap stereo mic's. but it is water tight, even in salt water.
7. No slow motion in 3D.
8. No golf shot in 3D
9. X.V. Color range must be reselected ever time the battery is removed. If you have a 3D tv, you have xv color range. Charge the battery in the camera, or when swapping batteries, make sure your settings are all there.
10. Steady shot is better than my 2008 model Sony. Actually better than most current movies and tv shows that think shaking makes drama more realistic. It's not perfect but for 3D, reduced shaking reduces eyestrain headaches.
11. Other things that do not work in 3D. White balance, spot meter, spot focus, iris, shutter speed, auto gain limit, low lux, scene selection, fader, self timer, telemacro, digital zoom, auto backlight, smile shutter and sensitivity, flash, red eye, recording mode, frame rate, HD/SD option, 4:3 option.
A note about 3D on such a small 20mm dual lens camera, the bigger the tv, or closer you sit, less 3D effect. Farther away, smaller tv, bigger effect. Probably why most stores use small 40" demo tv's and upsell, expecting customers just to assume bigger is better. They call this 3D roundness. If you are like me, after a short time, my brain tries to compensate and flatten the picture because it knows its really a flat tv that should not have any depth. Thats why the end of avatar doesn't look 3D anymore. An exaggerated roundness factor, helps. PS 3 games usually have a 3D effect option to turn a soccer ball into a football shape so your mind sees a round soccer ball. This is not the same as the 3D depth option on a camera or TV set. That depth option is a parallax screen alignment only. If the whole scene shifted in front or behind the tv, you can adjust that, not the actual depth perception or roundness. That would require a specialized computer program to calculate scene depth and then fractal multiply it, which isn't available to consumers yet.
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