Lightning Review: Fujifilm W3 3D Camera

[Silversurfer]

So, my first thought after shooting Fuji's W3 3D camera was how it would usher in a new era of athlete dong shots. But, the W3's not quite ready for the world—or maybe it's the other way around.



3D photos are a rare little gimmick that can sustain people's attention, rapt, for at least 5 minutes at a time, rather you're snapping or being snapped. (There is something to this 3D thing.) People throw their arms out, or thrust random objects toward the camera, frantically trying to provoke a sense of depth. Or crowd around the rear display (tightly!) to see people, things, or themselves rendered as holograms popping out of the back of a camera. It's fun, in the same disposable way that genuinely wacky Japanese gadgets "from the future" always are.



If you don't have a 3DTV or 3D computer or 3D photo viewer (conveniently sold by Fujifilm), it's kinda hard to look at the 3D photos in 3D anywhere but the back of the camera. Which is, uh, most people. (That said, you can download some raw MPO samples, if you like: 1, 2, 3, 4.) 3D photos only really work when there's a lot of light, and video works best when the motion is sticky slow. 3D powers aside, it is an otherwise mediocre camera.





Is 3D photography dorktastically amusing? Yes. If you think about the W3 as a (pricey!) high-tech toy from a Hammacher Schlemmer catalog or Akihabara to dick around with on vacation or after you've had one too many Four Lokos—and not a real camera to capture your most treasured memories—it makes a lot more sense. Just don't think expect much more than that.







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[cybereality]

I still want one.

[Likay]

If you don't have a 3DTV or 3D computer or 3D photo viewer (conveniently sold by Fujifilm), it's kinda hard to look at the 3D photos in 3D anywhere but the back of the camera. Which is, uh, most people. (That said, you can download some raw MPO samples, if you like: 1, 2, 3, 4.) 3D photos only really work when there's a lot of light, and video works best when the motion is sticky slow. 3D powers aside, it is an otherwise mediocre camera.

Do i miss something or shouldn't it be obvious to get this camera mostly for the 3d-functionality? Of all images i've seen it's clear that the quality of the images are what to expect from a pocketcamera. Otherwise get two systemcameras and try to get the lenses together or maybe a "planarlike beamsplitter"-beast with two systemcameras!

[yuriythebest]

Do i miss something or shouldn't it be obvious to get this camera mostly for the 3d-functionality?

you missed the reviewers bias.

[Likay]

Do i miss something or shouldn't it be obvious to get this camera mostly for the 3d-functionality?

you missed the reviewers bias.

I guess he won't buy a 3dtv either....

[cravinmild]

Having used one myself i can agree with alot of what the original poster has said. I went to the store fully intending on purchasing the camara (w3), had the wifeys permission and approval (more important lol) but after using it (instore-viewing on a large 3d hdtv) for a very long time i had to walk away. Im not a techno camara geek, i own several point and shoots of varying degrees of quality and one very nice DSLR (Pentax K200d) which i use to shoot RAW and edit with cs5. The fuji camara has some major drawbacks which were deal killers for me. The first and most major IMO is image stabability, or the lack of it. Its almost imposible to get a steady shot while filming in 3d, to the point of having it look like something shot in 1985 on a portable vhs cam, worse than the Blair witch project. I played the saved images back on several 3d hdtvs' that were set up in the store and with every tv the image was very poor. This camara is highly overpriced with a poor "usefull" feature set other than its ability to capture in 3d.
Now if i was gifted one i would love it, its faults would be very forgivable and it would receive alot of use. IMO, a fair price for this camara would be in the $199 catagory but not $250, image quality in all ways is lesser to camaras in the $199 range.

[cybereality]

Its kind of a catch-22 when reviews say the camera is useless because you need a 3D HDTV to view any of the content. Then they say the 3D TV is useless because of a lack of content. Well what do you think a friggin' 3D camera does? Produce 3D content! Problem solved. Plus, you do not necessarily need a 3D TV. It is pretty easy to convert MPOs to different formats, like anaglyph or side-by-side, which can be viewed without a 3DTV. You could also get lenticular prints from Fujifilm for a couple of dollars each. You could buy their 3D picture-frame. Or you could just archive the content, knowing you will have a 3DTV by next year or something like that. And clearly the same type of people buying this camera probably already have some sort of 3D display equipment (or plan to buy some soon). So the whole argument is somewhat bogus.

@cravinmild: And, yeah, I agree: $400 was way to much for this kit. $199 would have been an acceptable price. Considering you can get Canon point-and-shoots with better photo quality than the W3, but for under $99, then this thing should not be more than $200. Maybe $299, but even that is pushing it. I understand its a niche product, but it just seems like they are gouging. I'll wait til the price drops.

[yuriythebest]

The first and most major IMO is image stabability, or the lack of it. Its almost imposible to get a steady shot while filming in 3d, to the point of having it look like something shot in 1985 on a portable vhs cam, worse than the Blair witch project.

Um, you can always use a stabilizer- it's even possible to use your tripod as a stabilizer. I was able to shoot pretty stable videos with it - the point is in moving the camera very slowly so that people don't get nausea.

I played the saved images back on several 3d hdtvs' that were set up in the store and with every tv the image was very poor. This camara is highly overpriced with a poor "usefull" feature set other than its ability to capture in 3d.

I bought this camera just for that feature- to capture 720p 3d in decent quality. (not awesome quality- I'm sure there is a myriad of monoscopic cameras that claim better "2d" quality)

Now if i was gifted one i would love it, its faults would be very forgivable and it would receive alot of use. IMO, a fair price for this camara would be in the $199 catagory but not $250, image quality in all ways is lesser to camaras in the $199 range.

Yeah, the price is VERY high. However, I've dreamed for so long for an HD3D device that was also portable that I just had to get this. The alternative- the Aiptek i2 is just awful and I wouldn't feel proud owning that.

[android78]

Ok, Dragging this thread from the grave because I have purchased one of these.
I got it because it was only $196AUD on the weekend at Harvey Norman.
Just some first thoughts of the camera:
THE BAD
- The picture is a bit grainy, no matter the ISO setting. Even with reasonable light, it can be bad.
- There is no manual focus... none at all. I know it's point and shoot, but i wish they would let us change the focus.
- Speaking of focus, during movie mode, the focus doesn't change. When you start recording, the camera focus' the picture, but then while recording, the focus remains fixed. This is a problem if you have objects/people moving towards you.
- No adjustment for the sensor displacement. I understand that this would make the camera a gazillion times more expensive, but I wonder if there is some way it could be implemented in a future product. Without this, you can't really effectively do any closeups. Taking two shots with the one lens is not a solution, IMO.
- Watch the flash. Well, not really a fault with the camera, but when using flash, you can get some really off putting shadows.
- Video is not smooth - It doesn't seem to be an issue with the card write speed (usually that causes video to freeze after a couple of seconds), it is more that the frames are coming in bursts (8-10 then slow). May be able to fixed with firmware upgrade. It's probably no worse then other point-and-shoots though.
- Video/image format - I'm not sure why they seem to have used the least widely accepted format to store the images and video (MPO and dual channel avi), but it's kind of annoying having to convert these before being able to watch them on another device. If they had choice of format, that would be ideal.
- No HDMI cable in box - I would have thought that, since you can only use the pictures and video on other devices by re-encoding them or through HDMI, they would include the cable.

THE GOOD
- Easy to use - This has to be one of the simplest cameras to use... put it in the mode you want, point it at what you want to take a picture of and press the button. No fussing or confusing options.
- Great display - The 3D display is simply beautiful to look at with the rich colors. The color representation is a little too green, but it looks great! I'm tempted to try converting some 3D blurays and see if I can watch them on this... anyone know how to?
- Solid build - I've had several point and shoot cameras in the past, but this has to be the most solid. It is heavy because of this, but at least it doesn't feel like it'll break just from looking at it. Having the dual periscope sensors so nothing protrudes is a nice touch too.
- When viewing on a large TV,the 3D is closer to real life then most movies being made. The lens separation is good. Actually, I think it's great. They have basically the same distance as my eyes, and this seems to make a real life 3D view, so long as you don't zoom. if you zoom, this seems to lower the 3D. I won't go into the technical reasons for this here, but it's something that film makers really need to get in their heads... zoom is not good for 3D!!! (unless you really know what you are doing)
- IT'S 3D!!! - It might be obvious, but this is a 3D camera. It creates the 3D images easily and without a fuss. There aren't many consumer cameras (especially in the price range) that can claim this.
- A reasonable camera for the price. At $AUD196 it's hard to pass up.

In summery; this camera is not without faults. Looking at the lists above, it would seem the Bad outweighs the Good, but I have just tried to list the things that I've noticed... even if quite minor to the overall experience. I think I'll have a lot of fun with this and it seems well worth the price ($196... seriously???) for a 3D enthusiast. The only two things that might bother me are the fixed focus in movie mode and the file formats... the rest are fine.

[cybereality]

Thats a sick deal. Its about $350 now on Amazon, which is still too much for me. I have a Canon (2D) camera I got for $140 years ago and it has way better picture quality, full manual mode, etc. I know its 3D, but its kind of annoying to pay over double and get worse PQ just to add the 3D effect. If it were like $250 or less, then I would consider it. At $199, I would pay in cash. At least the separation is decent. I wanted that new Sony Bloggie, but the insect-sized stereo is not for me.

[android78]

Thats a sick deal. Its about $350 now on Amazon, which is still too much for me. I have a Canon (2D) camera I got for $140 years ago and it has way better picture quality, full manual mode, etc. I know its 3D, but its kind of annoying to pay over double and get worse PQ just to add the 3D effect. If it were like $250 or less, then I would consider it. At $199, I would pay in cash.

Yeah... It would be great if we could get the best of both worlds. I'm not sure why it doesn't have as good picture quality, I guess Fujifilm aren't willing to pay for better sensors.

At least the separation is decent. I wanted that new Sony Bloggie, but the insect-sized stereo is not for me.

Yeah, the separation is good. I think that the new bloggie, etc (with 3cm sensor separation) would be a lot better for macro. Not sure how they'll go with zoom. Ideally though, a camera with adjustable separation would be ideal. I'm tempted to play with some mirrors to create an attachment for macro... shouldn't be too hard.

[ShawmK]

There is a guy in the Netherlands named Co van Ekeren who builds incredible quality stereo camera rigs - far better than any of the commercial 3D cameras currently available.

http://home.kpn.nl/ekere002/digital.html

I bought a camera from him a few years ago (not cheap) and it is easily the best stereo camera I have ever worked with. As you have said, the picture quality on the Fuji is awful; they seem to be so concerned with keeping the camera small, they used the tiniest sensors and lenses they could find. The MPO file format is a headache since most image editing software can't recognise the pictures. Unless you have Stereo PhotoMaker you can't so much as adjust the contrast of a shot.

Using a two-camera rig is labour-intensive but the results are excellent - plus you can adjust the lens separation and get some wonderful hyper-stereo shots.

[cybereality]

I'm kind of over the whole dual camera thing. At least with video, it just becomes really time-consuming to deal with the footage. I have a bunch of material I haven't even posted on YouTube because it just takes so long to edit the footage. Plus a lot of time I won't bring the rig because its a pain. I just want something simple and easy like the Fujifilm. Just wish it were cheaper and/or the quality improved.

[Likay]

I'm kind of over the whole dual camera thing. At least with video, it just becomes really time-consuming to deal with the footage. I have a bunch of material I haven't even posted on YouTube because it just takes so long to edit the footage. Plus a lot of time I won't bring the rig because its a pain. I just want something simple and easy like the Fujifilm. Just wish it were cheaper and/or the quality improved.

I have both a dual canonrig as well as the w3 and know exactly what you mean. Besides the special software (stereodatamaker) sometimes hangs the cameras to the degree that the battery needs to be taken out for some time before the camera is usable again. This of course always happens when i certainly not want them to...
The question of quality can not be disputed between the w3 compared to the canons or a decent pocketcamera but inspite of that i usually never bring my canons anymore. The w3 is way to convenient to use and it's nice to also become an anonymous photographer. A dual camerarig is far from discrete.

The caveats of w3 is the relatively poor quality of images taken. Videos tend to be choppy but maybe it's because each frame is relatively "sharp" even during fastpaced scenes. "Relatively" is compared to the canons. Maybe this also adds to the choppy experience but i'm certainly not sure.
Another caveat is that it's way too easy keeping a finger in front of the lenses just because i sometimes need to hold the camera firmly. I got quite a deal of shots where you get a finger in one eye because of this.

[cybereality]

it's nice to also become an anonymous photographer. A dual camerarig is far from discrete.

Well that too. With the dual-cams you get all kinds of weird looks and people just think you are up to something.

[ShawmK]

I find that it's a trade-off. The dual camera rig is less discrete, and you do get some funny looks occasionally, but the photographs are so much better than anything the Fuji can produce. Also, some of the attention is actually positive, in my experience. People are interested in the 3D camera and want to know more. I usually carry a few sample photographs and a pocket viewer when I'm out taking pictures so people can see the end result.

I have also had the finger-over-the-lens problem with the Fuji - it's a really bad design flaw to have put the left lens so close to the edge of the camera. And the Fuji is next to useless in low light, because of those microscopic sensors. I try to avoid using the flash for 3D photography - it tends to create very bizarre shadow effects.

[cybereality]

Yes, I have gotten positive feedback too. Some people actually do know something about 3D.

[gail]

Yes, I have gotten positive feedback too. Some people actually do know something about 3D.

Gail Download Fuji FinePix Studio open go to manage files look at your mpo. files by clicking on 3D Viewer put on the old paper blue & red glasses hey presto see 3D on your monitor.