Panasonic HDC-SDT750
I’m a bit late on this as I’ve been away, but Panasonic have announced a stereoscopic micro 4/3′s lens for their camera range as well as a consumer S3D camcorder (well it’s actually a 2D camcorder with a conversion lens). The Panasonic 3D lens incorporates 2 lenses and is designed to work with the Lumix G micro system. It’s primarily a stills lens, but with the right firmware the cameras may also be able to shoot 3D video.
Panasonic have also released details of their HDC-SDT750 3D camcorder. This is a 3 chip 2D camcorder that can be fitted with a 3D conversion lens that allows it to shoot side by side 3D images. The left and right images are then squashed horizontally by 50% and recorded as a single 1920×1080 video clip that contains the two squashed images side by side. This has the advantage that when plugged in to a consumer S3D TV via HDMI the TV will show the footage in 3D (or stereoscopically to be correct). The down side is that each view only uses 960×540 pixels during capture, so it’s not full HD for each eye. On screen it probably looks better than this sounds as each eye is seeing slightly different images and this gives the impression of slightly higher resolution than that of a single image. What is exciting to me about this camera is it’s very narrow interaxial of about 30mm. This will make it suitable for POV and handheld video diary type shots, something not really possible with larger interaxials or beam splitter rigs. So even though the resolution may not be there, I can see one of these cameras finding it’s way into my camera kit. I’d certainly love to get one to review.
Anyway these are both very interesting and only goes to show just how quickly S3D is being developed. When consumers start to become used to seeing their home videos in S3D, we professionals are going to have to start producing more and more content in S3D.
IBC is just over a month away and I expect we will see lots more 3D products between now and then, including some more of my Hurricane 3D rigs 
Oh… one more thing.. the camera does 1920×1080 50P!!
OK, here’s my take on the situation.
If money is no problem then the safest bet is to purchase a good quality HD lens, expect to spend at least £8k.
If you budget is restricted then the situation is much less clear. There are now several low cost 2/3″ HD lenses designed for cameras such as the Panasonic HPX500. In my opinion these lenses are just not worth the money. They might be cheap (£4k ish) but the one’s I’ve played with have been pretty grim, suffering from lots of CA and soft corners.
If your on a tight budget the best thing you can do is take your camera to a good dealer and go through their second hand lenses, trying them on the camera. Check for resolution (use a chart), corner softness, CA and contrast. I did this and ended up with a Canon 16x8x2 IF lens. I found that lenses with lower zoom ratios tended to be better than those with higher ratios. I’m really pleased with my lens and when compared to the latest HD equivalents I can not tell the difference in real world use. It certainly outperforms all the budget HD lenses I’ve tried.
One interesting thing that I have discovered in my research into this subject is that Contrast is what makes the biggest difference in lens performance, not simply resolution as one might expect. Visually the next thing you notice is CA. This is a tough one as when you increase the resolution or sharpness of a lens you also tend to increase the CA.
Until lens manufacturers start to release MTF curves for their lenses the only thing we have as buyers to go on is the advertising blurb. It’s easy for a manufacturer to claim improved performance or new glass or other technology, but without accurate MTF curves it’s all pretty meaningless. You would only need the tiniest resolution improvement to be able to claim that you new HD lens range is sharper than your SD range, it could just be a fraction of a percent difference.
I got sent this link by Jay Gladwell (thanks Jay). It’s a series of really good clips about the way optics and video sensors work and about how resolution and contrast effect the way a picture looks. Well worth spending some time to watch it.
http://media.panavision.com/ScreeningRoom/Screening_Room/Demystifying_Part1_480p.html
I can’t get over the price of the ACM-21. The adapter that allows you to use 2/3″ lenses on an EX3. It is silly money. Anyway I have the ACM-18 that came with the camera and an old 1/2 to 2/3 B4 adapter. These work fine BUT there is no lens connector as that is done with connections built into the lens mount with the EX3. So I decided to pull apart the ACM-18 to see if you could get at the pins, and you can! So once the socket (12 pin hirose) arrives I shall be connecting that to the ACM-18 so I can use my 2/3″ lenses on my EX3 for a lot less than the price of an ACM-21.
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