3D Cameras, Camcorders & Laptops for 2011: Superseding 3D Failure in Movies

Hollywood has always taken a moneymaking gimmick and run with it, beat it to death and subsequently milked it drier than an emptied cow udder. While many of those adamantly pushed gimmicks were successful (70mm widescreen and surround sound), 3D was one that brought a sense of amnesia to the movie executive gene pool. If the 1950's had harsh lessons learned about the downfall of the studio system, the failure of 3D in the same decade and a hit-and-fail renaissance in the 60's should have been heeded and taken into subsequent decades.

It was heeded in movies for a long time, save a renaissance again through a number of 1980's movies and a 3D craze for television during the same decade. During that era, you could watch an old 3D movie in syndication from your own living room--with the disclaimer that you needed to go pick up your cardboard anaglyph 3D glasses at a local convenience store for a dollar.

By the time 3D stumbled its way back into mainstream movie theaters in 2003, you could see an evolutionary pattern developing: 3D was living and dying about every 20 years. It may as well have been deemed a scientific principle for degeneration and rebirth.

That rebirth for theaters was the innovative Real D process, and it was asking for a lot of questions as to why it was brought into existence. From the outset, the new 3D process for movie theaters sounded promising based on better-designed glasses that could give the illusion of more natural movement. Yet the troublesome aspect of the 3D glasses darkening the movie as you watched was never criticized until critics and audiences started carping about it in 2010.

Then there was the convenient method of converting a 2D movie into 3D that the American people finally caught on to as a major Hollywood cheat. 2010 turned out to be the year when the public started lashing out at 3D once again, despite Hollywood making a strong investment commitment at least several years ahead.

While Hollywood continues to sweat out that business conundrum as these words go to print, an interesting development took place: Test reactions of the public to 3D products in the home. For reasons unknown, the idea of watching a 3D movie in one's home is starting to appeal over going to a theater, yet using the same technology.

But it doesn't stop there. Throughout 2011 and beyond, you'll be seeing more than just 3D HDTV's and 3D Blu-Ray players for the home. Beginning now are 3D cameras, camcorders, 3D computers and 3D computer monitors.

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3D Cameras and Camcorders

If you have to search for one part of an answer as to why 3D may be a big deal in the American home, it could start here. Watching a 3D movie in our abodes seems to be partially appealing based on avoiding the usual theater seat kickers, candy wrapper crinklers and loud popcorn chewers. Seeing yourself, family or friends, though, in 3D is a whole other experience that might border on surreal for some. Nevertheless, it's a potentially exciting appeal that you can already do now thanks to several different digital camera brands that are out on the market.

As much as you might want the big names like Nikon or Canon to put out a 3D camera, you'll have to wait a while beyond the time of this article. Sony, however, has already put out a relatively inexpensive digital 3D camera at around $550. Their NEX-3 14.2 Megapixel digital camera has an interchangeable lens that can go up to 55mm. It's also lightweight and only half the size of a usual DSLR camera. As with 3D HDTV's, you're not stuck using 3D all the time. It can be used only when you want it and can also do 3D panoramic shots that should be enough of a selling point for outdoor photographers.

A slightly cheaper model is one from Fujifilm at $500. Their FinePix W3 Real 3D 10.0 Megapixel digital camera is similar to a Nikon Coolpix digital camera in its compactness. The zoom lens isn't great either at only 5.7X, but the 3D photo results are reportedly good.

And then you have one of the first 3D camcorders on the market: Panasonic's High-Def 3D 9.2MP camcorder. It sells at Best Buy for $1,400. The camcorder also has a 3-inch LCD monitor that doesn't require you to wear those obtrusive 3D shades in public in order to record in 3D. With a zoom lens that goes up 700x, 3D recording is only an option.

Once TMZ gets this, you can decide for yourself whether a celebrity attacking the camera in 3D is worth the wait.

These cameras can be seen in more detail in Resource 1.

3D Computers and Monitors

Don't think 3D will stop with just cameras and camcorders. 3D computers are around the corner, and Toshiba already has two satellite laptops on the market that are 3D compatible. Best Buy has advertised 3D desktops, but aren't available yet at the time of this writing.

The Toshiba laptops might sounds appealing, considering they have Blu-Ray DVD drives on them. A downside is that they only run Windows 7, which may turn off those wishing on a star that Apple will get into the 3D computer fray soon. If you're still interested, Best Buy's Geek Squad is selling these Toshibas with a 3D kit that includes an inevitable backpack and useful security software. Retail is anywhere from $1,100 to $1,500.

If you do have a desktop, a 3D computer monitor can already bring the 3D experience along with a 3D graphics card (see Resource 4). Three well-known names of Acer, Asus and Samsung are already selling 22 to 23-inch LCD 3D monitors for only several hundred dollars apiece. They all have 1080p resolution, so buying a 3D HDTV starts to feel somewhat superfluous.

Don't even bother to imagine social networking in 3D, especially if it makes us see things that could put Facebook into Chapter 11.

Take a closer look at the 3D laptops and monitors in Resources 2 and 3.

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For those taking the plunge into Blu-Ray 3D, your options of brand names are unlimited. But as I've written about before and if you want a trouble-free player, Oppo is the brand to consider. They now have a 3D Blu-Ray player on the market. (See Resource 5)

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If all of this seems to be too much too soon and not worthy of investment, the signs are there that seeing our own world in 3D should have been a selling point years ago. Also, with 3D cable channels now arriving, seeing the real world around us (or let's just say sporting events) seems more appealing than viewing CGI worlds in the format.

The only thing that needs refining now is the heavy and expensive 3D glasses that can run you over $100 a pair. Once we can go pick up a pair of 3D glasses at a local electronics store for under $20, the scientific principle of 3D degeneration may go into remission.

Resources:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_dynSessConf=391908251560105788&id=pcat17071&type=page&st=1261554%2C+1216616%2C+1034438_&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_dynSessConf=3617179466080393216&id=pcat17071&type=page&st=3d+laptops&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemapper.jsp?id=pcat17080&type=page&qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1~~q70726f63657373696e6774696d653a3e313930302d30312d3031~~cabcat0500000%23%230%23%2311a~~cabcat0509000%23%230%23%2314~~nf78||33442d5265616479&sc=abComputerSP&sp=%2Bbrand+skuid&usc=abcat0500000

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemapper.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&id=pcat17071&type=page&ks=960&st=3D_Graphics_Cards&sc=Global&cp=1&sp=&qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1~~q33445f47726170686963735f4361726473~~cabcat0500000%23%231%23%23b~~cabcat0507000%23%231%23%23b~~cabcat0507002%23%231%23%23b~~ncpcmcat182300050008%23%230%23%23b&list=y&usc=All+Categories&nrp=15&iht=n

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-93/blu-ray-BDP-93-Features.aspx