Digital cameras, like all consumer electronics, thrive on what's called the "replacement cycle." Put simply, it's the process of making your slightly older device look like God-awful junk compared to this year's shiny new device. Cultivating this annual technological inferiority complex among us consumers does have some upside - it drives features up and costs down. But it also leads to some questionable technological detours.
Which brings us to 3D. Is it the next big thing or an over-hyped gimmick?
3D Craze
Blockbuster films like Avatar have rekindled interest in viewing content in three dimensions (which, we should remember, is hardly new) and a new wave of next-generation 3D televisions from the big names in electronics promise to bring the 3D theatrical experience into your living room (if you can afford it). The research firm Parks Associates estimates that 80 percent of TVs sold by 2014 will be capable of playing 3D content - whether you want to or not.
It was inevitable that once 3D HDTVs starting to trickle onto store shelves that the big name companies boosting the technology - like Sony, Panasonic and Samsung - would try to nudge 3D adoption along by throwing cameras into the mix as well. And so they have.
Sony's newest crop of Cyber-shots is a good example. In July the company released the Sony DSC-TX9 ($400) and Sony WX5 ($300). Both digicams aren't technically 3D cameras because they don't offer the two lenses you need to capture 'stereoscopic' photos, but they do offer you a way to create 3D panoramic images using some clever in-camera software processing. It works with the company's innovative "sweep panorama" mode, which allows you to move the camera horizontally while it records a series of still images that it stitches together into a single - and in this case, 3D - panoramic image.
The resulting image can be viewed in 2D on computer monitors or in 3D when output to a 3D capable TV via HDMI cable. Both cameras also incorporate a new shooting mode dubbed Sweep Multi Angle. To use it, you tilt the camera back and forth while the camera snaps up to 15 images that are blended into a single photo for a 3D effect on the cameras' display.
But Sony wasn't first out of the gate. That honor went to Fujifilm with its Fujifilm FinePix W1 - which remains on the market, if not much promoted by the company. This $600 camera features two lenses and a pair of 10-megapixel image sensors for true 3D photo capture. It can also display your 3D shots on its 2.8-inch LCD screen without requiring glasses. Getting those 3D images to a 3D HDTV isn't easy however. With no HDMI output, the W1 can't directly connect to a 3D TV. You could save your 3D image files to an SD card and pop it into a Panasonic 3D Blu-ray player (which has a card slot capable of outputting a 3D image). But odds are you don't have one - at least, not yet.
Fufjilm does sell an accessory image viewer ($500) that can display your 3D stills without the need for glasses. They also offer a print service that promises to deliver a 3D photo print to your door that, like the viewer, doesn't require those 3D glasses. But it's pricey - at $6.99 per print.
Camcorders have gotten into the 3D act too. Panasonic released a high definition camcorder with a 3D conversion lens (HDC-SDT750) that can be popped off if you want the option to record 2D video. A pair of lower-cost 3D camcorders, from Aiptek and DXG, have also been announced that feature specialized LCD displays that can show 3D footage without the need for glasses (they also sell digital frames based on the same LCD technology to compliment these 3D camcorders).
So, Do You Really Need a 3D Camera?
Yes and no. There's a good chance that, at least initially, other companies will take the Sony approach - adding a 3D component to an otherwise traditional digicam. Panasonic's approach - bundling a conversion lens is another, albeit slightly pricier, approach that preserves the option to stick with 2D. So having 3D capability will be more of a sidelight, not the main event.
Having seen 3D technology first hand, I can attest to its coolness but I wonder what it will do for our casual snapshots or home movies. First, how many of us spend a lot of time looking at their images on a television? Didn't think so. Second, how many of us want to don specialized glasses to look at our images on a 3D HDTV? Even fewer, I suspect, after the novelty wears off. And if you want to ditch the glasses and still get the cool 3D effect, you're left with the small media viewers mentioned above, which don't exactly overwhelm you with their screen size and aren't exactly cheap.
It's a mug's game (especially for a tech journalist) to bet against the forward march of technology, but 3D will need to get cheaper and the components more plentiful before it becomes the next "must-have" camera technology.