HDC-SDT750K 3D camcorder

[naimis]

I ordered the camera and it showed up yesterday. My intent is to construct an underwater housing for it (unless ikelite or such beat me to it - see DIY camcorder housing).

The 3D effect works okay, but the quality of the image in the little amount of experimenting I've been able to do so far is not that impressive. I'm really unsure what the cause of the fuzzy image is, however. It could be the lens attachment that splits the view for 3D, it could be that things were moving too rapidly, it could be that there just wasn't enough light (the lack of light is almost certainly true).

I'll keep playing with it and sharing my impressions as I learn more. The housing details will stay in the other thread . At some point today I'll probably take the camera outside and try filming myself shooting a nerf gun at the camera, and to satisfy my own concerns I'll take the camera to a pet store with fish so I can be sure that having the camera in a housing won't adversely affect the lens calibration. (To clarify, there is a set of 3 dials in the 3D lens attachment to adjust and align the lenses so that the image is in the right place on the sensor).

The good news is that white balance can be adjusted in 3D mode using only the remote control (no touch screen required), so I shouldn't need to build any interface in the housing to the touch screen.

 

[naimis]

Not sure if anyone else cares, but....

The test shots went pretty well. I actually found myself startling each time the nerf darts hit the camera lens (it actually has a window in front of the 3D lens adapter), though whether that was just from the impact or the effect, I'm not sure.

There were no obvious issues filming 3D through water. I suspected there wouldn't be, but I wanted to be certain. That said, filming in 3D underwater will take a bit more "finesse", it seems, than more traditional photo/video. At least, it seemed to me, filming fish in a tank, that it was easy to get too close. This goes back to my earlier observations that objects in the near foreground can easily get out of focus, which is particularly distracting, if not annoying, when watching in 3D.

As such, it seems like doing 3D video underwater is going to be a balancing act between white balance and focus and depth. I *suspect* that it'll take some getting used to recognizing the "sweet spot" where the footage will be ideal, especially given that in 3D, it can be quite some time between filming and processing.