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Panasonic Goes 3D With New Camcorder and G-Series Lens

A detachable dual lens for 3D video capture, and a new lens for Micro Four-Thirds cameras will add 3D-shooting capabilities.

By Tim Moynihan / Thursday, July 29 2010

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Panasonic has announced its first 3D high-definition camcorder for consumers (a pro-level 3D camcorder was showcased earlier this year) and teased a prototype Micro Four-Thirds system lens that will add 3D imaging capabilities to its Lumix G interchangeable-lens cameras.

Panasonic's new offerings also include the company's first pocket camcorder and an ultra-compact HD camcorder, both of which shoot in plain old 2D.

Panasonic HDC-SDT750: A 3D camcorder for consumers

Although the 3-CMOS Panasonic HDC-SDT750 HD camcorder uses a dual-lens setup to capture 3D video footage, you're not locked in to the third dimension. The 3D conversion lens included with the camera is detachable, and the dual-lens 3D attachment mounts onto the HDC-SDT750's F1.5, 12x optical zoom Leica lens.

With the 3D conversion lens attached, the HDC-SDT750 shoots 960 x 1080 video with each of the two lenses, recording separate footage for the left-eye and right-eye channels. Viewed on a compatible 3D HDTV with compatible active shutter 3D glasses, videos and 14-megapixel stills shot with the camcorder will show a three-dimensional effect.

The camcorder uses the "side-by-side 3D" method of composing and playing back 3D video, which ultimately results in the horizontal resolution for each 3D frame being cut in half when viewed on a 1920 x 1080 HDTV: the 960-pixel-wide footage from the left- and right-lens channels are stretched to fill a 1920-pixel horizontal resolution, then sequenced to correspond with shutter activity in the 3D glasses.

According to Panasonic, there are a couple of notable changes to the camera's performance with the 3D lens attached: the camcorder's maximum aperture setting dips to F3.5 with the lens attached, and use of the camcorder's control ring is limited to white-balance adjustments when shooting in 3D.

Without the 3D lens, the camcorder shoots 1920-by-1080 full HD video at 60 progressive frames per second at its highest-quality video setting, which uses the MPEG-4/H.264 AVC codec. The camcorder also records 1920 x 1080 HD video at 60 interlaced fields per second in AVCHD format at a bit rate of 17mbps; all the footage is saved to a user-supplied SDHC or SDXC card.

Other notable features include a revamped Hybrid OIS image-stabilisation system, manual controls, Intelligent Auto mode, motion-tracking autofocus, a 3-inch-diagonal flip-out touchscreen LCD, and 5.1-channel surround sound recording.

Priced at US$1,400, the Panasonic HDC-SDT750 is slated for an October release in the US.