The Fuji FinePix REAL 3D W3 is a modern-day digital equivalent of the stereo film cameras that were popular around 1955-1960. For those who love these old cameras, as I do, it is with great joy that they exist once more in a better form - not only for still shots but this time with video capability. However, sadly, there is a lot wrong with this camera that will be listed in the next section.

There is a special skill required to get good results out of a stereo camera. You have got to keep this stereo effect in mind at all times and to choose your shots well and position things in the shot to show up this 3D effect. Having things at mixed distances helps. It is useful to break up the distant scene with nearer objects otherwise the distant scene can appear to be like wallpaper. Getting a perfectly "natural" 3D shot takes a lot of skill and practice.

I like this camera and personally I get very good results out of it but that is because I have used stereo film cameras for many years and know how to get the best out of these cameras.

The problems with this camera

1. The lenses are at the top of the camera. This is the very worst place for lenses on a stereo camera because it is so easy and natural to cover or partially cover the left lens in the top front corner. So no matter how careful you are, the normal comfortable handling of this camera will result in one of your left fingers appearing in most of your shots.


2. The effective resolution is nowhere near the 10 megapixels that is claimed. The claimed 10 megapixels will mean 5 megapixels for the left and right sensor each, but from still shots, each side cannot compete with a good 2 megapixel camera so for resolution purposes it is better to assume this is a two megapixel camera - one megapixel per lens. This will be plenty for good stereo stills but don't ever expect to get a decent 2D print from it.


3. The left lens is set to a longer focal distance than the right lens. This is deliberate but it confuses many people. Using this "trick" gives you a much greater depth of field because the brain picks up whatever image is sharpest. So this is a "good thing" but at the same time it stops you from using software to combine the images to give you a "wiggle" effect for the stereoscopic image. You are forced to view it the one way.


4. You are limited in viewing the images to suitable equipment. Obviously, you can view images taken with this camera on an identical camera. If you don't have a camera to view the images on then the Takee 1 is capable of viewing the images but not using Fuji's MPO file format. You would have to convert the MPO files to jpegs to view them on other devices which is easy to do but not very convenient.

Converting MPO files

You can download Fuji FinePixViewer to manipulate your MPO files but it does not convert them to the common JPS format for viewing stereo pairs. I downloaded CMSoft Stereoscopic Picture Editor and Converter to do this and it works well.

http://www.cmsoft.com.br/downloads/cmsoft-stereoscopic-picture-editor-converter/

When viewing these JPS files, then depending on the viewer, it may appear to be a red/green image file you need to view using red/green stereo glasses. But the full image is there - the red/green image is just a representation of it.