3DVX3 - 6 CCD, 720p 3D camera

by Marc Perton, posted Jan 17th 2006 at 9:54AM

We wish we had one of these when we were a kid -- or even now -- but somehow, we suspect that 21st Century 3D's latest piece of gear, the 3DVX3, is going to be out of our range. The 3D camera uses a Panasonic AG-DVX100A as its base, with Frankenstein-style add-ons that include 6CCDs, binocular LCOS EVF, and a built-in Mac OS X dual-CPU computer (modded from two Mac minis) with two 7200 RPM 100GB hard drives (one for each eye). Oh, and now that this one is out, maybe you can get last year's model, the 3DVX2, on the cheap (with cheap being a very relative term).

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Bill @ Jan 17th 2006 10:15AM

The first thing that shot thru my mind was Max Headroom. This reminded me of the camera Edison Carter used, all sci-fi and stuff.

Neutral

Ronanbear @ Jan 17th 2006 10:29AM

2 mac minis? They might be better off ripping apart and modding a core duo laptop.

Neutral

Sam @ Jan 17th 2006 11:41AM

So .. am I the only one seeing two Panasonic AG-DVX100A cameras (side by side) as the base? One for each eye. Most likely each having 3ccds ... you get the picture.

Neutral

Ben G @ Jan 17th 2006 12:02PM

It strikes me that this sort of camera should not be that tough to make. All you really need are two digicams stuck together feeding DV (or whatever) into a PC, or in this case a couple of Macs, a battery/invertor and a frame to hold it all. I assume they do the transfer to HDD immediately to ensure accurate synchronization of the two feeds. Maybe tape adds randon minute wow and flutter. Then I suspect that there is an optimum distance between the two focal lenses, presumably about the same distance as most people's eyes, (except for you Frankmeyer; you know who you are).

Neutral

Fantaz @ Jan 17th 2006 3:55PM

Is this a gadget or a tool? Although it would be considered a sweet gadget to have for techy film makers.

Neutral

stulong @ Jan 17th 2006 8:05PM

"It strikes me that this sort of camera should not be that tough to make"

Actually this was a pretty difficult accomplishment. If you read the actual docs and have worked with this type of gear (prosumer) you would be impressed. If you haven't then sure it's easy to say they bolted 2 handicams together. The devil is in the details.

Stuart

Add your comments

Your comments:

Remember me

E-Mail me when someone replies to this comment

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.