Fujifilm Finepix REAL 3D W1 now shipping to soon to be disappointed consumers
By Tim Stevens 
posted Oct 1st 2009 8:04AM
posted Oct 1st 2009 8:04AM
Update: SeeHere.com is indeed live as we speak.
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Anybody who took the 'review' by Akihabaranews seriously should be shot. I would not want to trust any reviewers whose sole focus on the camera was its ISO performance. They do not even know how to focus. Truly an incompetent review.
Agreed, by far the most pathetic review I have ever read.
I was thinking exactly the same thing and was about to post it. I'm a professional photographer and I thought the review just sounded like a jerk complaining about things he didn't understand. If Engadget is basing their very negative post on this one review they need to do a bit more research. I was looking but didn't see any other links to other negative reviews. The ISO shots didn't even look bad to me for a point and shoot. Anyway, I don't think anyone will be buying this camera because it takes great 2D images. The more I read the negative reviews about the 3D prints and everything the more excited I got for the camera.
I love how Engadget decides that consumers will be "disappointed" without ever touching the device and relying on a single flawed review.
That review strikes me as something writing by a 10 year old.
"writing" should have been "written" (Now I sound like a 10 year old!)
After reading a few reviews, I'm no longer as excited as I once was. And as I mentioned before, you can buy "3D Camera" for a buck on your iPhone and have much more fun. Lame.
Is there a 3d Video mode on this thing ?
yes, i believe the video mode is standard vga resolution, but it is in 3D.
I'm very excited for this camera, anyone know which retail outlets will be carrying it? Seeing the 3D effect in person is probably going to convince more people to buy it than anything online will.
It was not able to impress that critic you linked to, but that critic also failed to impress his readers..
I'm really interested in having a go with one before I would think about buying it, unfortunately I don't think that's possible in the UK?
I don't care for that Akihabaranews review either and am still very much intrigued by this camera, despite it's bulkiness!
The concept is pretty neat, but that thing is UGLY.
And if we all judged technology by the way it looks the world would be a better place.
And that's why Apple removes features that have been in devices for years just so they can make it pretty for people like you.
I saw the camera and companion digital photo frame in a BIC camera in Japan last month. The 3D effect was absolutely terrible and hurt my eyes. For a while I thought this was due to the screen being too reflective, but the photo frame slideshow first put up a 2D version on the image that looked fine. Once this was rendered in 3D it just hurt to look at it!
The prints may well be fine, but forget looking at the images on the camera screen or the digital photo frame.
I cant be bothered to read such terrible reviews as well.
I have read the "review" and agree the guy is not up to the job of doing such a review. The responses to this and the review add weight to this. I don't think Engadget should be lending weight to this fools opinion.
My mother used to sell, in the late 80's early 90's 3D camera. pretty much the same concept, and the films also needed to be sent elsewhere to be developped and the result were ok at best. Mostly a 3D picture that looked like those cheap 3D holograms.
This will probably fail. Who needs to pay 1000$ to take and view 3D picture when for less then that you can have a DSLR that take stunning pictures?
3D pictures is not meant to be. Please simply develop a 3D hologram system and be done with the whole 3D thing.
I remember playing with a 3d viewer as a child. It was made by Fisher-Price and it was called a View-Master. The images came on a small paper disk and was quite a favorite toy for many years. Making your own 3-D images is a niche hobby that Fuji is probably looking to exploit into a larger audience. 3-D will be expensive at first, just like Digital Cameras were expensive 10 years ago. In time, both the price and quality will "improve". But, Trickster_qc, you are right!. Ultimately, hologram imaging will be the standard of photography and all other forms of visual entertainment. But that's about 20-30 years away. For now, we have to develop 3-D technologies to lead the masses and that means working with early technology like the Fuji W1.
Personally, I'm very interested in the printed aspects of the technology. A 16x20 3-D picture on the wall of an F-22 Raptor in flight is really appealing. But, can the tech be developed to be cost effective for the masses? My next stop is to find one of the new 3-D posters for the movie, "Final Destination 4." It's a custom creation for WB, but it uses the same printing technology that Fuji is looking to deploy.
here's a link to the movie poster news article: http://www.graphicartsonline.com/article/355594-Boost_for_3D_Printing.php
Aye carumba. Where to start?
Please simply develop a 3D hologram system?
Please... simply... develop... 3D... HOLOGRAM... You're absolutely killing me here, you know that, right? While we're at it, where's my flying car and robot maid? By Darwin's freaking BEARD!
The comparison to a DSLR is spurious - these are two very different beasts. I carry a pocket point and shoot (a Fuji, incidentally, the 200EXR) with my DSLRs (one Canon, one Sony) when I'm heading out on a photowalk; sometimes you need the portability of a smaller camera. This would totally fit the bill.
Also: it's 3D. You may not be interested, but the rest of the CE world is finally getting on board. In this past year we've seen the popularization of 3D at the movie theatre, on the desktop (Nvidia VIsion 3D), and a commitment to 3D in the home. You may not be happy that it's happening, but it is. Get used to it.
That reviewer sounds like an ill-tempered teenager, and nothing more!
I hope to see a proper review at a site like dpreview.com (they already have the announcement of availability, hopefully they'll post a review, too).
I got one from Japan and I like it a lot. Granted, it's not your typical point-and-shoot. The interface is rather clunky and the 3D screen can be very hit-and-miss, sometimes conveying glorious depth, sometimes melting your brain with a ghosting mess. Even then, no one forces you to keep your photo 3D. You can still keep/view your photo in 2D if the 3D effect doesn't pan out - it's never 'ruined'.
It's a different way of doing photography. Not all scenery is suitable for, or enhanced by 3D. It takes a different way of looking at scenes and composition. But when you strike gold the effect and added value can be truly amazing.
You're not just stuck with viewing your material on the unit itself either. There's some excellent (free as in beer) software out there at http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/index.html to let you further process and view your images and videos.
Aside from the 3D stuff, as a 2D 10MP camera, it's pretty standard fare. Not perfect but certainly not bad either.
I'm a little shocked to see Engadget so negative on a first-of-breed, almost proof of concept product. For folks like us who live on the bleeding edge it's disappointing to see a reaction like this. The headline is over the top - especially since you haven't done your own review. For shame.
I concur with others that Engadget was overly harsh on the camera in highlighting a (poorly written) review of the camera that calls it the "worst ever". Most of the other reviews I read of the unit online have been somewhat positive.
It's pretty pricey. For me, if it was ~$200, then it would be a no-braining buy, but at that price I'm more inclined to hack something together using two separate point and shoot cameras with a USB trigger as that would be a lot cheaper to do.
http://www.pokescope.com/cameras/index.html
I saw this in Japan. It was pretty impressive. I agree with the earlier comment that it either looks amazing or like weird ghosty crap but that's because of the screen, not a flaw with how the pictures are taken--hopefully at some point in the future we will have better ways to view 3D pictures.
Personally I have been frustrated many times by flat pictures, e.g., "here I'm standing on a cliff... you can't tell from the picture but those trees are really far away."
I hope this camera succeeds. I would buy it if it cost a bit less and was a bit less bulky.
Also, +1 to all the comments about how engadget sucks for blowing one single crappy review completely out of proportion.
When people start buying 3-D televisions they might be interested in creating their own 3-D content.
I think this is what Fuji is going for here and their 3-D viewer is just a stop-gap measure.
Kind of like Canon or Nikon RAW processing software.
You'd never actually use it, but some people would complain if they couldn't open the box and see their RAW images.
So Canon and Nikon have to continue to waste their time developing it.
I imported the Fuji W1 from Japan last week and totally LOVE it!
I am a stereo 3d nerd. I have been taking stereo photos for 25+ years and the W1 is a dream come true. Less than $1000, digital and compact.
The stereo rig I used for the last year or so is a twin canon SD870, z-bar and usb trigger setup that cost me about $600. The Fuji's image quality is not as good but close enough considering that the Fuji W1 is a LOT easier to use and carry around.
With the twin camera rig you have to constantly make sure the cameras are aligned (and they are never totally aligned) and in sync and setup exactly the same. Then when get the pictures off the camera you have to use software to aligning them if you want the images to really work well and not hurt your brain. With the W1 this is mostly a thing of the past (there are still a few reasons/times to do some post work on the images). The only down side is the W1 uses a format that most common software like photo shop doesn't support yet. On the up side like Ivo says go to http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/index.html and get stereophotomaker for free and you can do what ever you want and probably more.
The 3d screen is totally usable and much better than I though it would be. At the end of the day I much prefer a stereo monitor or viewing in red/blue anaglyph. But when walking around shooting and showing 3d photos and video it works pretty darn good. Totally beats not being able to see the stereo images during and right after shooting them.
For sharing images again the free program stereophotomaker will convert to any stereo format you want but probably the classic red/blue anaglyph is your best bet for sharing with most people right now. And red/blue does work well when you have a good stereo image and use software like stereophotomaker to convert it to red/blue. Then you can save it out as a jpeg and tell everyone to pull out their red/blue glasses.
Oh, and the stereo video it shoots is pretty good too though it's not really a video camera so I have lower expectations but the video I have shot is totally passable if not really good. Mostly it's in sync and aligned which is a huge help with stereo video.
Yes the interface is a little clunky but again totally usable and considering all the extra stuff needed to add for stereo I think they did a great job for a first try.
Any way as some one who has made many 3d rigs and not been able to afford the expensive custom 3d rigs this camera is a dream come true. Could it be better? Sure. Is it a good 3d camera? It is a great 3d camera!
Of course if you're not into stereo 3d this camera probably isn't going to change your mind.
I am interested to find out if the sync zoom works during video record.
I am currently using A590s USB triggers with SDM and have made extensive SPM and SMM
I also used TX1s the same way
both rigs have good frame sync but no zoom sync
I have used the Lanc connection on Sony SR7 HD Camcorders this gives OK zoom
but are hard to frame sync.
I am hoping to resolve these problems with the FujiFilm W1
I am interested in your technical opinion.