Sony confirms plans for consumer-friendly 3D cameras

If you had any doubt that Sony was getting all hot and bothered by the prospects of 3D everything in the very near future, a recent interview with Digital Photography Review should settle that. Masashi Imamura, President of Personal Imaging and Sound at Sony, said that the company is focused on tackling the third dimension on every front, and while we already know it is meeting the needs of Hollywood, with cameras like the HFC Comfort-3D and the HDC-F950, now comes the focus on Joe Consumer, specifically referencing Fuji's Real 3D W1. Of course, we're also expecting something a little higher end from the company, with earlier talk of 3D Alphas, but first-things first, and while Mr. Imamura didn't see fit to tell us when to expect a consumer-friendly 3D shooter, we can't imagine it'll be long now.

[216 Posted Feb 22nd 2010 9:59AM]

Do they mean 3D Cameras? Or 3D Video cameras? Probably both I'm guessing

[WebOn Posted Feb 22nd 2010 10:03AM]

Mr. Blurrycam is gonna get blurrier?

[MarkB Posted Feb 22nd 2010 10:21AM]

Being able to take 3D pictures is cool and all, but aren't the pics useless without a set of 3D specs? (unless they plan to release 3D paper with the camera that is)

[j2 Posted Feb 22nd 2010 10:48AM]

@MarkB Sounds pretty ridiculous to me. I honestly don't understand how this will work. I think people are willing to don the silly glasses for the occasional movie, but for regularly looking at a photo/album, that just isn't going to happen.

[shroop Posted Feb 22nd 2010 11:20AM]

@MarkB one word: Viewmaster!

[iroq d mullet Posted Feb 22nd 2010 10:27AM]

@Indefinite Implosion
great, now you've pissed off 48fps...

[Tes Posted Feb 22nd 2010 10:36AM]

There is one reason and one reason only for this. We see it with Sony's PS3. They will make relatively expensive technology cheap and take a loss to drive the sales of other items.

What are you going to do with all those 3D photos and videos you shoot? Just upload them to your normal TV that you can't view it on? Oh, back off to the shops to buy yourself a new 3D TV...and Blu-Ray player. Oh, but now you need a Blu-Ray DVD burner...etc.

This is to drive adoption of tech most of us wouldn't bother with otherwise.

[shroop Posted Feb 22nd 2010 11:19AM]

The great thing about a 3D camera is that we already have a standard for how to print and view the images -- the classic Viewmaster! I know, you think it's just a little kid toy... but I have in my possession a 1950's or so Viewmaster my great-uncle owned, AND his box of reels, including a handful of non-commercial reels from back in the day when a consumer could reasonably own a stereoscopic camera and get Viewmaster reels made of the shots. Alas, it seems his were made from a borrowed camera, so I have the Viewmaster, but not the original camera.

[BdgBill1 Posted Feb 22nd 2010 12:03PM]

What's with all this 3D madness from manufacturers? Are they getting truckloads of mail from their customers begging for 3D TV's, Cameras and Toasters? I have yet to meet anyone who is in the least bit interested in any of this stuff.

[twellzer Posted Feb 22nd 2010 12:24PM]

@BdgBill1

Considering most everyone with two eyes sees in 3D... everyone should be interested. I am.

[Johnny Tremaine Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:05PM]

So will these photos print on 3D paper or something? What do you do went you want to get 3D prints of your 3D photos from, say, Walgreens?

I foresee much consumer confusion.

[opiapr Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:20PM]

I got a magazine in 3d it came with a pair of hp 3d glases. looking at the mag on 3d is amazing but the headache that the glases left is enought to skip the concept.

I will be sold when no glases are needed.

[HikaKao Posted Feb 22nd 2010 4:09PM]

If they're going to do this, methinks that Sony should make it easy to change between 3D and 2D, like, when you take a pic, it's both 2D and 3D, but when you watch it, you can change between 2D and 3D in the image viewer. Would be nice and easy.

[mb821 Posted Feb 22nd 2010 4:23PM]

ouch!

that image hurts my eyes even when I'm not looking directly at it!

[whormongr Posted Feb 22nd 2010 5:42PM]

will the camera be in 3d or will it shoot in 3d? I have a few camera's that are 3d at home, a 2d one would be difficult to find memory cards for....