3D

A second Fujifilm 3D camera has made its way onto the International Space Station (ISS), joining the FinePix Real 3D W1 that was sent up there in 2010. On December 21, 2011, the Soyuz 29S launched to the ISS, and brought on board a newer model — a FinePix Real 3D W3.

A patent recently filed by Olympus presents an interesting way of bringing 3D photography to their ILC cameras — by adding a second lens to the hotshoe. As you can see from the patent illustrations above, it would sit in the camera's hotshoe mount, and provide a second lens for stereoscopic shooting. Sounds intriguing, but doesn't take much to envision some of the problems it might have.

It's pretty safe to say that 3D imaging isn't moving quite as fast as some people and companies once thought it would. But, Fujifilm is still clearly committed to the game, updating their glasses-free 7.2-inch 3D image viewer with a brighter screen and the addition of an HDMI port.Brightness is a common problem for glasses-free 3D displays, since the lenticular nature of it tends to reduce the amount of backlight that makes it all the way through to your eyes. But, the LED source is now more powerful to help make things easier to see, especially in bright environments.

At the 2011 IFA Berline (Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin), Panasonic went all out with 3D, not only a new 3D pro-am camcorder, but also showing off the prototype for an upcoming 3D compact camera. PopSci's Corinne Iozzio was at the show, which ran September 2-7, and snagged us a couple of shots of the prototype.