Panasonic 3D - Editing specs

[mhopkins]

Hello

Very interested in the release of the new Panasonic 3D prosumer camera. What I am really looking to find out is what kind of editing set up you will need for this? Will I have to buy special screens for the computer or can I edit wearing 3D glasses?:grin:

Any help would be great - Thanks!

 

[nosys70]

this camera just give you standard left and right view, as would other devices.
And due to its price ans specs, i doubt it has any futur. You can do better than this $20.000 camera for probably less than $5000.
(the pana is not even HD !!!, i use 2 Sanyo FH1 for my tests and i got 3D 1080p60 for 800$ , so between 800 and 20000 there must be something to be done)
You can use any setup valid for sterescopic editing.
There is no real need to edit in 3d, the story board stay the same in 2 or 3d.
If your cameras are properly aligned while shooting, there is absolutely no work needed to correct the picture before or while editing.
The most difficult thing while shooting is to keep convergence of camera ok.
This was easily done with device like the NuView (you can hardly find it today) but it can still be done for cheap with a small lcd monitor and a video mixer (you just superpose the two signal, and see what is ghosted or not). You can find cheap 2 non synchronised composite input mixer for about $700, that can fit any camera with analog composite output. That will drive you about $1000 just for monitoring but it will make your life WAY EASY while shooting.
http://www.colorado-video.com/mixer.html
just add 2 mid-range cameras like a canon XH-A1 + XH-G1 (one is genlockable on the other one) and you are still way under 20.000 and you got HD.

you just need to edit you movie for one eye, the replicate the work for the other eye.
Some application like Adobe Premiere allow to close the project, replace the shots from the left eye with the one from the right eye (with same file names) and recompile everything (just delete all the tempoary files first) , so no additional work is required except moving some files over the disk.
some other application like Avid are more finnicky about source files, so you cannot play this trick so easily.


usually glasses and screens come together and you need to make sure you can use in your editing apps. currently there is only 2 technologies, frame switching with shutter glasses, or polarized screen (like the zalman) +polarized glasses (like the realD).
since you cannot anticipate what technology will be used to display the movie in theater (except if you plan to make private projection with your own equipment), it is not really important which one you choose.
for example the Zalman screen+reald polarized glasses works very well with youtube 3d and stereoscopic player.
(i made a test to see how it goes on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFS44jbU2AA)
but this one is amazing too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GcLW0g_c1s
It is not yet supported in premiere (unless you cheat, so it is possible, while tricky).
there is a codec called Cineform that can do 3D, but the price is VERY expensive ($3000) while the same 2D codec is less than $1000.

there are other solution (like autostereoscopic screen) that require no glass but quality of display is poor and price way too high.
The only cheap one i know is the small 7" screen that comes with the 3D camera from samsung, and cost around $400.
You can use regular screens with shutter glasses but you will need a special display card (like a nvidia Quadro serie for frame flipping) + shutter glasses.
And again make sure you editing apps would support this feature.
Personally i go with zalman 22" screen+ reald glasses because there is more room for
fiddling with the applications , glasses are cheap and light, result is excellent, and total price is really low (the screen is as low as $300 and can be used as regular monitor), and if you go for polarized glasses, this is the same setup that can be used for large audience display, keeping the cost reasonably low. (about $3 a pair of glass, $100 a pair of filter for 2 DLP projector, $400 for a silver screen).
So with less that $1000 you can build a 3d theater.
If you just want to go with big plasma or lcd screen and DVD player, page flipping would be a nice solution, so you would need a device that
is able to send the infrared pulses to the glasses. These kind of devices usually simply extract the sync signal from the video to drive the IR transceiver. Unfortunately , going digital (HDMI) makes thing a bit more complicated, while you can still extract the signal from an analog outupt while feeding the screen with the digital connection.
Page flipping is pretty universal since it can works on most regular screen. But with a total of 30 fps (15left+15right) it has always be considered painful to watch for long period. So if you can get 60 fps ( 30 left +30 right) it is a lot better.
It is not possible on DVD , but it is on bluray or harddisk based players. You just need to make sur the screen is able to display this rate.
Today screen release for 3d go as high as 120 fps.


Another nice coming solution is DLP controlling the glasses, so no need for silver screen or infrared controlled glasses.
The glasses are controlled by a pulse of light sent by the projector (only one needed) , the image displayed over any surfaces.
The drawback is you still need special expensive glasses, special DLP projector and there is few feedback about the performance of this new technolgy, but if you can wait , this looks like THE solution.
The problem being the 3d is hot this year and you will find many company ready to milk the cow, claiming for novelty on an already 150 year old technique.

 

[Barry_Green]

I don't know, but I do know that Panasonic's pre-NAB press releases included a new 3-D monitor that does, indeed, include glasses.