From the
manual
and test pictures made by Bob Aldridge and myself, I see a
few things changed for the good with the Fuji W3 (compared
to the experiences seen with the
Fuji W1):
- Significant improvements compared with Fuji W1:
- Glossy sides around the lens
are less
influential and the plastic
lens covers are removed
The glare
that was caused by these glossy sides is significantly
reduced in the Fuji W3. Due to the removal of the
glossy sides and the plastic lens covers a lot better
contrast is also there (due to glare reduction).
- Physical convergence angle
From the EXIF
data, the absence of the concept point of convergence
in the manual and no experienced horizontal
perspective distortion; the Fuji W3 does not have a physical
convergence angle.
Now the stereo window is placed only by means of
shifting (so the build-in
shifting in the Fuji W3 would have slightly
changed from the Fuji W1's one, I suspect).
- Video improvements: full side by
side 720p24 (which is just within HD
specs, it seems 720p25 was not do-able) and HDMI
connector.
The 720p24 (both full and economy) works well
with the following cards:
SDHC card
Brand
|
Type
|
Size [GByte]
|
Class [MByte/sec]
|
Read/Write
[MByte/sec]
using
HStestw
v1.4
|
Transcend
|
micro
|
4
|
10
|
9.59/14.1
|
Kingston
|
standard
|
8
|
4
|
5.79/15.2
|
SanDisk
|
micro
|
8
|
2
|
9.00/14.4
|
Verbatim
|
standard
|
1
|
?
|
4.75/10.6
|
Elite pro
|
standard
|
8
|
?
|
5.37/13.9
|
SanDisk Extreme*
|
standard
|
8
|
6
|
?/?
|
SanDisk Extreme* |
standard |
8
|
10
|
?/?
|
FujiFilm* |
standard |
16
|
10
|
?/?
|
* SDHC card file provided by Linda
Nygren
Using 640*480 also frameloss video happens in any of
the above SDHC cards.
- Slight improvements compared with Fuji W1:
- Image Quality
From a few pictures it looks that the image quality of
Bob's Fuji W3 is slightly better
than of the Fuji W1, this though could also be
the result of the reduced glare. More investigation is
needed.
- Build-in digital zoom
The build-in digital zoom is still the same for Fc=6.3
mm (~88%), but it has been reduced somewhat for
Fc=18.9 mm (77% with Fuji W3, instead of 70% with the Fuji
W1).
- Comparable behavior with Fuji W1:
- Barrel/pincushion distortion
These distortions have not
changed much from the Fuji W1, so one can use that
graph.
- Vertical alignment (this is
depending on fabrication variations)
In the pictures make by Bob's test Fuji W3 I saw a
vertical misalignment between -6 and 19 pixels
(depending on the focal length). My own Fuji W3
has a vertical misalignment between -8 and -21 pixels
(depending on focal length). This can be further
compensated by the Optical axis shift
using setting +2 (strange this was not done with both
Fuji W3 in the factory)..
- Slight reduction in behavior compared with my Fuji W1
(remember these seem to be quite varible depending on
one's Fuji REAL 3D camera: fabrication variation):
- My Fuji W1 had no rotational error. My Fuji W3 needs
a slight rotation of the left half-picture of around
0.35 degrees (independent of the optical focal
length).
A PSP script is avaibale to compensate for the in-build
shifting (horizontal/vertical), cropping, rotation
and barrel/pincushion
distortion (all under your own risk). Please
ask me.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following people for their
help and constructive feedback: Bob
Aldridge, Linda Nygren, FujiFilm UK (for replacing my Fuji
W1 into a Fuji W3) and all other unmentioned people.
Any remaining errors in methodology or results are my
responsibility of course!!! If you want to provide
constructive feedback, let me
know.