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Experiences with the FinePix REAL 3D W3

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:
    1. 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).
    2. 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).
    3. 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:
    1. 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.
    2. 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).
      Build-in cropping of
                      W3
  • Comparable behavior with Fuji W1:
    1. Barrel/pincushion distortion
      These distortions have not changed much from the Fuji W1, so one can use that graph.
    2. 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):
    1. 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.

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Major content related changes: Aug. 17, 2010