Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W3

Just over a year after releasing the first genuinely stereoscopic 3D compact camera, Fujifilm is back with an updated and visibly more mature version of its concept camera. Say '3D cheese' for the Fuji FinePix Real 3D W3.

Handling

After the rather bulky and unusually designed W1, Fujifilm has trimmed down its latest stereoscopic camera and improved the design and handling with a more conventional overall look. The W3 has a mode selection dial (PAM, scene modes etc.) plus a four-way controller with shortcuts to the autofocus, self-timer, flash and, somewhat surprisingly, the image brightness. There are also direct-access buttons for recording videos or switching between the 2D and 3D modes. The graphic user interface isn't the simplest we've ever seen and it seems to require a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, which isn't particularly practical. It's actually even more frustrating since a great deal of settings are only accessible via the internal menu, including ISO settings, exposure correction, white balance and aperture (in A mode). Changing any of these settings requires rather a lot of fiddling around, not to mention a fair bit of patience.

The W3 is effectively two digital cameras built into one camera body. As well as taking 3D photos and filming 3D videos, this also shakes up traditional 2D photography. You can, for example, use the lenses separately to take the same shot in wide angle and telephoto at the same time, or to add a colour effect to one of the shots, or to take two shots with different settings (e.g. ISO).


The pièce de résistance of Fujifilm's 3D strategy has got to be the parallax barrier LCD, and this has noticeably improved in the updated version of Fuji's stereoscopic camera. The display now measures 3.5 inches diagonally and displays around 1,150,000 dots. It's covered by a vertical lenticular layer which allows it to send information to the left and right eye separately but simultaneously to create an instantly visible three-dimensional effect. The main advantage of this approach is that you don't need to wear special glasses to view pictures and videos in 3D. This technique does, however, have several major drawbacks. First of all, it only works well if you're positioned directly in front of the screen, second, it's impossible to view portrait images, and finally, viewing 3D photos on the screen can be quite tiring on the eyes. In fact, even in 2D the screen isn't particularly pleasant and is prone to a kind of unpleasant blinking effect.


Still in 2D mode, the LCD is prone to ghosting and the images look to 'spill over' when you move the camera. Our sensor showed that the screen has decent contrast but that colour reproduction is a little haywire, in spite of a stable colour temperature of 6400 K.
The optical zoom(s) lack(s) precision (lots of glitches in videos) and lose(s) focus when you move the camera. It can therefore be hard to keep up with moving subjects.

It's nice to see that the W3 has an HDMI (type C) socket but unfortunately the USB connection is a proprietary port. The battery and memory card compartment is located on the underside of the camera. 

Responsiveness

The autofocus system works well enough and has an effective face-detection function. The W3 is quite slow to start up, taking just over three seconds to get ready for action.

Picture Quality

This section is based only on 2D picture quality, even if the stereoscopic 3D pictures do look quite remarkable when viewed back on a compatible TV. The Real 3D W3 has two 10-Megapixel CCD sensors and two 35-105 mm lenses (no real wide angle, then), and in 2D mode it takes pictures that are nothing more than bog standard. The lenses are only just acceptable and electronic noise is handled in the most typical of ways. At 100 ISO our test shot is clearly over-exposed and granularity appears 400 ISO. Smoothing is fairly pronounced with finer details being wiped out at 400 ISO. Above that, well, don't expect miracles!

Video

The W3 finally sees the addition of a 720 HD video mode to Fuji's stereoscopic camera ... and it even films in 3D! Videos are recorded in the Motion-JPeg format and with stereo sound, but the optical zoom can't be used in 3D mode and it's not possible to take a photo while filming. Quality is acceptable but nothing more. In fact, 3D is the only feature of any interest in this mode.