Pictures in stereoscopic 3D have a very long history in photography: the first systems were produced in the middle of the 19th century and were widely popular in the 1900s.  However, it's taken nearly a century since then for 3D photography to enter the digital age, with the first example being this Fujifilm FinePix 3D W1.

Handling

With two lenses, and two sensors, the FinePix 3D W1 is inevitably bigger than other compact digital cameras.  The first 3D camera is a solid block with a glossy black finish that looks attractive but quickly picks up greasy fingerprints.  You switch it on by sliding down the lens cap: it's a simple solution and very practical.  At the back, a 2.8'' screen has a rather stingy resolution of 230 000 pixels.  This is more than compensated for by the Parallax Barrier System, a special optical coating which allows you to see your photos in 3D without any extra equipment.  That's vital because, as we explain in the inset, one of the main things holding 3D photos back is being able to look at them.  On the other hand, the screen isn't that great: the viewing angles are very narrow, and it becomes less fluid when light levels fall.


At first sight, the interface is a little off-putting.  The controls are laid out on either side of the screen, and each control two different things; Fujifilm is clearly determined to ram the point home: two sets of buttons, two lenses, two sensors and so on …  Setting the W1 up isn't really very simple and the system takes a lot of getting used to.  Not only do you need to adjust the settings you would on a normal '2D' camera (ISO sensitivity, aperture and shutter speed for instance), you also need to keep an eye on how you've set up the 3D photography mode.  As well as the standard double-photo option (two shots taken at the same time), you can also choose to leave a gap in between.  Because you really do have two separate cameras, you can go crazy and take two photos at once with one a wide-angle shot and the other in telephoto, or use different sensitivities or colour settings on each shot.  The 3D mode is also available for video, of course, but only in the 'classic' mode: you can't shoot photos and videos at once, which is a shame.

Responsiveness

The three seconds it takes to switch it on are rather slow, but the W1 makes up for this with a good fast autofocus with face-recognition.  It reaches a reasonable speed of 2.3 fps for a burst of at least ten photos.

Image Quality

To compare the quality of the photos on offer, we'll stick to the traditional 2D mode (the camera saves both a JPEG file and a 3D MPO file at the same time), and it must be said that the FinePix W1 is all too traditional.  The 10 Megapixel sensor can produce a decent photo at 100 ISO, but even at the lowest sensitivity, grain is still visible.  Of course, even for an A4 print, ten million pixels are enough to guarantee a decent result, but you won't be able to crop it to pick out a detail.  The dynamic range is good at 100 ISO, and the overall quality is good, despite a marked under-exposure.  We would also draw your attention to purple fringing in contrasted areas, and very obvious barrel distortion at 35 mm.  The lens performs evenly across the whole of the frame.  Up to 400 ISO, photos still have plenty of detail, with fine grain which isn't too coloured.  As we'd expected, details are washed out at 800 and 1600 ISO with blurriness much worse.  Still, the grain is still very sharp and A4 prints are attractive enough.


We were quite disappointed by the macro mode (only available in 2D) and the lack of mechanical stabilisation.  Our portrait shot is going to have to stay blurry …

Video

The W1 has a video mode, too, but you can forget about HDTV for 3D videos.  Instead, you'll have to make to with VGA, but it doesn't gain much from being shot with two lenses.  The performance in 2D was also pretty standard: no optical zoom while recording, but decent quality video all the same.

Who's it for?

In some ways, this new FinePix represents an extraordinary technical leap forward--but in others, it's all too normal.  Normal because in the ordinary run of things, its 2D photos are acceptable but nothing more, but extraordinary because the 3D mode really is a new feature in the world of digital cameras.  If you have the right equipment, photos with added depth can be impressive.  But until there's more equipment that supports viewing them and prices fall, the 3D mode on the W1 will remain a little extra.  Professional photographers are still likely to follow this development closely, as it offers real new value to their work.