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Official Fujifilm 3D W3 Photo/Video Camera - Page 11

post #301 of 377
1/8/12 at 11:15am
Did anyone else notice that this Xmas season I never saw an ad or sale for the Fuji W3. I wonder if Fuji has given up on it or looking to some alternative. I still enjoy mine once my newer 3D TV's started recognizing mpo files and I did not need to hook the Camera up to the TV.
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post #302 of 377
1/10/12 at 4:34pm
I've had this camera for the past 5 months, my first 3D camera. I spent the holidays with my family and friends in the US and took all my pictures with it. Unfortunately my wife couldn't join us this year, but I got back yesterday and showed her the pictures last night. We viewed them with my 720p 3D DLP projector on a 90" screen.

Wow, what a great way to share your memories and experiences! These 3D pictures are so immersive, it takes us right back to Christmas morning opening presents in the living room. I just don't get the same feeling with 2D. My goal when taking pictures is to capture what I'm seeing as accurately as possible, and I think 3D is a big step forward in that regard. Luckily my wife has slowly transitioned from wanting nothing to do with 3D and hating the glasses when I first bought my 3D display, to now enjoying it and having no problem with the glasses. I think quality 3D justifies itself once you see it.

While overall I think this camera is great, I would still complain about the raw image quality. There needs to be plenty of light and I expect not to be able to zoom in very much when viewing the pictures. I'm not too surprised, as I paid 24,000 yen (about $200) for what is basically two cameras with a large autostereoscopic screen. The individual cameras must be cheap, and I get what I paid for. I could definitely see upgrading to a more expensive camera with better image quality if one were to become available.
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post #303 of 377
1/11/12 at 12:53pm
I will go to Africa on safari with my Fuji w3 camera. I am really looking forward to it.
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post #304 of 377
2/8/12 at 3:41am
HI
just buyed the W3, after using 2 Canon A460 with SDM.
Love the W3's display, and picture quality up to 4x6" printing.
Don't like the battery life. Is there a battery with more than
1000mAh that i can place in it?

On page #9 somebody wrote he use this cam for aerial photography.
I also have a quadrocopter and want to use for making 3D photos from the sky, but without some timelapse feature i don't know how to fire the cam.
Any tips?
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post #305 of 377
2/8/12 at 11:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by relaxman View Post

HI
just buyed the W3, after using 2 Canon A460 with SDM.
Love the W3's display, and picture quality up to 4x6" printing.
Don't like the battery life. Is there a battery with more than
1000mAh that i can place in it?

On page #9 somebody wrote he use this cam for aerial photography.
I also have a quadrocopter and want to use for making 3D photos from the sky, but without some timelapse feature i don't know how to fire the cam.
Any tips?


I bought a spare battery. They are available on Amazon and many other places. I bought one for about $20 at Best Buy last year with free shipping.
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post #306 of 377
2/8/12 at 12:44pm
Yes, the price is not a problem, i can buy new 850mAh for $6!!
But i don't want to switch batteries so quickly.
I rather would pay $20 for an 1500mAh one.

I tested today the picture quality, and around every 5th picture the right
view is not sharp. The others ok. Maybe not in foucus
Anybody has this issue?
Light was enough (outdoor), lens is clear, and i don't hold my finger in front of it

thanks
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post #307 of 377
2/10/12 at 8:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by FBlack View Post

I had some success converting a W3 3D movie but I am not sure if I successfully converted the actual W3 video, or somehow used the software to artificially convert the video to 3D. Maybe someone can try this too and give me some input. Here's what I did.

1. Open the program "StereoMovie Maker". It's free on the Internet. I used version 1.20
2. Click "File" and "Open Stereo Movie"; then open a W3 video you recorded
3.It should open in a window with a Left image, Right Image and a Composition Image
4. Click "File" and "Save Stereo Movie"; then choose a name and location to save it.
5. Under "Stereo Format" check side-by-side.
6. Click "Resize" and make "X" 720 and make "Y" 480. Or change the resize to what ever works in your TV.
7. Click "Save" and change "Compressor" to "FFShow Video Codec".
8. Click OK and let it run. Once it is done, transfer it to a USB drive and test as a side by side on a 3D TV.

This seems to work for me.

Well, I tried that method. Stereo Movie Maker turned a 761MB 3D-AVI file into eight 2GB and one 84MB AVI side-by-side files. The TV reports files output from SMM, like the 3D-AVI files from the W3 are "Invalid files". When I try to play one it makes the TV reboot. (I get the same response when I try to play AVI files from other sources.) I just don't think that approach is going to work for me.

If I connect my W3 to my LG 47LW5300 TV with an HDMI cable it plays back 3D videos easily. The videos are a little soft compared to still pictures, but they are acceptable--the image quality is better that I get from my MiniDV camcorder. While I'd like to get the same quality as a Blu-ray 3D, I'm not going to complain about a $300 camera.

But I am looking for a way to show my 3D videos without using the camera. A format that works from a USB device is marginally acceptable (I can watch downloaded MP4s from YouTube that way). I would like to find a way to show my 3D videos from a DVD. I have a Blu-ray player but not a Blu-ray burner, so I don't mind having to play the DVDs on the Blu-ray player.

Has anyone figured out how to do that? Can you point me toward software that will do what I need? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Fabbian
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post #308 of 377
2/10/12 at 10:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fgd3 View Post

Well, I tried that method. Stereo Movie Maker turned a 761MB 3D-AVI file into eight 2GB and one 84MB AVI side-by-side files. The TV reports files output from SMM, like the 3D-AVI files from the W3 are "Invalid files". When I try to play one it makes the TV reboot. (I get the same response when I try to play AVI files from other sources.) I just don't think that approach is going to work for me.

If I connect my W3 to my LG 47LW5300 TV with an HDMI cable it plays back 3D videos easily. The videos are a little soft compared to still pictures, but they are acceptable--the image quality is better that I get from my MiniDV camcorder. While I'd like to get the same quality as a Blu-ray 3D, I'm not going to complain about a $300 camera.

But I am looking for a way to show my 3D videos without using the camera. A format that works from a USB device is marginally acceptable (I can watch downloaded MP4s from YouTube that way). I would like to find a way to show my 3D videos from a DVD. I have a Blu-ray player but not a Blu-ray burner, so I don't mind having to play the DVDs on the Blu-ray player.

Has anyone figured out how to do that? Can you point me toward software that will do what I need? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Fabbian


My son has an LG 47LW5600. It will read mpo 3D files off of a usb card. I have watched some 3D photos on his TV right from a USB card via a reader. It will not play video though. You need an HDMI cable and the camera. I would think your LG TV would work as well for just photos.

When I first got my camera, over a year ago now, it would not play well on either of my D7000 Samsung 3D TV's via an attached HDMI cable. Since I got a newer Samsung D8000 3D TV , not only does the camera work well via HDMI, but by a USB card as well. The Samsung D8000 will read mpo files.
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post #309 of 377
2/10/12 at 5:06pm
Look for a copy of Magix Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus. Should be $30 or less.
It will create mpg movies for DVD or Blu ray from stills or the recorded AVI's that play fine on my Samsung 3d TV.

Quote:
Originally Posted by fgd3 View Post

Well, I tried that method. Stereo Movie Maker turned a 761MB 3D-AVI file into eight 2GB and one 84MB AVI side-by-side files. The TV reports files output from SMM, like the 3D-AVI files from the W3 are "Invalid files". When I try to play one it makes the TV reboot. (I get the same response when I try to play AVI files from other sources.) I just don't think that approach is going to work for me.

If I connect my W3 to my LG 47LW5300 TV with an HDMI cable it plays back 3D videos easily. The videos are a little soft compared to still pictures, but they are acceptable--the image quality is better that I get from my MiniDV camcorder. While I'd like to get the same quality as a Blu-ray 3D, I'm not going to complain about a $300 camera.

But I am looking for a way to show my 3D videos without using the camera. A format that works from a USB device is marginally acceptable (I can watch downloaded MP4s from YouTube that way). I would like to find a way to show my 3D videos from a DVD. I have a Blu-ray player but not a Blu-ray burner, so I don't mind having to play the DVDs on the Blu-ray player.

Has anyone figured out how to do that? Can you point me toward software that will do what I need? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Fabbian
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post #310 of 377
2/10/12 at 9:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by wingr2 View Post

Look for a copy of Magix Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus. Should be $30 or less.
It will create mpg movies for DVD or Blu ray from stills or the recorded AVI's that play fine on my Samsung 3d TV.

Thanks for the tip. I'll look into it.

Fabbian
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post #311 of 377
2/12/12 at 1:46pm
Here is a sample movie that I captured with my Fujifilm w3 during my holidays in Africa. I really had a great time and a lot of nice shots!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06N0DqDNPLU
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post #312 of 377
2/16/12 at 6:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by wingr2 View Post

Look for a copy of Magix Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus. Should be $30 or less.
It will create mpg movies for DVD or Blu ray from stills or the recorded AVI's that play fine on my Samsung 3d TV.

I downloaded the 30-day free trial of MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX Premium (version 18), all 325MB of it. So far I'm not impressed. The user interface is ugly, the help text is cryptic, and I can't make it do what I want. I'm sure some of that is because I just don't understand the program. A little help with that would be much appreciated.

Here's what I'm trying to do.

1. At a minimum, I want to take a Fuji W3 3D-AVI file and create a DVD that will play in my Blu-ray player like a commercial Blu-ray 3D disk. I want to insert the disk in the player and have the player detect that the video is 3D. The best I've been able to accomplish so far is to render an eleven-minute video as an MP4 file and burn it to a DVD as a data file. The Blu-ray player tried to play it but it was very jerky. The image quality seemed pretty good and I had the left and right views displayed side by side, each taking half the width of the screen and the full height. I'm pretty sure it would have looked good in 3D except for the slow frame rate--it looked more like a slide show than a video.

2. It would be nice if I could put multiple videos on the disk with a menu that allowed the viewer to select the one he wanted to see. It's very wasteful to burn a whole DVD for a ten-minute video.

3. Although Fuji's My FinePix Studio allows me to edit my video clips and combine them into a single video, it's clumsy and tedious. I'd like to be able to bring a number of video clips into the program, arrange them on the timeline in the order I want, trim them where needed, split clips to insert another clip between them, and so forth. That part of MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX seems pretty straightforward, perhaps because it's pretty much like every other video editor I've used.

If someone could describe the workflow for objective 1 I would sure appreciate it. Magix has many settings and I don't understand how they might affect the outcome of my project. A lot of choices are not where I would think to look for them. That's the kind of help I'm looking for.

Can Magix write a menu structure to the disk as I've described in objective 2? If so, can you take me through the steps I need to create such a disk?

Fabbian
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post #313 of 377
2/18/12 at 8:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fgd3 View Post

I downloaded the 30-day free trial of MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX Premium (version 18), all 325MB of it. So far I'm not impressed. The user interface is ugly, the help text is cryptic, and I can't make it do what I want. I'm sure some of that is because I just don't understand the program. A little help with that would be much appreciated.

Here's what I'm trying to do.

1. At a minimum, I want to take a Fuji W3 3D-AVI file and create a DVD that will play in my Blu-ray player like a commercial Blu-ray 3D disk. I want to insert the disk in the player and have the player detect that the video is 3D. The best I've been able to accomplish so far is to render an eleven-minute video as an MP4 file and burn it to a DVD as a data file. The Blu-ray player tried to play it but it was very jerky. The image quality seemed pretty good and I had the left and right views displayed side by side, each taking half the width of the screen and the full height. I'm pretty sure it would have looked good in 3D except for the slow frame rate--it looked more like a slide show than a video.

2. It would be nice if I could put multiple videos on the disk with a menu that allowed the viewer to select the one he wanted to see. It's very wasteful to burn a whole DVD for a ten-minute video.

3. Although Fuji's My FinePix Studio allows me to edit my video clips and combine them into a single video, it's clumsy and tedious. I'd like to be able to bring a number of video clips into the program, arrange them on the timeline in the order I want, trim them where needed, split clips to insert another clip between them, and so forth. That part of MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX seems pretty straightforward, perhaps because it's pretty much like every other video editor I've used.

If someone could describe the workflow for objective 1 I would sure appreciate it. Magix has many settings and I don't understand how they might affect the outcome of my project. A lot of choices are not where I would think to look for them. That's the kind of help I'm looking for.

Can Magix write a menu structure to the disk as I've described in objective 2? If so, can you take me through the steps I need to create such a disk?

Fabbian

I followed these instructions to create a video I can play through my Serviio media share to my Samsung 3D TV. I used Magic Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus. With version 17, you need to have the "Plus" version to do 3D.

1. Place Fuji 3D video clip(s) on the Magix timeline.
2. Use the Menu->File->Export Movie->Video as MPEG-4
3. Set "Stereo 3D" to Side-bySide (left first) half width
4. Press OK and wait for file to export completely
5. Rename the output file with the prefix "[3D]"

I would assume version 18 wouldn't be much different, but you probably need the "Plus" version as well for 3D.

There is a lot if information and tutorials for doing this here;
http://www.3dphoto.net/forum/index.php/board,60.0.html
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post #314 of 377
2/18/12 at 5:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by wingr2 View Post

I followed these instructions to create a video I can play through my Serviio media share to my Samsung 3D TV. I used Magic Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus. With version 17, you need to have the "Plus" version to do 3D.

1. Place Fuji 3D video clip(s) on the Magix timeline.
2. Use the Menu->File->Export Movie->Video as MPEG-4
3. Set "Stereo 3D" to Side-bySide (left first) half width
4. Press OK and wait for file to export completely
5. Rename the output file with the prefix "[3D]"

I would assume version 18 wouldn't be much different, but you probably need the "Plus" version as well for 3D.

There is a lot if information and tutorials for doing this here;
http://www.3dphoto.net/forum/index.php/board,60.0.html

Thanks. Did you use the default settings or did you make any changes? What you did is pretty much what I did but I clicked advanced video settings and changed the bit rate to 19000, set Performance to "15 (best quality)", and set AVC preset to AVCHD. Those were settings I found in another forum but I don't really understand the effect of my changes.

Fabbian
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post #315 of 377
2/19/12 at 9:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fgd3 View Post

Thanks. Did you use the default settings or did you make any changes? What you did is pretty much what I did but I clicked advanced video settings and changed the bit rate to 19000, set Performance to "15 (best quality)", and set AVC preset to AVCHD. Those were settings I found in another forum but I don't really understand the effect of my changes.

Fabbian

I used the default of variable bit rate and performance on 9-balanced. Using the highest rates may be why the video tended to run a little jerky. The W3 doesn't have as much data as a higher end HD camcorder or DSLR would have, so I didn't bother boosting the rate.
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post #316 of 377
2/19/12 at 11:36am
I'm very interested how many people has the focusing issue
I have
Every 5 or 6th picture (left or right) is not in focus. I tested also outdoor with tripod...
It's very strange.
Test your pictures in Stereo Photo Maker. Open the MPO and view the left and right pic with F11 and Shift+F11 in full screen!

thx
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post #317 of 377
2/19/12 at 10:25pm
I haven't noticed that problem, but I've only seen my 3D photos on my TV in HD resolution.

I've had difficulties with regular focus on my W3, however. For me the ratio of out of focus photos is around 1 in 30. I've learned to take really important pictures twice.

I've tried to ensure the camera has several seconds to set focus (shutter half down) before taking a picture. I don't think that's the problem though, because when I take a picture quickly, it usually is in focus.

I don't remember having this problem with my 'W1.

David
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post #318 of 377
2/19/12 at 11:13pm
Yes, watch your photos with SPM F11 and shift+F11.
(left-right)

"I've learned to take really important pictures twice."
I taked 2 pictures from my daughter in snow.
One of the views in both was ouf of focus
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post #319 of 377
2/21/12 at 11:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by wingr2 View Post

I used the default of variable bit rate and performance on 9-balanced. Using the highest rates may be why the video tended to run a little jerky. The W3 doesn't have as much data as a higher end HD camcorder or DSLR would have, so I didn't bother boosting the rate.

I still haven't found what I'm looking for, but I have managed to get video files on a DVD in a format my TV can play.

Magix Movie Edit Pro MX Premium (version 18) will import the 3D-AVI files from the Fuji W3 and allow editing them. After I finished editing I exported the file as an MP4, side-by-side, left image on the left. I had to play around a bit with the MP4 settings to find a combination that would work on my TV. I copied the files to a data DVD (letting Windows burn the disk) and put it in my Blu-ray player. The TV showed the video, but I had to manually enter 3D mode and select side-by-side. Not exactly what I'm looking for, but it works.

I also discovered I can edit the video clips with My FinePix Studio. It's a cumbersome process because My FinePix Studio allows you to select just one clip for trimming or just two clips or stitching together. By default it saves the edited clip in 3D-AVI format, buy you can also save it as a WMV file, with any of the following options: side by side for PC; side by side for PC, reduced size; side by side for 3D TV; or anaglyph (red/blue). Another option is "Upload to YouTube".

Trimming and stitching are pretty quick as long as you save back into 3D-AVI. Maximum file size is 2GB. You can combine the clips--minus pieces you trimmed--and then save them as a WMV file. The WMV files are about a tenth the size of the AVI files while the MP4 files from Magix were about half as big as the AVI files.

My TV can play both MP4 and WMV files from a data DVD or a USB device. I don't see any difference in image quality.

I'm still looking for what I want, but for the time being I have two techniques I can work with. In the meantime, I'm still looking.

Fabbian
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post #320 of 377
2/26/12 at 6:33am
I read all the postings here and it was very interesting. I had 4 FinePix REAL 3D W3 samples in my hand - one was a return for a repair. Based on this I created an extended review with photos, videos and even emails from Fujifilm.

If you are interested you can find the link below. There are no ads and there is nothing to buy. There is just the review. Do not want to lure you there for clicks. Sorry that I am not allowed to post this link - so please copy it in the address field of your browser.

review-fujifilmfinepixreal3d.weebly.com


Enjoy the story more than I did ;-) But I have learned a lot about Fujifilm. I am afraid the camera quality is like this. Please leave me a message at my site if I should change things.
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post #321 of 377
2/29/12 at 3:48am
So, you say, don't give the W3 back to the service, because
they cannot repair the focusing issue? Then i want my money back.
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post #322 of 377
2/29/12 at 3:57am
Fuji will have a couple of reps at a presentation on 3D at B&H in NYC on 3/14 from 4-6 PM. Perhaps someone could ask them about the issue(s) with the camera.
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post #323 of 377
2/29/12 at 4:16am
Yes, would be good.
Around every 5th of my pictures have focus problem (small or big)
Even with tripod and self timer...
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post #324 of 377
2/29/12 at 2:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peterxxx View Post

I read all the postings here and it was very interesting. I had 4 FinePix REAL 3D W3 samples in my hand - one was a return for a repair. Based on this I created an extended review with photos, videos and even emails from Fujifilm.

Thanks for posting your experiences (and for no ads!). Sorry you have so much trouble. I too have a sharpness problem in my W3, although it appears to be on both lenses-- my W1 did not have this problem. Like I said before, it helps to use A aperture priority mode and set it to F8, although in A mode it does not have auto ISO. Your last pictures have some tilt, but it does not appear to me to be that much-- you can run all your pictures through auto-align in stereo photo maker in batch mode and it should correct them. My W1 had more of a tilt problem than my W3, now I just use SPM by habit to batch auto-align after I copy the memory card to my PC. I don't know about your parallax problem, but you can set spm to auto adjust the parallax in batch mode too.
I haven't noticed a focus problem in mine, make sure you wait a bit after holding down the shutter halfway so the autofocus locks on where you want it. Even using a tripod & timer the autofocus may not find a clear pattern to lock onto, or may not lock onto what you want it to. You could also see if manual focus works.
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post #325 of 377
2/29/12 at 9:29pm
Thank you all for your responses.

It is pretty much impossible to get the money back here. In respect of sharpness I think there is nothing that I did not try. I think it is a mechanical problem of those cameras. Aperture or whatever did not help.

Even when I look at their sample picture at their website this shows all problems already. Just check out the photo with the girl and the flowers at this link - you can download the mpo:


finepix.com/3d/en/download/index.html


Of course I (have to) use SPM. But I cannot fix sharpness problems and bad pixel.


Honestly I don't know what to do with this brand new camera:

Send it back to Fujifilm to try to get a fix (again) - will not work. My story with several cameras sent to Fujifilm for a fix and even worse results in the end is not the only one on the internet. The first camera did not have the tilt and the pixel problem - only the sharpness was a problem. Now I have all these problems.

Try to sell it on eBay? Would you buy a camera with bad pixel - not to talk about the sharpness problems?

Use it? I would say my motivation to use this camera vanished after all my problems with 4 of them.

To me the best option seems to be to leave it in the box and try to forget it.
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post #326 of 377
2/29/12 at 10:07pm
"make sure you wait a bit after holding down the shutter halfway"

I always wait for this, i'm not a beginner :-)

LOL, they also have demo pictures on the website with focus problem...

We need a new firmware, which fix this issue, because 4 from 5 picture is perfect, and looks very good on my LG TV.
Till then we have to make 2 or even 3 different pictures from an important scene.
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post #327 of 377
3/2/12 at 4:43am
@relaxman

Motivated by your 4 of 5 rule I took my camera with me on a trip and just checked the results. The photo of the left lens (and with this the 2D picture) has often so severe sharpness problems that it is really bad - and I am really very merciful already.

This camera is completely useless like all the others I had. Perhaps I send it back again so that I get one with no bad pixel at least so that I can sell it. What an endless nightmare.
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post #328 of 377
3/2/12 at 6:40am
I'm just going to chime in here and say not all W3 users are having bad experiences. I took mine on a world trip for 3 months taking over 3000 photos and hrs of video and although alot of my photos needed some touching up they definitely don't have a re-occurring focus issue.

I did learn the hard way that a fingerprint on either lens will ruin a good photo and Croatia will always be remembered in photos slightly smudged, lol.

But overall the photos look fantastic once I've run them through SPM and color corrected them. I'm viewing on a HD33 3D projector @ 100 inches and they hold up very well.
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post #329 of 377
3/2/12 at 7:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeFourMan View Post

hrs of video

You are lucky. I cannot even watch 1 minute of this poor video quality. Okay - it is not a video camera. But for me this camera is sadly not even a useable photo camera.

I just might try to get (once more) a somehow working camera within the warranty time without bad pixel so that I can sell it and close this Fujifilm 3D chapter in my life
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post #330 of 377
3/2/12 at 4:17pm
Yeah the video is not great but with some "massaging" it's definitely watchable. For editing I've been experimenting with Power Director 10 which handles the native files well and has some simple yet powerful tools such as image stabilizing and a half decent upscaler to 1080p.

Like you said though its not a great video camera but the stills for me portray an immersive experience unlike which I've had before. I'm
Really looking forward to the next iteration with a wider FOV lens, better dark shooting and better video quality BUT considering this camera retailed here in Australia for $200 I think what you get is amazing.

Once I eventually sort through all my photos and video I'll be cutting some highlight clips and will be happy to share the links here.
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