When we hit NAB, there was this feeling in the air that the new & the future will be 3D. Panasonic actually revealed their take on the issue at NAB, and recently I was thinking about how impressive this technology actually is. So I thought that I’d mention the prototype they announced as the Panasonic “3D Full HD” camcorder.

It’s looks crazy and it shoots crazy but will it work?

According to Panasonic, the camera will operate by placing two cameras side by side into a single chassis. Most 3D movies are generally done by mounting two cameras together, so this would be a slight variation with the same idea. The video from both camcorders are then linked together and exported as 3D video.

So I’m not entirely certain if this is a new technology that I’m interested in seeing get developed. Why to be honest? Why should I? What benefit does 3D have? I feel like there is no point, but who am I really… Just a guy that shoots video every single day.

Well, another NAB show came and went, and every-one’s favorite video magazine was there to take stock of the industry and report on new and exciting equipment coming your way this year.

One of the first things I noticed was that 3d production was everywhere this year. It seemed that whichever booth you were in, there were people huddled around LCD panels with funny glasses on (Quick stock tip: find the name of the company that makes those polarized glasses).

I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed by 3d. Unlike HD video, (which also had it’s coming out party at NAB) I can’t feel the same sense of excitement and possibility for 3d. It still seemed very gimmiky and made it hard to suspend your disbelief, in addition to causing eye strain. However time will improve the technology hopefully. As it stands it seemed to me that instead of true 3d, you had a series of 2D planes in a 3d space. I’m not sure if the convergence was tuned right, but in almost all instances you simply had a foreground plane, a medium plane, and a background plane, instead of a smooth gradation of depth from foreground to background.

Panasonic, Sony, and JVC were all showing off 3D displays, and work is going on to develop a 3d standard for the home, in addition to your local cinema.

Not sure if many of you have heard about Microsoft’s new development in video editing technology, but I just ran across a couple of very impressive articles about it. The idea is to be able to edit on a 3D surface by flattening it.

This is very new to the consumer market and I found it interesting that it seemed so easy to work with, (although we don’t actually see any operation). The other goal Microsoft is working at with this new development is to eliminate specialized software for different editing scenarios. For example, instead of having to use Photoshop, Ultra and then Encore you would just use the individual program for everything.

Take a look at this video on posted on BoreMe and this blog from NewScientist for more!