P3D More on the Nu-View adapter

["H a r o l d B a i z e" <baize@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I received the following message from Marlin Linger:

>>What is a Nu-View camcorder adapter?

Sorry, I guess my last post was a bit cryptic. The 
Nu-View camcorder adapter is a device that attaches 
to the front of most camcorders and produces sequential 
stereoscopic video that can be viewed on your TV in 
glorious 3-D with liquid crystal shutter glasses. 
The adapter has two liquid crystal shutters that form 
light valves, alternating between the direct line of 
sight of the lens and a second line of sight reflected 
off a front surface mirror. The light valves are synchronized 
to the video frames through the out video port of the 
camcorder. The adapter itself costs $375 and you can 
buy it through their web site. You will need LCS glasses 
and a decoder box (I already had them), they sell two pair 
and the decoder for $199. 

The adapter is as advertised and as I expected it to be, 
which is to say, great. Undoubtedly the video produced 
is not as clear and sharp as that produced by the Toshiba 
3-D camcorder, but it is also only a fraction (about one 
tenth) of the original sale price of the Toshiba, never 
mind that the Toshiba has been selling recently for as 
much as $12,000. 

The unit weighs 11.5 ounces and when attached to your camcorder 
you will find that you now need two hands to steady the camera. 
There is a clear plastic protective screen over the mirror and 
shutter assembly. The protective plastic cover will generate a 
streak of light as you pan across a bright light source. When 
you zoom out to the widest setting (shortest focal length) you 
see vignetting by picking up the adapter housing, this is easy 
to avoid by just backing off some on the wide angle, it has a 
silver lining however because you can use that as a feature to 
aid in getting the adapter on straight, just set it on widest 
angle and tweak the position of the adapter until the edges 
that you see in the viewfinder line up straight.

Today I shot a few seconds of bright daylight video (yes we actually
had a whole day without rain!). The flicker was more noticeable 
but not bad at all, only being somewhat bothersome around patches 
of white areas in the scene. Ghosting is noticeable with bright objects. 
Nonetheless the flicker is less than in the 3DTV demonstration video 
that come with Michael Starks 3DTV decoder and glasses, so 
the quality is slightly better than I expected. 
The image does not appear dark unless you are shooting in low 
light conditions. When I video indoors with regular lighting the 
video with the adapter seems noticeably darker and less sharp, so 
if you plan to do a lot of indoor 3-D video you may want to 
invest in some lights. 

Bottom line is that it is affordable true stereoscopic video. 
Finally my "Stereo" camcorder really *IS* a stereo camcorder. 
In fact it is both stereo sound and vision, which the Toshiba 
3-D camcorder is not.

Harolddd.


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