The Pakistani Spectator

Panasonic, not content to only release new still cameras and normal camcorders this week, has revealed the 3D camcorder we’ve been looking forward to for some time now. It’s called the HDC-SDT750. Catchy!

Quick digression: Whose job is it to come up with names for Panasonic electronics? I’m guessing they would see a measurable increase in sales of their flagship items if they gave them names people could remember. When someone puts “flip camera” into Google, they get what they’re looking for. “Panasonic camera”? Not so much. Moving on.

The SDT750 records at 1080p/60FPS on its 3MOS sensor, and has the usual fixins you’d expect on a $1000+ camera: manual settings ring, optical image stabilization, and a nice big 3″ touchscreen (not 3D, unfortunately). Unfortunately, once you put the 3D conversion lens on there, it has to split the image, producing two 960×1080 side-by-side images at 60FPS. This is a little puzzling to me; why not just have 1080p at 30FPS? It seems a bit odd, and hopefully Panasonic will make that a possibility soon.

The main lens (i.e. for 2D shooting) is a 46mm F/1.5 Leica Dicomar, which sounds pretty awesome. You lose almost two full stops of light when you put on the 3D lens, though, bringing it down to F/3.2. That’s not so bad still for a camcorder, but you’ll need to keep it in mind when you’re shooting. It’s got 12x optical zoom, though of course you’ll lose a lot of light there too.

* Auto Power LCD automatically adjusts the brightness of the screen according to the shooting environment for comfortable use in a variety of different lighting situations.
* Large 3.0” touch-screen LCD allows icons to be easily operated by touching them with a fingertip. On the LCD, recorded 3D images are displayed only as the 2D images that were recorded with the left lens.
* Eco Mode automatically turns off the power when the camcorder is not operated for five minutes, reducing wasteful energy use and saving battery power.
* Pre-Rec allows for the camcorder to continuously record three seconds of content into internal memory. Then, when the record button is pressed, the three seconds immediately prior will have been recorded.

The Panasonic HDC-SDT750 will be available in October 2010 with a suggested retail price of $1,399.95. For more information on Panasonic camcorders, please visit: www.panasonic.com/dvc.

*1 As a consumer camcorder with 3D conversion lens for the AVCHD standard (as of July 27, 2010).
*2 A TV that is capable of side-by-side method 3D playback, 3D Eyewear, and HDMI cable connection are required to play the recorded 3D images.
*3 F3.2 when the 3D conversion lens is attached.
*4 If the player/recorder is incompatible with 3D, the 3D mode must be set on the TV manually
*Design and specifications are subject to change without notice.

courtesy panasonic and techcrunch