Actor Rupert Grint was given the chance to try out a 3D digital compact camera, one of the first in the world, and wrote a review for the
Daily Mail's Live magazine about it.
The
Harry Potter star gave a lot of detail about how the photos look on the back of the camera, including how to use it and the process of bringing it it to life. Rupert does note that however innovative the camera is, there are numerous downfalls to it, such as the fact that photos can't be uploaded for viewing on a computer.
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Start shooting and the first thing you notice is that the 3D display on the back of the camera creates a rather strange optical effect: you have to strain your eyes a little and it can take some getting used to.
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Shooting 3D video was the most impressive aspect of it; this really showed off what the camera is capable of. You are free to move with the camera and try more ambitious shots. I experimented, trying to capture objects moving towards you, and seemingly coming at you out of the screen when played back. I was impressed; it worked surprisingly well.
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If you have it in auto mode, it's a simple enough point-and-shoot, but to get the best results you might need to play around with the settings. You can alter the scale of the 3D effect by tweaking the parallax settings (basically the amount of overlap between the two initial images), or create a 3D image by photographing the same object from two different angles, which requires you to keep a steady hand and judge it just right.
Taking 3D photos only really works for quite a specific kind of shot: you need to have a decent depth of field in the picture, so close-ups or distance shots don't do it justice. If everything is more or less the same distance from the camera you don't need 3D at all, and using it can make the image look slightly confused.
Rupert's full article, which includes photos of the 3D camera, can be read
here.
UPDATE: A scan of the article can be found in our
galleries.
