Day 91: Silent filming on hallowed ground. 21 July

Today I was shooting the Royal Philharmonic at Abbey Road studios along with singer Paul Carrack. http://www.carrack-uk.com/

It's funny going to work and having to push trough a crowd of people to get in. It feels a bit like running a picket line.

My AG3DA1 (http://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/3d/ag-3da1/index.html) had a few software glitches (the others were fine of course) but that's what you get for playing with prototypes. Any way you slice it, it's an awful lot easier that lugging a twin camera / mirror rig around. So quick to set up you almost forget you're shooting 3D. Almost!

Once again I found standing in the middle of the orchestra in full flow a moving experience. Something about the reality of being right there, especially in that studio, where Star Wars, LOTR etc. were recorded. It's magical.

Oscar had another Mummy day!

Day 90: Meerly filming. Tuesday 20th July

I spent the day out and about with the 3D camera, ending up at Drusilla's zoo where I got to film the meercats courtesy of my sister in law Sue. They tried to eat my shoelaces.

Tasha was going to come along with Oscar, but he decided he was hungry, as we were about to leave, and would rather stay behind for milk. We'll take him on his first zoo trip soon I'm sure!

Day 89: Prototype casting. Monday 19th July.

Today I was invited to Panasonic to see a prototype of their new AG-3DA1 3D camcorder. We'll be using three of the only four in the UK to film the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road studios on Wednesday.

I got to take it home to learn how to use it ahead of the shoot. A real full HD 3D camera. Could I *be* any more excited? I got home as quick as I could and went off to catch the sunset on Eastbourne beach. Unfortunately the sun just sort of fizzled out in that murky grey British way. I got lots of cliche seaside town shots in the half light.

Oscar had a Mummy day as I was away for most of it. Apparently while I was off 'playing', Tasha performed works of Shakespear for him, read books, recited poems, taught him Latin and French, baked, cooked, cleaned, sewed, and did some charity work.

World's first hands on review of Panasonic HDC-SDT750

This is a little rushed, as I have to take Oscar for his jabs today!

Today Panasonic announced their new consumer 3D camcorder.

Sometimes, when the wind is right, I get to try out pre production prototypes before the likes of Philip Bloom or Vincent Laforet get their hands on them. I got to play with one of these last week.

Two things come to mind.

1. It's fantastic
2. I hate it.*

I've been shooting 3D since buying my first Bolex 16mm with stereo lens in 1989. It's a fun and challenging pastime. 3D has always been a fairly complicated affair. It takes a lot of specialist equipment, time to calculate inter axial distances, planning for stereo window violations, convergence, depth budgets, camera sync etc. All this means that simply put, not many people know how to do it properly.

Now along come Panasonic with this point and shoot camera that delivers stunning 3D images with no need for any special 3D knowledge. Suddenly it becomes difficult to persuade clients that there is a dark art to 3D.**

Ok, so this £1300 camcorder is not about to replace a dual Red system or Arri Alexia, but for weddings, babies, parties, holidays and low budget film makers, 3D is now a very viable option.

How it works.

3D is accomplished by a newly designed lens system that attaches to the front of the camera along with some nifty processing within the camera body. There are two locating pins on the lens which tell the camera to switch into 3D mode.
The attachment actually houses two separate auto focus lenses that resolve left and right images side by side onto the sensor as two 16:9 images. This means both 'eyes' are captured at exactly the same moment so it is possible to film fast action without trouble.

It's not technically capturing 1080p in 3D mode as only half the resolution from each side of the sensor is used for each eye. This is not as bad at it might sound - all the 3D broadcasts from Sky etc. use this method to squeeze two images into one for 3D. A 3D capable TV will recognize the image as 3D and stretch each eye back to 1920x1080.

Something I've noticed from digital 3D editing is that when the brain is delivered two images it somehow averages out any noise or picture artefacts. Although the image produced by the HDC-SDT750 has technically been upsampled to give 1080p, the perceived image quality is much better than you might expect and far better than a 2D image would be if upsampled to the same degree.

Up close and personal

The distance between the lenses (Inter axial distance) is around 20mm which means it is possible to film objects as close as 1m, a feat that would otherwise require a hugely complicated and expensive mirror rig. Even the professional $21,000 AG3DA1 3D camcorder cannot shoot as close as this. In my experiments I found you could actually get as close as 40cms as long as your close subject didn't cover the edges of the picture. This results in negative parallax, or the 'things poking out of the screen at you' effect.

Other features

Aside from 3D, the camera body is pretty much state of the art. I won't go into these in detail but I will give you a somewhat lazy list.
Optical image stabilisation, touch screen control, leica lens, time lapse recording, manual control ring for focus/exposure, 1080p@50fps (first of it's kind to offer this), pre rec (camera can be set to always be recording, so if you miss a goal then hit record it will 'backdate' the start by 3 seconds and you get your shot!)

What can you do with the footage?
As it's AVCHD you can burn it straight to bluray and it will playback in 3D on a 3D TV. Panasonic also include software to edit and make standard DVDs.
You can also shoot best in class 2D video by simply removing the 3D lens.

I was allowed to shoot some 3D test footage and I will post a link to this in youtube's 3D format as soon as I have permission.

Disclaimer. I get to play with kit from Panasonic as I know some folks there, they don't pay me to do this or let me keep the gear :(
Also the camera I used was a one off hand built prototype, so things may change (read get better) by the time it hits production.
I regularly use Lumix cameras, but I also use Canon and Sony.

EDIT 31/07/10: A friend of mine (Ian from Superteam films http://www.houseofhellmovie.com/#vid) pointed out that I didn't mention that this new camcorder does not use the anaglyph red/green system that my images on the blog are created with. What you get is full colour 3D like you see at the cinema.

* Not really.
** There is! There is! It's really hard to do.

Day 88: Three of clubs

Today we met up with cousin Molly at Mother in law's house. My other brother in law, Matt, was also there and waiting for the photo op of holding both his nephew and niece together.
Matt, knowing my 'love' for football, once stuffed Oscar into a baby grow two sizes too small just to get a photo of him in an Arsenal outfit.
As he got ready for the once in a lifetime shot somehow a piece of paper saying "I love Chelsea" fell on to the chair behind him. No one noticed until they looked at the pictures later by which time it was too late. Shame.

Last time the two cousins got together, Molly in her excitement banged heads with Oscar. This time he kept his distance. You can tell he's not used to sharing the lens.

In the evening I went with chum Phil to the Apollo to see US magicians Penn & Teller. Tasha choose to forsake her ticket to get some sleep.

A few years ago, when I was working on the first Postman Pat album (Still at Amazon/iTunes folks!), I looked in to getting Penn Jillette to play bass on a couple of the more jazzy songs. Plans were made to hook up in Vegas (how cool does this sound?) but Penn's baby arrived, schedules fell apart and then it was too late.

After the show (excellent) I met up with his new manager, and Penn was gracious to remember me and our little British TV show. We talked about the upcoming 3D Postman Pat movie and I watched as he waded through the crowds of fans outside, stopping for every one who asked to sign something or pose for a photo. The guy is all class. UK 'celebrities' could learn much about long term career from the way he treats his fans.
With any luck, I will get to record him for the movie soundtrack.

Day 87: Guys and dolls

Today we met up with the seven couples we met at the NCT classes. We missed the last session (breastfeeding) as Oscar was early. Ironically this was the one area where we had trouble.

So eight babies, four of each. Some trials along the way as you might expect statistically, but thankfully all doing well now. Interesting that several parents shared our poor experience at the special care baby unit. I don't think the paediatricians spend much time in bedside manner classes.

Don't forget, the top image is 'universal freeview'. If you go cross-eyed and concentrate you can see full colour 3D without glasses.

Day 86: Of mice and (Kiwi) Men.

While we were shopping today an old lady stopped to comment how cute Oscar was. As she got close his face screwed up and he screamed blue murder.
I think perhaps he's really recognising us now and suddenly new faces seem alien. Either that or he can read auras and the old lady was a witch.

I had one of those one sided conversations with the dentist as he repaired a filling. It must be weird talking to yourself all day, having only slight changes in facial muscles as a response. That and the sharp jerks/tears whenever he hits a nerve.

It was our Chum Rea's birthday. I don't know how old she is, rude to ask, but I made her a cake all the same. We had bought one (A Nestle party celebration cake covered in smarties, rolos etc) but looked at the ingredients when we got home and were shocked to find Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil! This is a nasty substance linked with all sorts of health problems including cancer. Very surprised that a major manufacturer is still using it. I think it's banned in the US. I saw a big poster in Tescos saying they have removed it from all their products now. Not so Sainsburys!

Other chum Laura had a go at a nappy change. She thought it was chicken korma.

We also found out today that Laura's man friend Nathan from New Zealand is afraid of rats. To the extent that when solo was outside eating a mouse he backed in to the corner of the room until the coast was clear. Nathan has arms like popeye.