Over at BenchmarkReviews, they’ve got an editorial piece of the inevitability of 3D technology in both cameras and camcorders, and becoming the ‘de-facto’ standard. It seems focused around this idea:
So with a solid foundation of platform devices, 3D imagery is already professional requirement for present-day photographers. Digital cameras such as the Sony α NEX-5, Panasonic Lumix-G 3D, and Fujifilm FinePix REAL-3D W3 are already taking 3D photographs that impress people today, and meet the potential standard of tomorrow. Full-3D video cameras such as Panasonic’s HDC-SDT750K have made three-dimension broadcasts of NASCAR events, the entire US Open Tennis tournament, PGA Golf Championship, and Masters Tournament all possible. Those are all real-world events that have already happened in 3D, proving that the day is quickly coming when events like the UFC Ultimate Fighting Championship and X-Games could also be broadcast in 3D. This all brings me back to the central thesis of this editorial, which is that we’ll soon be watching movies and viewing images in 3D.
I have to disagree. 3D is nice and useful, yes, but hardly what I’ld call a ‘requirement’ for professional photography. While it’s slowly moving into the home, there is still a lot of disgust amongst consumers for the crappy 3D that’s out and the requirement to wear the bulky, ugly, and expensive 3D glasses that current televisions use. While 3D in sports is a fun trick, you just have to look at the numbers and reports from the industry to see it’s not really feasible for anything but the biggest of sports (World Cup Soccer, NFL footbal).
If autostereoscopy comes ‘of age’ fast enough, it stands a chance to push 3d “over the hill” and make it mainstream. I still think, however, that 2D will remain the predominant focus for the near future.
