Important note: YouTube has 3D support but not in the above embed. You need to go to the YouTube page for the video here, and check the box for 3D. You will see a few options, compatible with different kinds of display.
Panasonic seem to be very good at hiding their best features.
First AF tracking was removed from the final production firmware, presumably to be fixed and added later (time constraints to meet the Christmas deadline). Now, it seems by simply covering the electronic contacts of the Lumix 3D lens with paper you can shoot with it in video mode, not just stills.
First enable shoot without lens in the main menu. Then put selotape, masking tape or a small wedge of thin paper over the contacts of the 3D lens. Attach the lens, and the camera will run normally but the lens seems to be delivering a proper stereoscopic image from it’s dual lenses.
Presumably Panasonic were going to add this 3D video capability at some point because [Sarcasm]as we all know, they never protect other more expensive cameras by crippling the Lumix G range[/EndSarcasm]
It looks like firmware version 1.0 has quite a few things missing which will be added later. I like to speculate, let’s see what else I think the hardware is capable of which the firmware is limited due to meeting the Christmas market:
• Full HD mode at 60p in updated AVCHD spec
• Multi-aspect ratio video shooting
• Higher than 1080p video resolution? 3.8MP stills come off at 40fps (possibly disabled due to sensor over heating issues or memory buffer limits?)
• Higher bitrates (I think we can take that for granted, wait for Vitaliy’s patch!)
• PAL region 25p (Almost certainly capable, will be enabled in Vitaliy’s patch or even future Panasonic ones if they listen to broadcaster journalists and cinematographers)
• 4-2-2 (GH1 could do it in MJPEG mode after Vitaliy’s patch)
• Uncompressed HDMI (I have a feeling the HDMI output is crippled to make it compatible with more TVs)
I think all this is highly possible. So let’s see.
