Panasonic AG-3DA1 3D Camcorder: $21,000.
Panasonic AG-HMX100 3D-Ready Mixing Board: $5,800.
BT-3DL2550 3D-ready production monitor: $9,900.
Shooting your daughter's school play in 3D: Priceless.
Wait, no. That's actually $36,700.
Get your checkbook ready and prepare to make the most spectacularly boring 3D movies ever: the first 3D camcorder finally has full specs and is available for preorder. The 3D camcorder Panasonic announced at CES 2010, now known as the AG-3DA1, will go on sale this fall for $21,000 as expected.
The comparatively lightweight 6.6-pound camcorder uses dual 2.07 megapixel 3-MOS imagers to record full HD 1080p video in 3D. Even using AVCHD compression, the camera gobbles up about 350MB every minute, requiring dual SDHC card slots to handle the massive outflow of data. With two 32GB cards in place, directors get about 180 minutes of shooting time. (About the runtime of Avatar, for those of you looking to make a scene-by-scene recreation with hamsters dyed blue.)
To accommodate for 3D productions, Panasonic also announced an accompanying 3D A/V mixer and 25.5-inch 3D field monitor. The AG-HMX100 has been designed to accommodate live events, and includes four HD/SD-HDI inputs/outputs, two HDMI inputs and two analog composite inputs, plus DVI jacks for computer monitors to supplement the built-in 5.7-incher, microphone inputs, and audio outputs. It will go on sale in June for $5,800. The BT-3DL2550 3D-ready production monitor offers a 25.-5inch screen and uses a polarizing filter to let viewers use passive glasses, rather than the active models typically used with TVs. It will go for $9,900 this September.
