Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX9
By now, you must have had at least one 3D experience. Whether it was Avatar, or current favourite Toy Story 3, you know that with a little help from a pair of special glasses and some state-of-the-art filming and projection technology, you can experience near real-life scenes inside a cinema.
But you can also create the effect with Sony's new Cyber-shot DSC-TX9, which includes a feature called 3D Sweep Panorama. By panning the camera in a sweeping motion, the internal software captures the view from the two perspectives of your right and left eyes (actually, up to 15 perspectives) and then stitches them together to create a 3D image.
The only problem is the camera screen can't display that image in 3D, so you'll need a 3D-enabled monitor or TV to actually see the result in 3D.
What the camera allows you to do is film in something called sweep multi-angle, which plays back the 15 captured images as you tilt your camera from side to side. The effect isn't exactly 3D, but it allows you to view the scene around the subject from different angles.
Besides these neat tricks, you get a 12.2-megapixel digital camera with all of Sony's latest features, including standard sweep panorama for extra-wide shots, support for high definition AVCHD/MP4 video capture, high-speed shooting at 10 photos per second at 10.2megapixels, a host of optimised shooting modes, and a 4x optical zoom.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX9 is available from next month for HK$3,390.
Pros: can capture 3D images, multi-angle viewing of a scene, high-definition video capture
Cons: can't display 3D, small optical zoom
