DXG has begun shipping the DXG-018 point-and-shoot digital 3D camera. The camera uses dual lenses to take side-by-side photos of a subject. The images, once printed, can be viewed with a special viewer to create the desired stereoscopic 3D effect.
The 3D stereoscopic viewing technology is not new. It is essentially the same as used in the old View-Master introduced back in 1939. Back then, a user had to purchase pictures. What DXG has done is to find a way to allow a users to create their own content.
To get the 3D effect, the user snaps a picture. The camera’s dual lenses actually create dual side-by-side images. These then must be uploaded to a PC, where DXG’s proprietary software then prints the dual images out on 4×6 paper. This can then be inserted into the 3D viewer.
Images are 1.3-megapixels with firmware interpolation. The lens is a fixed focal length. Images are captured as JPEGs onto SD cards.
The camera is available in pink, lavender, green, orange or yellow. It comes packaged with one or three viewers (DXG is unclear about this), a USB cable and batteries. Available now, the DXG-018 is priced at $70.