Anyway, this experience got me to thinking. Panasonic has recently announced its impending launch of a 3D camcorder, the AG3DA1 that will sell for around USD$10,000 we believe. This is obviously way beyond the average person, and anyway, it's a dedicated tool for a job and not a jack-of-all trades' camcorder as I understand it.

Based on the premise that consumers will want to emulate their favourite movies with effects and so on in their own videos (think of such effects as the Star Wars text, the Matrix falling numbers, the 2001: A Space Odyssey star gate among others), there will no doubt be a demand for editing software that has the facility to take existing 2D footage in SD or HD and turn it into 3D.

The mechanics of such a thing are not hard; split an image into two and perform the stereoscopic magic on it when rendering. Well that's the theory. So have any of the major manufacturers of editing software got plans to rush out a release - or even a point release - to take advantage of the current thirst for this latest craze?

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com