Before reading this review, you should know two things. 1) I don’t own this camera, nor did I get a sample unit to test. 2) I might just be the slightest bit bias when it comes to FujiFilm. My very first camera was a FujiFilm and I still have it the stellar 35mm pocket cam today.

All that being said, these impressions are all from our extensive hands-on at PMA this year. Simply put, there weren’t a lot of folks at the show (contrary to most reports) and on some days, we were easily able to go a good solid 20 minutes with cameras.

Yeah we know, 20 minutes is like a year on the show floor hogging a sample unit, but there were plenty of other units available and folks were really fighting us for it and we were talking to the Fuji rep at the same time and she was okay answering our questions letting us play.

First impressions is this is a pretty sweet camera. Remove the 3D factor for a second and the overall look and feel of the camera is extremely polished. The camera is big for a pocket cam, but it’s still pretty thin. The polished metal feel makes it feel lighter than it is, but the feeling is a good quality weighted and meaty feeling.

The on-board screen is a little small around 2.8″ inches, but that’s okay with us. It’s not a full back of the camera monster and you don’t get a touch screen. Instead, you actually get quality buttons on the back that have really good feel to them. You definitely have to push down to press the buttons, but it’s not like you’re putting 100psi down to depress it. No, like the rest of the camera, the buttons are meaty well defined quality.

All the other features (shutter speed, red-eye reduction, flash, zoom, etc) are on par with today’s point and shoot pocket cameras. So no learning curve here.

The 3D is what makes this (seriously, I need to say that??) special. Dual lenses on the front shifted apart from each other capture two separate images onto two separate 10MP CCDs. Cool huh? These two images combine to create the 3D effect.

The flash sits dead center on the unit giving it an overall cyclops like look. To some of us though, the camera does look alive. Two eyes, a nose, and a not too slim/not too wide Mona Lisa like smile in the now all too common slider front design.

Still, it’s pretty sweet. There’s a lot of metal in this build and that makes the camera feel real quality.

You have to frame each shot through the 2.8″ LCD. There’s solid glass (at least that’s what it feels like) frame protecting the precious LCD in the back. The cool part? You can frame each shot in full 3D.

The effect is a little unsettling at first as the images do tend to jump out at you. Something that takes a little getting used to. After all, we’ve all been trained to see flat images through the screen and viewfinder. Now it took us all of 2 minutes to get used to it and really start wanting one.

Of course, you can switch to 2D mode for shots and framing, but why? That’s like getting a Ferrari and putting cheap rims, cheap tires, and cheap gas in it. Yeah, it works, but it’s not what it’s designed to do.

You don’t need glasses to see the 3D on the LCD. It’s pretty cool how Fuji pulled this off. The tech is a bit ahead of its time and will get refined, so there are a few issues right now. First, the 3D on the LCD doesn’t always work. You sort of have to be looking right at it. If you’re off by a few degrees, it’s okay, you’ll see a slightly shifted image. Get it dead on and you’ll be treated to nice show. The 3D made the screen feel bigger than its 2.8″, so don’t worry about LCD size too much.

We took shots in 3D and 2D modes and pictures on screen looked nice. Again, comparable to what you’d expect from a high-end point-and-shoot. The lens is on-par with what you’d expect from cameras in this class. The images are clean, but don’t be looking for D-SLR crisp perfection (my opinion). 3x optical zoom in 3D mode and much more in 2D mode.

Oh…did we mention you can take movies in 3D as well? Yup. It’s totally cool being able to shoot movies in 3D. It’s acceptable 640×480 quality at 30fps. Beyond that, we can’t say much as we were too busy doing stupid 3D gimmicks in movie mode. Yeah, we’re goofy like that.

Still, you can playback the images on a compatible 3D TV (with glasses of course) and view your movies in 3D. How many cameras can say that?

Shots were quick and speedy paired with a 16GB SHDC card. You also get the ability to connect wirelessly to Fuji’s accessories, so that’s cool.

The accessory line-up includes an 8″ photo-frame that doesn’t need glasses to display 3D images. You also get access to printed 3D images from Fuji’s on-line printing service.

The images are printed on paper with a lenticular (vertical lined coating) sheet. The feel of the paper is similar to the toys of your youth that displayed 3D images or moving images. A thick plastic coating. Sorry, I can’t really find any images to express this point, but this might help:

The eyes on these toys change as you move your perspective. The 3D printed images work on the same concept, but on a much higher quality scale. The effect is okay, but I still can’t see myself printing a lot of these.

I suspect a similar idea is at work with the LCD displays. There’s a coating above the LCD that allows 3D images to be viewed. FujiFilm officially calls it a “parallax barrier” LCD. So you’ve got something that allows two shifted images to be seen through a single LCD.

We’ve seen TV’s using this technology at CES. The screens though were much larger (60+ inches) and you could clearly make out the vertical barrier lines when you shifted left and right in a swaying motion.

Still, the fact that FujiFilm is doing 3D without glasses (however, they’re doing it) is still pretty freakin’ cool. All of this coolness doesn’t come cheap. The camera itself goes for $600 and the screen is going for around $500-$600. You can find “deals” of the combo package going for around $1100-$1200 on-line.

There’s also a memory premium on 3D images as file size coming it at a whopping 14+MB per images (real close to 15MB per file). You can get around 114mins of a 3D movie onto a 16GB card though. Still, that’s a big file.

The high sticker price really hurts. Hi-end point and shoots can easily be had for half of this price, so there’s a real premium on the 3D technology. Still, it’s the first consumer camera that really does work. The 3D is certainly cool, but it’s still only a little hard to justify the price even with all the bells and whistles this camera can do.

Is it gimmicky? It’s tough to say, as we tend to think a lot of this 3D stuff is a little gimmicky. But FujiFilm pulls it off without making us feel like we’re getting a higher priced camera with 3D thrown in to up the price (sort of like how we feel about 3D TV’s).

If you’re looking for 3D shooter now, then this is your only bet and it’s not a bad one. FujiFilm loaded this camera with high quality construction, solid features, and nice optics, so you’re getting a high quality cam for sure.

Check out the full details and more specs and images over at FujiFilm.

(Editor’s Note: I want one. I’m just trying to justify the price.)

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