Panasonic, Sony and JVC all released single-body 3D camcorders at NAB last week in a bid to make the acquisition of 3D images easier and more affordable.

Sony hopes that the two cameras it unveiled in Las Vegas - its first foray into professional 3D cameras with integrated lenses - will complement the use of 3D rigs, which offer greater precision but can be expensive and awkward to manoeuvre in confined spaces.

Based on the XDCam EX recording platform, Sony’s PMWTD300 features a dual half-inch Exmor 3 CMOS sensor design with 1920 x 1080 resolution.

The camera has four SxS card slots in total, with two slots for each view, and left and right eye signals recorded onto separate SxS cards.

Sony also released the compact HXR-NX3D1U, which has a glasses-free 3D LCD display to check 3D footage and is designed for close-up shooting of 3D images.

Panasonic has added to its AG-3DA1 camcorder, which it launched last year, with the AG-3DP1 twin-lens P2 HD shoulder-mount camcorder. It shoots 10-bit, 4:2:2 at 1920 x 1080 resolution to Panasonic’s P2 cards.

JVC unveiled the GY-HMZ1U ProHD 3D camcorder, which comes with an integrated 3D twin lens design powered by JVC’s proprietary large-scale integration chip.

The handheld camcorder features dual 3.32 megapixel CMOS sensors – one for each lens – and delivers 34 Mbps AVCHD recording in 3D or 24Mbps in 2D.

JVC said video can be recorded with timecode at 60i to provide smooth motion for sports and other fast action or 24p for a film-like effect.

Panasonic’s vice-president of sales and product management Joseph Facchini said the company’s AG-3DP1 would “expand the universe of affordable 3D production for live events, sports, documentaries and independent films”.

Uncertainty remains after Japanese earthquake

Sony and Panasonic have warned NAB delegates of likely product shortages but have reassured them that normal service will soon be resumed at their factories in Japan.

Panasonic Solutions executive vice-president John Baisley told Broadcast some of its products would be delayed. He said: “The best I can say is that there are about half a dozen models [affected].

“Certain impacted components are interchangeable with different models, and we are now making decisions [about whether to do that], based on expected demands. There will be some impact, but we don’t have more detail at this point.”

Baisley said there was “no issue” with the firm’s P2 cards and tapes, but there has been a rise in demand as a result of SR being unavailable.

“Some productions are moving to [Panasonic tape format] D5 and that is putting a strain on what is available, so we may have some shortages,” he said.

Sony said it expects production of HDCam SR tape to resume by “early summer”.

Sony Professional Solutions vice-president Naomi Climer told Broadcast she did not expect supplies of HDCam SR to run out completely, but it would only be able to supply “a percentage” of customers”. She said power was a “significant” issue