Now as the Loreo "3D Lens in a cap" LA9005 is also available with mFT mount, people start asking me, which 3D lens to choose, as this item is currently significantly cheaper than Panasonic's 3D lens, the Lumix H-FT012. In order to help sorting out the differences, we will see how it compares to the "swiss knife" of compact 3D photography, the FujiFilm FinPix Real 3D W3, which was already discussed in this article.

The following picture illustrates the 4:3 (FourThirds)-version. The mount of the mFT version is a bit longer. On top of the body housing you see the slider for the aperture adjustement. The focus slider is on the bottom side.

The construction of such a lens, projecting two seperate views side by side into one frame, is not so new as this article about the "ZEISS-Stereo-System" from year 1957 illustrates.

The focal lenght of 40 mm would be in terms of the mFT crop factor already an equivalent to a fullframe 80 mm lens but as the left and right images each share about one half of a FourThirds sensor, the viewing angle already compares approximately to a 160 mm tele lens (fullframe equivalent). So it is a good idea to combine this item with two wide angle converters that can be attached to the 58 mm filter mounts on the front - which you already should take into account, if you plan to purchase the Loreo 3D lens. The following image shows, how this combination looks, when attached to the Panasonic GH2:

Compared to the Lumix 3D lens attached to the GH2 and the Fuji Real 3D W3, dimensions and weight are quite impressive...

(Pic. 1: Left: Panasonic Lumix GH2 with attached 3D Lens H-FT012, right: Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W3)

As the whole body housing including the mounts of the Loreo lens is made of plastic, it appears a little bit fragile to me, especially when the wide angle converters are attached.

The aperture can be adjusted to f11, f16 and f22, which means you need a lot of light or high ISO settings when using these lenses but on the other hand this means that you have a wide depth of field and nearly no out-of-focus unsharpness, which is very important for a good 3D cognition. The focus works from 1.5 m to infinity. Due to a stereo basis of 9 cm, this is not a lens for close up photographs as left and right images are too wide apart to fuse. Its purpose is to create a good 3D effect for objects that are 5 m and more away whereas the Lumix H-FT012 is best suited for distances of 0.6 to 2m, so typically e.g. for closeup portraits.

The following images show this significant difference:

(sample image taken with Loreo LA9005 mFT and 0.43x wide angle converters, processed as anaglyph to be viewed with red/cyan filter glasses,
click on the image to see it full size. You can download a stereo MPO file here.)

In this image, the distance to the people passing by was approximately 5 meters. As the left and right images share the same sensor, the area that can be used to overlay is in upright (portrait) format.

Now (from the same viewpoint) the scene taken with the Lumix H-FT012:

(converted to anaglyph to be viewed with red/cyan filter glasses; click on the image for full size.
You can download the stereo MPO file here.)

Due to the small stereo basis of 1 cm, the scenery seems nearly flat and two-dimensional.

In order to get an idea how this compares to the Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W3 with 7,5cm stereo basis (set to an appropriate zoom):

(same scene taken from same viewpoint with Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W3, converted to red/cyan anaglyph;
click on the image for full size; you can download the stereo MPO file here).

Conclusion

• The Loreo "Lens in a Cap" LA 9005 mFT with it's 9 cm stereo basis is a specialist for images in portrait format taken from objects with a distance of 5 meters and more and requires good light conditions
  
  
• The Lumix H-FT012 is a specialist for close up photographs in a distance of about 1 meter as demonstrated here, requiring good light conditions as well
  
  
• The Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D is a generalist for distances of 2 m and more. Due to it's two separated 10 MP sensors and zoom lenses (35 -105 mm fullframe equivalent) it produces images with high resolution sharp enough for most typical 3D applications. Starting from f5.6 it can be used already at average light conditions.