Ok, let’s get this straight from the start: we’re not sure what this is. We aren’t sure how useful it will really be, and it’s just a point-and-shoot camera with point-and-shoot quality. But, man, is it cool. You probably have figured out by now we’re mostly stocking it because if we didn’t, then half of us were going to buy one just to play with it anyway. If you rent it, we want you to have that same attitude: it will certainly be fun to play with, but don’t be planning on entering footage in the local film fest.

So what is it? Well, technically, it’s a 3D camera. It has a pair of 3x (35mm to 105mm equivalent) lenses mated to a pair of 10 megapixel sensors. You can do some cool things with that: shoot the same scene at two focal lengths simultaneously. But mostly they are set up to take two simultaneous, offset images to create a 3D image. You can view the image on the camera’s LCD, which is specially set up for that, you can send them in and get 3D prints made, or you can output the image to your computer, provided you have the appropriate software.

It can also shoot 720p 3D video that can be output via HDMI cable (not included) to a 3D compatible TV or monitor, or stored on your computer as 3D AVI files with two image channels. Again, you must have appropriate software to use those files.

So, for most of you, this isn’t really too useful, and you probably don’t really want to rent it. We’re good with that, but, just in case, we have enough so that we’ll still have a couple left to play with, just in case some of you do.