It's also a hard camera to rate, since it's as groundbreaking as it is frustrating. It's the best 3D camera we've tested to date, but it's also in a class of its own and has its share of quirks. For all the points it scores in the innovation and wow-factor departments (a glasses-free display, manual controls over both the aperture and parallax controls, and compose-your-own 3D modes that give you independent control over each lens), it's also not for everyone: The display has both sweet spots and headache-inducing spots, the manual controls are hit-or-miss, and getting the hang of composing your own 3D shots takes a bit of time.

The result is the most-advanced 3D point-and-shoot camera available right now, but one that isn't exactly for the faint of heart. If you're adventurous enough to experiment extensively with the camera's controls, and if you have the appropriate set-up for , it may be worth the investment. Even more so than with most cameras, it's a good idea to get some hands-on time with it before you buy to see if its unique way of doing things sits well with you.

The Finepix Real 3D W3 captures 3D stills and video through its pair of 3X-optical zoom lenses (35mm to 105mm), which are spaced as far apart as a pair of eyeballs. Behind the glass are two 1/2.3-inch 10-megapixel CCD sensors. It captures 3D still images in MPO format, and 720p 3D video as an AVI file at 24 frames per second. If the display device doesn't support 3D, the video clips will appear in 2D.

The W3 has a glasses-free 3D display that lets you preview effects as you're shooting them and playing them back, which is mission-critical on a camera that's built for 3D imaging. That said, the lenticular 3.5-inch LCD screen has its sweet spots, and looking at it for an extended period of time can be challenging: I got a few headaches, but your brain's mileage may vary.