New Gear: Sony Cyber-shot WX5 and TX9 shoot HD video, 3D panoramas

Look at most of the products Sony has released this year, not just cameras, and you’ll notice that they have built 3D technology into just about every device possible. Their new compacts, the WX5 and the TX9 are no exception, with the press material touting them as “the world’s smallest 3D cameras.” Rather than opting for a two-lens system like Fujifilm, Sony is using the same 3D Sweep Panorama mode found in their impressive NEX-series interchangeable lens compacts. You simply press the shutter, move the camera in a sweeping motion and it captures enough frames it can stitch together into a 3D panorama that can be viewed in 2D or 3D, assuming you have access to a 3D-ready HDTV. If your living room hasn’t made the jump to 3D yet, you can also opt for 3D multi-angle, which stitches together 15 frames into a simulated 3D image you can view on the camera’s LCD.

The spec sheets for both cameras look fairly similar. Both are equipped with 12.2-megapixel Exmor R back-illuminated CMOS sensors and Sony’s new Superior Auto mode, which evaluates a scene and combines up to 6 frames to improve exposures and decrease noise. Both are also capable of pulling down 1920 x 1080 video in AVCHD format.