Question: I am ready to set up a theater room and had decided on a plasma HDTV, Blu-ray player and surround sound. I saw your column on 3-D TV and now I am thinking I should wait, but I have questions. When will they come out? Should I wait until they have been out a while before I buy? Will 2-D look as good on a 3-D set? If you watch 3-D without glasses will it look like 2-D or will it have the out-of-focus look?

I really want to get going on my theater, but I would hate to have it obsolete a month after I set it up. Your thoughts?

Answer: Manufacturers recently held events to launch their 3-D products, and Best Buy and Panasonic are setting up demonstrations in select stores. Wait to check it out before you decide. I'll answer the rest of your questions in the order you presented them.

I don't think there is any danger in being an early 3-D adopter as the technology is well developed and there is a single standard that manufacturers agreed upon. Over time prices will drop and more content will be available, though, so there is a cost to being an early adopter.

Conventional 2-D broadcasts will look just as good on a 3-D set, perhaps even better since the 3-D sets will have the latest and best imaging technology for the best possible picture quality.

If you watch a 3-D broadcast or 3-D Blu-ray without glasses it will look fuzzy, unless you set the TV to display it in 2-D. If you do not have glasses for everyone, you should plan on watching it in 2-D mode.

As for my thoughts, I'd wait a bit, spend a bit more and get 3-D from the get-go. You will be glad you did!

Question: I need to take photos inside a house where the room is too small to get a decent shot. I am using the Canon 18-55 mm lens that came with the camera, and it is not wide enough. Would a wide-angle lens help me? Can you recommend something that would fit my Canon Digital Rebel XS?

PASCAL, Chicago

Answer: When used with your Rebel, the 18-55 mm lens is the equivalent of a 28 mm wide-angle on a 35 mm camera. That's actually pretty wide, and you would need to go well below 18 mm to make a noticeable difference. Such lenses tend to be quite expensive.

Canon makes an excellent 10-22 mm lens, but it costs almost $800. Sigma's 10-20 is another option, but at $479 it is not inexpensive either, at least for most photographers who are not serious hobbyists or professionals. If you are not going to use the lens often, I would not recommend the investment.

Before you buy an expensive lens, I would try to get the job done with photo stitching software. Photo stitching software will take several frames and seamlessly stitch them into one panoramic image. Some examples of interior photography done with photo stitching can be found at www.kenrockwell.com/canon/photostitch.htm.

Canon includes the software with most of their cameras, so be sure to check the software that came with your camera.

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