Think you don't need 3D? Watch this!

Why you need 3D

Sometimes - and especially with sports action shots - however remarkable the footage, it just doesn't feel you you're there!

Have a look at this (absolutely terrifying!) reel from GoPro user. There's little doubt that whoever took this is either extremely skilful, has no fear whatsoever, or, most likely, has both of those attributes.

The razor-thin ridge he's zooming along is nothing compared to the back-flips (that's what they look like, anyway) over places where the landscape appears to just drop away.

In some places, the "official" path narrows to invisibility as he steers off piste to take a route that would make the average mountain goat need to sit down for a few minutes.

Sit close to the screen so that it fills your field of vision.

But, you know what? It's not as good as it could be.

As the rider hurtles from one peak to another, maybe it's because of the wide lens angle, or perhaps the quality isn't quite up to it, but there simply aren't enough visual clues here to give you a real feeling for where you are in time and space.

That's probably largely because of YouTube encoding and the fact that these probably weren't the most pristine images in the first place.

But it's also because there simply isn't enough spacial information for us to "feel" the 3D landscape.

Undoubtedly, if we were watching this in much higher quality, we'd have a much better sense of being there. If it was in 4K, we'd be stunned and alarmed at the same time.

But perhaps the biggest enhancement to our experience of all would be for this to have been filmed stereoscopically. Having a stereoscopic view would transform this footage and very significantly improve the appearance of this recording.

We think 3D still has a role to play, even in these days of 4K.

Video over the page.

Video