Considering the company’s current concentration on all things 3D, it’s no surprise that Sony has announced its new point-and-shoot digital cameras, due to launch in August, can take 3D panoramic photos.

Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-TX9.

Though 3D-capable cameras are nothing new, two new additions to Sony’s 2010 Cyber-shot line – the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX5 and Cyber-shot DSC-TX9 – are notable for their 3D-shooting capabilities. According to Sony, they’re the first everyday point-and-shoot cameras that offer 3D imaging capabilities, and they create 3D photos with a single lens.

As a report in the Wall Street Journal notes, to create 3D images, cameras traditionally use a dual-lens system, with the two lenses spaced about as far apart as a pair of human eyeballs. After shooting, two slightly offset images are overlaid, and a visible 3D effect is achieved by using one of many presentation options (among them, red/blue anaglyph filters, different methods of polarization, or viewing the images with the naked eye on a specially treated screen).

The WX5 and TX9 work around the dual-lens system with a creative rejiggering of Sony’s Sweep Panorama mode. Using the cameras’ 3D Sweep Panorama setting, you press the shutter button once, pan across a scene, and the camera stitches together a panoramic image that can be viewed in 3D.

“In the 3D Sweep Panorama mode, the camera calculates what a dual-lens system would capture at different points in the scene and create a similarly offset image. When the image is viewed through special glasses on a compatible HDTV set, the resulting image shows a 3D effect,” adds the report.

While many will remain skeptical about 3D gaming or 3D TV, the 3D-capable handheld camera seems a natural fit to us (I played around with a pretty basic 3D handheld last year and it’s an excellent feature), and with Sony’s weight behind the WX5 and TX9 they should be pretty big hits.