> Well, if I wanted to do it for my clients would it be possible? I'd
> have to find a lab, and a supplier of viewers I suppose.
>
> I thought I saw somewhere that there was a way to do it with a pair of
> digital p+s, but how would you view it?
>
> tv
The easy way is to get a 3D camera or a stereo adaptor. (Someday
I will stumble across a Pentax stereo adaptor at a garage sale
priced at a fraction of its worth, with matching viewer, and ...)
I know some folks do the two-camera thing, and I was headed in
that direction (planning to use matched Pentax H3 bodies) before
I was given my Nishika. (Don't use the Nishika professionally;
it's fun but not reliable. If you get a four-lens beastie, hold
out for the Nimslo.)
I've got ideas for how to cobble together a ViewMaster-like
stereo slide viewer for pairs of slides (the Pentax viewer
relies on having two half-frame images in one slide), but I
haven't tried to build a prototype. Easier to deal with is
to use print film.
In addition to the (for now) option of getting lenticular
prints made, there are stereo print viewers available. One
design I've seen uses images that are offset funny:
+----+
| |
| |
| |+----+
| || |
+----+| |
| |
| |
+----+
and the viewer is this box with mirrors in it. A friend I
don't see often enough (the one who gave me my first H3 in
fact) uses that system, and I think he's got a template for
printing the pairs off a computer from scans.
Then there are the kits that look just like American Civil
War era viewers, which the friend who shoots a whole lot of
3D uses. Looks spiffy, works fine, uses straightforward
side-by-side pairs just like the 3D photos that were shot
during the Civil War. This is what I'd suggest as part of
a wedding package, though I'm not sure how much they cost.
The retro look of the viewer becomes part of the album viewing
(and showing-off) experience.
And there's a viewer that's a little harder to use, but is
compact and cheap -- molded from a single piece of plastic,
and about the size of a comb. No holder for the prints
or rail to keep things aligned, but it fits in your pocket.
I've got one of those, a gift from the friend who uses the
kit-built viewer.
What we're doing, since we use four-lens cameras, is to
take the four frames of a shot, printed on two 4x6 machine
prints with two half-frame images on each; snip the
individual images apart with scissors; then paste the
two images we want to use (usually the outermost pair if
neither of those has the edge cut off because the frame
size doesn't _quite_ line up with standard 35mm spacing)
to heavy card stock with a glue stick. It would be much
spiffier to have a lab print the side-by-side images on
one sheet of paper and glue _that_ to the card, but it
wouldn't work as a machine print. (And don't forget to
reverse the order of the frames.) Printing from scanned
images would be another tidy solution.
I don't know what 3D cameras are still being made, if
any, but apparently there are lots of used 2-lens, 3-lens,
and 4-lens units still available. (Unless you want to make
lenticular prints you only need two images.) I'll try to
dig up my 3D photography bookmarks later, when I remember
which computer and which browser I bookmarked them in. I
don't recall whether any medium-format 3D cameras are out
there.
BTW, some 3D cameras have mirror setups inside to reverse
the order of the image in the camera so that you don't
have to do so in the darkroom or the viewer. The ones I've
heard reviews of lose some image quality as a result,
unfortunately, but I don't know whether that applies to
all such systems.
-- Glenn
