How to Build a Stereo LF Camera

[durr3]

Does anybody have a design for converting a large format camera to stereo? I have a body and two identical Zeiss lenses.

Now what?

thanks

[IanG]

It's going to depend on the camera, you need an internal dividerbetween the lenses and the film plane and a wide enough lens board with the correct amout of separartion between the lenses, that also may need to vary depending on how close you want to focus.

I'd look up old Patents to see some ways around the issues. The leading collector and also owner of the London Streoscopic Company (http://www.londonstereo.com/) is a well known rock guitarist, you may know his name :D Might be a good site to visit.

Acyually a Google image seach shows you far more
(https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=converting+a+field+camera+for+stereo+use&client=firefox-b&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKpKSUgtPPAhXKAMAKHc48CV4Q_AUICigD&biw=1366&bih=627#tbm=isch&q=stereo+field+camera&imgrc=OHWqbU5WsEJtDM%3A)
Ian

[durr3]

Thanks for the lead....I will check it out.

[IanG]

Actually the LSC sute is a bit disappointing.

On the Google image page you can see the divider in at least one photoit doesn't go quite to the front standard to allow for focussing. You'll also see many cameras use a wide Thornton Pickard roller blind shutter, in all my time searching ebay I've only seen one, other than when fitted to a streo camera. You can also see one camera where the distance between the two lens boards can be adjusted this seems less common it's more important for close up work.

Some cameras use a single lens and the lens board slides to two different positions, usually these have a removable divider so stereo or normal images can be made.

Ian

[Jac@stafford.net]

[...]Some cameras use a single lens and the lens board slides to two different positions, usually these have a removable divider so stereo or normal images can be made.

I like that idea.

[IanG]

I figure the easiest camera to use might be a 10x8 camera like an Agfa Ansco Universal or Commercial View or equivalent, shooting 7x5 film. You wouldn't need to modify the camera itself, instead make a 7x5 conversion back which has the divider fitted to it. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while, I've thought about a stereoscopic installation of quite large prints but have never got around to trying it, I've s been looking out for a cheap LF stereo camera but they always sell for high prices..

Ian

[Steven Tribe]

About 50% of tailboard 13x18cm German reisekameras have built-in fitments for mounting a central folding septum that adjusts with focussing and different focal lengths. Quite a few 18x25cm models have this too.

Earlyphotography.co.uk now has a very good section on the "one lens" solution. Some UK plate models have both this adaption and vertical sliding lens boards too.

Stereoscopic cameras and lens pairs proper, are the realm of the wealthy or "driven"!


Here is the link. One lens solutions are shown at the bottom of the page.

öhttp://earlyphotography.co.uk/site/stereo.html

[Steven Tribe]

Does anybody have a design for converting a large format camera to stereo? I have a body and two identical Zeiss lenses.

Now what?

thanks

The approximately 1% range in the focal lengths of the same lens from a manufacturer makes this impossible. Waterhouse stops are better than irises.

[DrTang]

I've thought about a stereoscopic installation of quite large prints but have never got around to trying it

Ian


how are people to view these prints? with some kind of custom viewer set up or will they stand there and try to merge them themselves?

I think it would be fairly easy to construct something a lensboard with two lenses - normal spacing is about 2.5" I think
and a back with a divider - the interesting question is how to view the finished product?

[IanG]

how are people to view these prints? with some kind of custom viewer set up or will they stand there and try to merge them themselves?

I think it would be fairly easy to construct something a lensboard with two lenses - normal spacing is about 2.5" I think
and a back with a divider - the interesting question is how to view the finished product?

I've thought about that :D, it needs some experimenting though with test prints. I can easily make a back for one of my Agfa Ansco cameras and could include a focal plane shutter, I have one that just needs a new curtain - at the moment it's impractical as it's a high speed shutter so only has a narrow slit width. I'd use two Cooke Series II 5¾" lenses (I have 3).

Ian

[Jim Michael]

Another approach would be to use a slider to move the camera from L to R, then use 2 dark slides with holes cut for L and R. Adjust the interocular distance as appropriate for the scene.

[ruilourosa]

The other issue could be the viewer... i never saw a viewer for large format negatives... also if you could find one remember that for "normal" stereoscopy 6-7 cm lens camera separation is needed, if more distance is used hyper stereoscopy or a sense of bigger than normal distance between objects is obtained and difficult viewing! bigger images could mean larger than normal interpupilary distance...

i would advise a normal or normal wide focal lenght (55 to 85 mm) and a 6x12 back on your 4x5, a double lens lensboard that can hold the lens at 7 cm or near distance between the center of the lenses and a separation between the lens chambers. You could then make contacts out of the pairs and change their order to get stereo images and use a regular stereo viewer!

Or buy a russian sputnik camera and have fun taking pictures!

Cheers!

[IanG]

There's a "Stereo" 6x17 camera on Ebay at way to high a price for what it is but the idea is brilliant. I could modify my 6x17 Gaoersi for far less but bI'd prefer larger negatives though. However I may need to look at what I'd actually get with 7x5 or the 6x17 particularly as I'd be shooting landscapes.

Ian

[Drew Bedo]

I haven't read everything so please excuse me it this is redundant.

Is it necessary to modify the camera?

My thought is to use the camera's movements to achieve the 3D effect:

I would try try using front and rear shift, and perhaps swings too, to separate the images.

[IanG]

I guess that would work but would be awkward and hard to control with many cameras. I have a 7x5 Seneca City View which would be easy too use like that as the trackbed is split and slides left or right to give a lot of front shift, essentially an extension rail that can shift. I assume you're thinking of two sheets of film.

Even easier would be make a sliding bit to fit between the tripod and camera to shift the camera left/right between exposures. Rolleiflex made a Stereo slde bar for their TLR cameras.

Ian

[durr3]

THANK YOU ALL for your input and ideas. Sounds like a real project, but I will at least get started! Thanks again.

[Tin Can]

Look at 7x11 No 2 Eastman I think the sliding front lens board was for 2 images using GG dividers.

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?113094-Early-Eastman-2-View-Cameras-Why-did-the-2D-get-worse&p=1133364&viewfull=1#post1133364

[mikl]

Not LF I know but I have a Kodak MF(?) camera here at the moment along with a couple of hundred images taken in Indonesia in the 1920's and have been fascinated at just how much 3d you get. In my observation it seems like the images are at a slightly different exposure as you can see below. I am only guessing this but it seems the ones that are really 3D seem to have stop or so difference. Tony Robinson of "Black Adder" fame did a doco on stereo images in the first world war and they got them to be 3D on a TV without glasses so there must be a way to display them LINK..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8E6WroDA9I.
I am lucky in that this lot came with a viewer.

Hope this helps and good luck, I will be following keenly

https://photos.smugmug.com/Century-9A-Restoration/i-XtqgXMV/0/M/Stereoscope%20jpeg%20%281%20of%201%29-8-M.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/Century-9A-Restoration/i-vzrW49n/0/M/Stereoscope%20jpeg%20%281%20of%201%29-3-M.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/Century-9A-Restoration/i-zPMVNf5/0/M/20161011_152813-M.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/Century-9A-Restoration/i-HtQkDs3/0/M/20161011_152939-M.jpg

[DrTang]

That's a Kodak? looks German to me..but.. cool if it is

I don't think the exposure difference is on purpose - probably one is/ was shutter slower that the other and unadjusted

[Tin Can]

5x8 Stereo camera

http://www.blackartwoodcraft.com/wet-plate-cameras/Cameras/The-Rondeau-5x8-Stereo-Mono-Field-Camera.aspx

[Tin Can]

Also look into Virtual Stereo viewing Directly without aperatus. Go the big U.K. Stereo site where he explains it. I just did with your posted generator pair on my iPod.

Basicly you loosely stare at a stereo pair until you can merge them. It works!

[neil poulsen]

How about the following, but sideways . . .

http://www.glennview.com/sinar.htm

Of course, this is set up for portraiture (an excellent set up for that purpose), so one can remove the viewer, turn it on its side, etc.

[photonsoup]

This thread got me thinking so......
I set up a Cambo 4x5 with both standards shifted as far right as possible, took a shot. I then shifted both standards 67mm to the left, took second shot.
Then I contact printed them side by side. I can not "unfocused" my eyes enough to make them merge but I can force myself to go cross-eyed and see them in 3D with some straining.

Then I scanned them, if I zoom out to the point that the points in the image are 67mm apart on the screen (or smaller) it is pretty easy to unfocus and see the images as 3D.
I made the pair fill the screen of a 27" iMac and took a picture of the screen with my phone, viewing it small makes it look really good.

I choose 67mm because thats distance between my pupils. Yours may be different. If you have a tough time seeing this in 3D make the image smaller on your screen, or view on a smaller screen
http://theplumberbryan.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/3D.jpg
Cambo 4x5, Fujinon 125mm, Arista 100, 1 second at f16

[pierre506]

156431

8x10~

[mikl]

Thought I put up an answer to you DrTang a couple of days ago..... Seems it went south... anyway you are 100% correct. The other 2 that came with the stereo camera were Kodaks so my fingers ran off at the mouth. Only mark on it is "Capi" I think they were a Dutch retailer so probably re badged. Love this thread!
Michael

[barnacle]

Photonsoup - your image works well with a touch of ctrl-scroll to zoom out the image; no viewer required.

Your method was one of the options used around the end of the 19th century; a similar approach used a parallel link on the tripod mount to shift the camera a few inches to one side while maintaining the forward view.

Neil

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Thought I put up an answer to you DrTang a couple of days ago..... Seems it went south... anyway you are 100% correct. The other 2 that came with the stereo camera were Kodaks so my fingers ran off at the mouth. Only mark on it is "Capi" I think they were a Dutch retailer so probably re badged. Love this thread!
Michael

At the front it seems to say: ICA Act Ges , which is short for Internationale Camera Action Gesellschaft (International Camera [Shares] Company)
The one you have is probably the ICA Stereo Ideal nr. 651:
http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Stereo_Ideal
http://collectiblend.com/Cameras/ICA...x13,-651).html

[dsphotog]

www.berezin.com sells the Hyper-View stereo viewer $165. It works great and was designed by David Lee, who was a great stereographer.

[DrTang]

www.berezin.com sells the Hyper-View stereo viewer $165. It works great and was designed by David Lee, who was a great stereographer.

this one might work for larger prints

http://www.berezin.com/3d/pocket_3dvu.htm

[DrTang]

Alright - this whole thread got me wondering..so I checked out in my storage area and sure enough - a Polaroid Miniportrait 202 (I think) - it focuses at 4 feet , and was made for the 545 holders..but it accepts a graphmatic just fine

I shot a couple tests.. cropped two of them. Thing is - after scanning, I had to swap the images left for right. it would have been fine upside down (in the orientation they were taken), but turn them right side up and now the left is on the right


here's the camera:

http://www.mericphoto.com/lfp/p3d.JPG

and here are the pix:

http://www.mericphoto.com/lfp/3D%20-%204x5001.JPG


http://www.mericphoto.com/lfp/3D%20-%204x5002.JPG


http://www.mericphoto.com/lfp/3D%20-%204x5004.JPG

[barnacle]

DrTang - did you swap those images around? As posted, the right eye image is definitely on the right in all three cases (easy to see with the cine camera; it's facing the left eye straight on but the viewer's right side of it is visible in the right hand image).

Um, you'd swap the images round if you use the 'crossed-eye' viewing technique, I guess; I use the 'uncross' until you end up with three adjacent images, one of which is the stereo result.

Neil

[gchu1970]

my new 6X17stereo systemhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210212/ad91b3c9310852f9f93cf0ad8995e72d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210212/46baa884d0c8e93eda6b87868ca0f63d.jpg

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[gchu1970]

my new 6X17 stereo systemhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210212/1736288b73ccf800519ac3a0431b68d9.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210212/8ff19de341f8f781f19440e368d74d41.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210212/061680e6a7e88e8e975d87f6c4f5d731.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210212/d769af7550c75f6f669e57f598b5134d.jpg

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[Havoc]

Oh, very nice!

I hoped to use a Fuji FP-UL as a stereo camera but it can't focus far enough to be usable.

[John Layton]

GChu - nice...but if you could create a front standard to allow for each lens to swing (axially) and shift (laterally), then you could adjust the interocular distance and aim points - which would allow you to alter (exaggerate/diminish) the 3-D perspective. Would be a lot more fun I would think! :)

[gchu1970]

GChu - nice...but if you could create a front standard to allow for each lens to swing (axially) and shift (laterally), then you could adjust the interocular distance and aim points - which would allow you to alter (exaggerate/diminish) the 3-D perspective. Would be a lot more fun I would think! :)thanks for your suggestion. I may try in future. Now let me play with simple mode first.

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[gchu1970]

Oh, very nice!

I hoped to use a Fuji FP-UL as a stereo camera but it can't focus far enough to be usable.I played with the Wista Stereo camera I purchased from this forum years ago and used Fuji FP-C45. Very nice

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[Havoc]

I played with the Wista Stereo camera I purchased from this forum years ago and used Fuji FP-C45. Very nice

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Oh, can you use that one for real stereo? I always thought it would be like the Fuji FP-UL only for portraits so it would have a limited range for focus. So, another to add to my list... Thanks for that info!