Stereo Adaptor?

[Goondu]

Does anyone heard about a stereo adaptor? To briefly describe, it is an adaptor that has 2 mirrors which will split the image into 2. The 2 pictures (taken at the same time) will not be exactly identical which thus create a stereo effect.

I have learnt this from my colleague. He is wondering if there is still shops in Singapore that is selling this and if yes, how much?

Am I making sense in the first place, or is my friend pulling a fast one over me?:dunno:

Any comments will do.

 

[roygoh]

The principle of stereo pictures is to take the same scene twice but from slightly different left-right perspective. The idea is to simulate the different perspective captured by our 2 eyes.

The stereo adapter will capture the 2 perspectives at the same time, but you loose out on resolution, as the 2 pics have to be shared in the same frame.

Alternatively, you can take 2 full-frame shots of the same scene consecutively, but move you camera slightly to the left (or right) before taking the second shot.

You will need a special viewer to be able to view the pictures in 3D. But I can give you an idea that is relatively cheap to do.

First, you would need to take the pictures using 35mm slides.

Buy 2 of those pocket slide viewers and stack them side by side, one viewer for each eye.

Once you've got the slides developed, each scene will have 2 slides. Put the slide taken with the camera to the left in the left viewer and the other in the right. Look at the slides like looking into a binoculars. You will see a very convincing 3D effect.

I have done this before, and I still have the viewers and slides with me. I can post a picture of the viewer tomorrow.

 

[Goondu]

Originally posted by roygoh
The principle of stereo pictures is to take the same scene twice but from slightly different left-right perspective. The idea is to simulate the different perspective captured by our 2 eyes.

The stereo adapter will capture the 2 perspectives at the same time, but you loose out on resolution, as the 2 pics have to be shared in the same frame.

Alternatively, you can take 2 full-frame shots of the same scene consecutively, but move you camera slightly to the left (or right) before taking the second shot.

You will need a special viewer to be able to view the pictures in 3D. But I can give you an idea that is relatively cheap to do.

First, you would need to take the pictures using 35mm slides.

Buy 2 of those pocket slide viewers and stack them side by side, one viewer for each eye.

Once you've got the slides developed, each scene will have 2 slides. Put the slide taken with the camera to the left in the left viewer and the other in the right. Look at the slides like looking into a binoculars. You will see a very convincing 3D effect.

I have done this before, and I still have the viewers and slides with me. I can post a picture of the viewer tomorrow.

Thanks for your detailed explanation. It will be wonderful if you could post the viewer.

Once again, thank you.

 

[roygoh]

OK, here's the El-Cheapo stereo viewer system that anyone can make for very low cost. I got this idea from the "ViewMaster" stereo viewer toy that I used to have when I was a kid.

What you need are 2 pocket slide viewers. Stick them side by side using double-sided tape as shown in the pictures below:

Next, you can start taking stereo pictures on normal 35mm slides.
Look for a scene that has objects at differenet distances from the camera. Pick a point in the scene to be you centre of focus. Place that point right in the centre of the frame. Meter and take the first shot.

Keep the same exposure settings, move the camera about 8 centimeters (about the separation of our 2 eyes) to the left (while maintaining the same height), and place the point of focus right in the middle of the frame again. Take the second shot.

Now you have 2 shots of the same scene taken with a slightly different perspective.

Repeat for other scenes. When finished, send the slides for processing and mounting.

To view the slides, pick a scene and place the slide taken from the right side perspective into the right slide viewer and vice versa. View the slides like viewing into a binoculars.

You should be able tto tell the left and right slides from the perspective. Otherwise, make sure you shoot the left anf right slides in the same sequence for every scene, so that you can differentiate the left and right slides by the slide number (odd or even).

I could not show my slides here, so I took some shots with my CP995 to demonstrate the left/right perspective:

If you know the parallel-eye viewing method, you should be able to view the pictures in 3D right there on your monitor.

Using a focal length of 45mm will simulate the actual angle of coverage of our eyes very well. However, you do not have to be limited to using only this focal length. Experiment with various focal lengths (even telephoto) and the results are usually very good.

Let me know if this works for you.

Thanks!

Roy

 

[roygoh]

Well, one disadvantage of this system is, obviously, you cannot have any moving objects in the frame. Otherwise the results will be not as good.

 

[Edmund]

Goondu & Roy, this is very interesting, I will move it over to Technical Discussions sub-forums for easier future reference.