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Mug Muggler

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Posted on Saturday, January 26, 2002 - 6:27 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IPPrint Post

Does anyone know what the difference is between the Argus and Vivitar point and shoot stereo cameras are? I'm mainly concerned with the lenses. I have the Argus, and it uses mirrors and a prism (I guess a beam splitter?) to creat the left and right images. When the light is just perfect, it works great, but often the mirrors reflect strange light patterns into the prism causing streaks and over/under exposures. I'm wondering if the Vivitar uses the same system or if it has 2 lenses.

Thanks for any info you might have.

-Mug

p.s. Here are a couple anaglyphs I took with the argus camera:

http://www.reemco.com/3dtiki
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David C. Qualman

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Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2002 - 7:22 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IPPrint Post

I had - note past tense - the Argus, and threw it away. The Argus has plastic mirrors, and the images do not align perfectly on the film. Even the sample images that come with the Argus demonstrate some misalignment. I wanted to fix it, but found that just tightening down the screws to hold the mirrors causes them to deform. These pictures are effectively useless when converted to digital images.

I spoke to someone in the Cascade Stereoscopic Club, of which I am a member, about the Vivitar. He said that the Vivitar uses glass lenses, and does not suffer from this defect. He also said that the Vivitar suffered less from the glare (streaks and over/under exposures).

My understanding is that the Vivitar is very similar in construction to the Argus, except that the Agrus stores the image as L/R on the film, and the Vivitar stores them in opposite orientation.

I prefer to use the Nimslo.
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Mug Muggler

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Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2002 - 1:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IPPrint Post

Thanks for the info, David! How do you process prints for the Nimslo -- can you just take the film to the camera store? I would love to get a more reliable camera, but I'm not a professional photographer and it seems the only way to get really great shots is to buy a vintage camera and shoot slides. That's too large an investment for me now (camera, projector, screen, slide mounts, etc).

Any solutions for shooting great 3-d photographs that can be processed and printed from the camera store?

-Mug
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David C. Qualman

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Posted on Monday, January 28, 2002 - 7:06 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IPPrint Post

I take my pictures with print film - not negative film. I can have these prints developed at any 1 hour shop that can process standard color film - C-14, I believe.

The Vivitar and Argus use the space of one picture on the roll of film to take a stereo pair. The Nimslo uses the space of two pictures on the roll of film to take 4 pictures. This is because the Nimslo was originally used to produce lenticular images. I use the outer two images for the stereo pair. Occasionally, if the objects are really close to the camera, I'll use some of the inner pictures so that I don't get too much stereo separation.

I think that the Argus/Vivitar types of cameras, and the Nimslo and other lenticular-type are a very useful method of getting started in stereo photos, since they can use standard film, and can be developed at standard locations.

I also use a pair of instamatic-type cameras that are mounted to a single bar. I electrically connected the switches, so that the pictures can be taken simulteneously.

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