Re: 3D deja-Vu

[P3D Gregory J. Wageman <gjw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dr. T. comments:

>Sam, you are looking at one side of the equation: Equipment for taking the
>3D picture.  How about viewing equipment?  The majority of 2D photography
>does not need a viewer.  The majority of people who gave up 3D or never
>tried it, I think did not want the inconvenience of using a viewer.

When did color print film become widely available for the snapshot
photographer?

I ask because my recollection of my family's photography was of B&W
prints until sometime in the 60's, past the end of the stereo boom.
My mom has an Ansco fixed-focus camera that takes 620 roll film.  It
has one of those giant dish-type reflector flash attachments that
was actually larger than the camera, and used flash bulbs.  There was
no double-exposure prevention system, and you had to look through a
small window in the back of the camera to see when you had advanced
the film to the next frame.  In the 60's Kodak introduced the
Instamatic and the cartridge loading system, along with flashcubes.
My family bought several.  The whole setup was way easier to load and
use.  The film couldn't be double-exposed and it stopped winding
automatically at the next frame.  The higher-end Instamatics even
told you when you needed flash.  I mention this because the '50s
stereo cameras had many of these 'advanced' features, as well as
multi-element, variable-focus lenses, and thus were considerably
superior cameras to what your average snapshot photographer was using
at the same time (e.g. the common box camera, the Brownie, etc.).

Did color slide film predate color print film?  If so, it may have
been good color print film that killed stereophotography, just as it
has all but killed non-stereo slides.  How many non-3D amateurs do you
know who take slides on a regular basis?  How many as their ONLY
medium?

Consider slides.  To see them, you must either project them, or use
a viewer.  Assuming you only have one viewer (not an unreasonable
assumption for the average "family" situation), then in a group
situation (say a family gathering), you must pass the viewer around.
Only one person at a time gets to see the slide.  With prints, even
though only one person can hold a particular print, more than one
person can see it and you can have more than one print in "circulation",
as it were, so that everyone's looking at something.  You control
your own viewing time, passing on the bad ones quickly, pausing to
admire the good shots.

Projection requires setting up a screen and a projection tray or table,
setting up chairs in front of the screen, and darkening the room.
Most livingrooms cannot be darkened sufficiently during daylight hours,
so this was a post-sunset ritual, typically.  While the lights are out,
the audience has little choice of activity.  You either view the slides
while they're on the screen, or not at all...  It's a much more 'formal'
situation.  And if Uncle Ralph's slides are not particularly good...
well, it could be sheer torture to the 'captive' audience.

That's my theory, anyway...

        -Greg


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