3Discover: A Hacker's POV

[P3D Sam Smith <sam@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My 3Discover viewer came in the mail today and I wasted no time cracking it
open to see what made it tick.
But first I must say that I was very impressed overall. Although the lenses
are terrible and are fixed  focus, they've at least included an inter-ocular
adjustment. The views do seem a little contrasty, but I didn't think the
sharpness was that bad.

OK, lets get to the meat of the issue: Is it feasible to you use your own
images in the 3Discover viewer? In short, yes. How this would be
accomplished may distract a lot of you from trying. For me I've got
something close enough to almost try it right now.

First of all, let me describe how the images are placed. All 24x36 stereo
pairs have a 20mm gap between them, and they are separated from the next
pair by 24 perforations. That's a three-stroke advance for you 35mm SLR users.
 To duplicate your own slides to fit this format, you would need a stereo
duplicating camera with a 20mm stereo base. Sounds complicated, right?

It is, but no more complicated than making a DLR stereo camera from two
conventional SLRs. Those familiar with my web page will have seen my Stereo
Miranda. It's a 24 perf advance, but with a 29mm gap between frame. A black
strip by the bottom perfs, located in between each set of stereo pairs,
triggers a sensor the stop the motor advance for each frame. If I just
redesigned it and made the gap 20mm, all I'd need ( which I already have)
are some extension tubes and slide duper. As you need a clear base on the
edges for the sensor, you'd have to start out with negs of your views. You'd
dupe these on Vericolor slide film to obtain positives. After the roll is
processed, blacken the spot on the bottom between frames with a felt pen to
line up with the sensor. Presto! Almost-instant 3Discover views. 

Just so I don't get patent lawyers at my door, I have no intention of going
into business selling these. It's just an idea which is now public domain.

Installing better focusing lenses would be another hacker project, but for
right now I'm just content at enjoying the wonderful Canadian Rockies Part I
and II they sent me.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!


 
The 3D Hacker
website: http://www.barint.on.ca/~sam/imn23d.htm


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