Re: Stereo at conventions (Re: Pixar)

[P3D Alan Lewis <dlewis@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The postings about offering stereo photo's at Pixar were very 
interesting.  The people involved did a good job of thinking it through 
and tackled a big project.  Everything has a learning curve, and trying 
to offer quick 3-D in quantity to the general public is a challenge.
I'll offer my experience with offering 3-D at events to help anyone else 
who wants to take on a project of this type.

I used the print format for the stereos. You can see my version of the 
setup (camera and viewer) at http://www.arlington.net/homes/dlewis 
and click on "projects". Look for instant 3-D topic.

The setup uses a Polaroid pack film camera with a quality non-auto  
exposure lens.  A quality beamsplitter is attached to the camera.  The 
viewer I use is a home made combination of the Taylor Merchant viewer 
trimmed and fastened to a folding card.  It can be folded and placed into 
a flat envelope.  The photo's can be taken, developed, mounted, and sold 
to the public immediately.  No worry about keeping the pictures matched 
to the person later on.  The image is very good, and does stereo 
photography justice.  But you must use quality materials, you shouldn't 
cheap it out with a bad beamsplitter, poor camera, or a bad viewer.  I 
think the cost would be close, if not equal to the slide method used at 
Pixar.

Right now, if one were to try this for the first time, this is what I 
would recommend:
1) Use a Polaroid model 180 or 195 (or a converted 110A/B) camera.  The 
lenses are manual, and very high quality.  The film is standard Type 108 
or 669 color.  An aperture setting of f/11 works well, but a powerful 
flash is necessary.
2) Use the currently available Euro-Holmes fold flat print viewer from 
Added Dimension or Stereo Type.  It has very good lenses, and is suited 
for the Polaroid photo size.  And its cheap, but quality. 
3) The Polaroid print should be cut in half and the halves spaced far 
enough apart to comfortably view at the focal length of the viewer. The 
height of the print may have to be trimmed to fit the particular viewer. 
 The Taylor merchant viwer I use accepts a full height, but cut in half, 
photo.  The Added Dimension viewer probably doesn't accept as tall a 
picture. 

The waiting time for the customer after the picture is taken until 
delivery should be around 4 minutes. 

Don't expect to do a project like this without investing some money 
upfront. There are risks involved, like not making enough money to 
recuperate your expenses/labor.  Go into it because you enjoy stereo 
photography, not because you want to make a killing$ :-) 
-- 
_______________________________________________________________
Alan Lewis
mailto:dlewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Home of the stereo wedding package, and weekend stereo projects
http://www.arlington.net/homes/dlewis


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