THE FREEVIEWER'S ASSISTANT - Part IV (and last!!!)

[P3D Dr. George A. Themelis <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

THE FREEVIEWER'S ASSISTANT - Part IV (and last!!!)

>From Lewis' description in his web site, I disagree with one thing:  
He calls this miracle device "freeviewer's assistant" and he implies 
that if you can already freeview, then this gadget might not be for 
you.  I can free view but still this device takes the inconvenience 
out of freeviewing.  It makes freeviewing possible (for some people) 
and easy and fun for the rest (myself included!)

But there are situations where freeview leaves you helpless.  These 
are the cases where images are placed for parallel viewing but are 
separated by 4" or more.  Alan has a nice one in his site (for 
practice) but I have encounter this situation in at least one 
stereoscopic web site.  I asked the maker how am I expected to view 
his images.  He replied that I can capture them and print them in a 
smaller size!  But I want to see them on the screen!!!  Until a few 
days ago, no solution.  Today: "Freeviewer's Assistant" to the 
rescue!!!

Another fun game that I played in Ron's site was to flip between 
normal and pseudo by just moving the "assistant" from the left to the 
right eye.  Sure, I can do that without assistance, but at what cost 
(time, pain)?  Now, it is a fun game I can play with any stereoscopic 
image!

Another idea by Alan Lewis:  "You can view projected stereo pairs 
without polarized glasses, no filters over the projector lenses, and 
no silver screen.  Just project the images as a conventional stereo 
pair, left/right.  The viewer fuses the images.  (Don't ask me why you 
would want to do this, but I have done it and it shows how the viewer 
works with large images)"  (Editor's note: I'll tell you why you want 
to do it.  You can put the pair in ONE 35 mm frame side-by-side and 
project it with ONE regular projector on a regular screen.)

Alan touches on two issues of interest to theoreticians :):  Isn't the 
magnification larger in the unaided eye because of the shorter light 
path?  Isn't there keystoning present due to use of mirrors?  The 
answer is YES to both questions but the effects are negligible from a 
practical point of view.  They both might be more noticeable the 
closer you get to the image but they are not a problem at normal 
viewing distances (at the stop location of the pivoting mirror).

Finally, Alan concludes with the following thoughts:

"Well then, is this the BEST stereo viewer to use for any stereo pair? 
No.  The Freeviewer's Assistant may be the most VERSATILE viewer for 
any stereo pair.  It is lightweight, very small,  adjustable, and 
gives a very high quality image.  It excels at freeviewing Holmes size 
views and computer screens.  It also excels at freeviewing vertical 
orientation twin 35 prints.  While it will allow you to freeview any 
size stereo pair, the mirror size dictates the closest that you can 
get and still see the whole image.  For larger images you would need 
larger mirrors to get closer.  But you can still freeview a large 
image as long as you position yourself where the whole image is in the 
viewer.  All this from a viewer that really does fit into your shirt 
pocket."

My conclusion is that this is a valuable device that can assist stereo 
photographers and help make 3d (and especially computer 3d) more 
popular among the greater public.  The device is simple and Alan is 
also offering a kit that allows you to build it yourself and save some 
money by doing so.  I am a sucker for "Lewis Quality" so I went for 
the "real thing", and was not disappointed.  Note that I did not get 
paid to write this review :). I bought the "assistant" at full retail 
price and did not even get the much-deserved :))) serial No. 1 since 
Alan decided not to use serial numbers for this product!  I am just 
very excited to see a new product that works better than I thought, 
and seeing how this simple device will change my, and other people's, 
viewing habits.

At some point Alan writes:  "I think Theodore Brown knew what he was 
doing."  And I think that Alan Lewis knows what his is doing.  He is 
about ready to convert me to a print maker with all these print- 
related innovative quality products that he is producing, and he just 
converted me to computer 3d fan!  A simple device works better that 
many KBytes of photo-3d "opinionation"!!! 

Thank you for listening! -- George Themelis

PS.  You can contact Alan Lewis at: 
     mailto:dlewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
     http://www.arlington.net/homes/dlewis


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