Beam Splitters (in the true sense of the word)

[P3D Michael Watters <mwatters@xxxxxxxxx>]

Regarding shooting stereo through beam splitters:

It's works fairly well.   I had a rig that I built using a 60/40 splitter 
(I had it laying around, I corrected for the exposure.  A 50:50 would be 
best though).   I used it for taking macro shots of flowers/bugs whatever 
in real time.   Has the added advantage of giving you the full frame to 
work with.

The advantages are obvious:
  Full frame, synced photos (taken at the same time.  Only way to go 
outdoors or if your bugs are still alive), REALLY narrow interoccular (my 
rig was variable from 0 to 1 inch.  I tended to always shoot at 1 inch IO 
though.).

The disadvantages aren't so obvious:
   The rig is gonna be big.  REALLY big.  It's also gonna be REALLY heavy 
and awkward to haul around.  Mine was roughly a 1x1x1 ft cube.  You're 
not gonna be handholding the thing.  :)
   One of the slides will have to be reversed in the mount (ie you're 
shooting off a mirror so it's gonna be backwards).  Just something to 
keep in mind when mounting.  Doesn't really affect how it looks on the 
screen.
   Flare - There's flare galore that comes off that mirror.  I was able 
to defeat it by painting the inside of the box everything was mounted in 
flat black and putting a black hood over the back to actually shoot the 
photo.  (looked kinda like a view camera by the end actually... :)

If you can deal with the problems of the rig it works pretty well.  I 
wasn't too thrilled with the size of the thing myself.  I used it a 
couple of times then got rid of it.  If you were planning on using it in 
a studio-type situation though, it works pretty well.

mike


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