Re: Stereo's Future

[P3D Peter Davis <pd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

There's been some interesting speculation on the future of stereo
photography.  The main trends seem to be:

   1)	Like everything else, products will become more mass-market
	oriented, and less specialist oriented.  The economics of
	this trend are obvious.

   2)	Stereo will continue to be a niche market, with perhaps
	some periods of growth, and some of decline in interest.

In my opinion, there's no doubt as to the reason that stereo remains a
niche market: viewing.  You can stuff a print in your pocket, pass it
around at the office, put it on your wall, etc.  Most of the
population doesn't want to have to wear special glasses, headsets,
helmets, etc. to look at pictures.

Personally, I'm worried about two possibilities:

   1)	The disappearance of commercial mounting.  Granted, I could
	mount my own slides, if I had the time and interest in doing
	that.

   2)	The disappearance (or great scarcity) of film altogether
	as a photographic medium.  The advent and growth of digital
	photography will undoubtedly take it's toll, and film will
	go the way of the vinyl LP record.

My recommendation: buy a splitter-thingie.  It will fit over any lens,
and give you stereo via any image recording technology.  It requires
no special processing or mounting.


-pd


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                                    Peter Davis
                             http://world.std.com/~pd/

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