P3D Fuji Beam-splitter revisited.

[jacob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Gabriel Jacob)]

Mark Shields writes,

>>I've been enjoying looking at my first stereo slides, taken with a pair
>>of beamsplitters (which despite my other posting do perform well
>>enough).

Dr.T replies,
>That's a good start!  Perhaps later on you could consider advancing
>to a Stereo Realist or something similar...

I write, ;-)

Well, for all it's worth, I have trangressed back to the beam-splitter!
Since you haven't been vocal lately, the natives have been wandering
off the beaten path. Well, sort of. 

With the recent discussion about the Pentax, Stereo-Tach, I thought
I might mention about the Fuji beam-splitter, that some might remember
from awhile back. This was a splitter thingie that was only available
in Japan that fitted a specific single-use camera, also made by Fuji.
A batch of the splitters were sold in the US by Rocky Mountain till
they ran out. The problem was, the single-use camera was not sold in
North America. The splitter was sold: more as a hacker possiblity, and
for the price it was worth it. It sold for about $15 US and came with a
beam-splitter, viewer, and sample (3.5" x5") print. I bought one of
these last year and fooled around with it for awhile.

This brings me to why I am bringing all this up. On Friday I passed
by a camera store and noticed a rather tiny package (in the single-
use camera section, i.e. disposable) that had a picture of a 
camera and was labelled, "Fujicolor QuickSnap Super 800". It mentioned
below the picture that it was loaded with Super G Plus 800. Now there
was no mention of single-use, disposable, film, or camera on the
packaging, other than the picture of a camerea on the packaging.
I was skeptical that there was a camera hidden in there because of
it's rather tiny size. I asked the salesperson and they said yes
it was a camera. I bought two (of course), to see how these would
fare as 3D cameras and also since I like minuture stuff. They
sold for $8.75 US.

When I got home and opened it up, I was surprised to see how small
it was! It measured roughly 3.5x2.25x1 inches. Putting two side by
side would give a stereo base of 90 cm. There is barely enough room
for a 35mm film cassette in there and am not sure if it has one yet.
Will find out when I shoot the roll and give the film for processing.
Of course I won't give the camera back. Never did, never will! Keep
'em for hacking instead.

Anyways, while I was fiddling around with it, I had a vague recollection
that it reminded me of something. Then it dawned on me that it might
be the camera that fits the Fuji beam-splitter. I ran up to get it
out of the closet and lo and behold a perfect match! If anyone wants
to see some pics of the set-up, check out,
http://www.generation.net/~jacob/fuji.jpg 
Now the predicament is, do I use it with the beam-splitter or as
originally intended with the other camera in twin 3D cameras?
Stay tuneddd!

So it seems here is an inexpensive 3D system. Camera, beam-splitter,
and viewer. Now we've seen a single-use: beam-splitter camera,
lenticular camera, but no traditional stereo single-use camera,
other than the proto-types made by Alan and others that I have
seen on the Web and in real-life. Kodak, here is your chance to
one-up Fuji. Actually someone had made and I think tried to propose
something like this to Kodak. I don't know if they were interested.

P.S. Acutally the packaging for the beam-splitter shows the flash
version of the camera, which the camera store also carried and is
slightly longer. The ones I bought were without the flash, otherwise
identical.

Gabriel


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