P3D Argus C-3 Stereo and interocular

["jpsnet" <baize@xxxxxxx> (by way of Bob Wier <wier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>)]

Mike Watters said of the Argus C-3:

> Downsides:
> 3) They're kinda ugly.  :)

to which John Ohrt replied:

>That's a feature.  It is an upside to those who like ugly cameras.

Well, that may be true of the standard Argus C-3, but everyone loves 
the look of my Stereo C-3! I don't know what it is... could be the 
aesthetic symmetry of two lenses, perhaps due to an evolved preference 
for two eyes, or the fact that I finished it off with blue vinyl 
"leatherette".  :) :)

Of a more substantive note: I engineered my C-3 stereo with a 68mm 
interoccular by looping the film under the spacing wheel of the 
"slave" side. This produced an interoccular that lets me view through 
both viewfinders for stereoscopic viewfinding. I thought this would 
be the case for most people, but as I was showing off at the Oakland 
Camera Club, I found that some other's eyes were closer together 
and couldn't use the stereo viewfinder. My mind wandered to consider 
whether the images from my Argus C-3 stereo might be less "orthogonal" 
for them than it is for myself. This caused me to consider the possibility 
of making stereo cameras that are tailor made to be orthogonal for the 
user (John Bercovitz, please jump in here and save me :)). Then of course 
the sight variations are not likely to be significant, especially when 
projected, as people generally do not notice the difference between 
Realist format cameras (lens spacing of about 70mm) and European format 
cameras (lens spacing of about 64mm) except for the wider aspect ratio.

Back to the hacking of Argus C-3s. If you don't own a Belplasca, Verascope 
F-40, or FED then it is worth the time and trouble. There is a great 
deal of satisfaction that comes from using a 3-D camera that you have 
made yourself. My experience in making the C-3 stereo was that it was 
not easy, but I learned a lot. Now I'm tempted to try some of the more 
difficult projects described on Sam Smiths "3-D Hacker's" page: 

     http://www.cadvision.com/3dhacker/ 

Oh, and the strange variable price of Argus C-3's. A few years ago 
I thought the price was fairly stable at $10 each, then when I went 
looking for them my local camera dealer wanted $20 each, and they 
weren't in good shape. He said that they commonly sell for $35 today, 
but he knew what I wanted them for. Yesterday at the flea market a 
seller had three of them. He wanted three dollars each. I gave him five 
for each, and he was very appreciative. 

Good luck on the open market :)

Harolddd.





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