P3D Re: Truly immersive 3-D experience?

[Project3D@xxxxxxx]

Tony Alderson wrote:

<<>Dana Nibby wrote (digest 2782):
Has anyone ever photographed in a large enough slide film format to produce
a truly immersive 3-D experience - filling one's entire field of vision?<

Yes, there has been.  Some years ago, there was a camera system called the
LEEP. It used fisheye lenses and (as I recall) 120 roll film. The viewer
also had fisheye lenses. There was somewhat of a scandal about this, as the
inventor took deposits from a large number of people, but never delivered
cameras. He made a few production prototypes, but ran out of money. As I
recall, Paul Wing did get one of the cameras, and I recall seeing a couple
of slides at his table at an NSA or PSA meet. They were actually quite
impressive. Although the LEEP failed to see the light of day, the fisheye
lens system was one of the innovations that led to immersive virtual
reality, and the LEEP inventor is considered one of the fathers of VR.
Excuse me, but his name escapes me just now! (Howlett? Hewlett??) I think
he did eventually refund those deposits...>>

Paul Wing still has his Leep camera, but he says that it was a grossly over
complicated design as far as the electronics in the shutter is concerned. No
longer a useable camera, unfortunately. He has asked me to have a look at it
when I join him and Ed Shaw on their expedition to NSA in Richmond... I'm
hoping to be able to make it a simpler, more limited design, but one that
works! 

Incidentally, I've lent Paul my Hassleblad 40mm lens to see if he can make
some sequentials to view in the Leep viewer (the Leep system used around 38mm
lenses on medium format film). This experiment should be interesting because
the Hassleblad lens will have much less distortion than the Leep camera
lenses, and one of the cornerstones of the system was that the viewer had
deliberate, opposite distortions to the camera, so the two cancelled out! We
shall see...

Bob Aldridge


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