[photo-3d] Wide-angle Stereoscopy and the LEEP 1/2

[abram.klooswyk@xxxxxx]

In December 2000 there was a P3D thread on the LEEP.
Two quotes:
"... always awe struck by the immersion."
(Ralph Johnston 09 Dec 2000)

"I will state unequivocally that looking at a LEEP image is 
the next best thing to occupying the original space." 
(ron labbe 11 Dec 2000)

The dream of reproducing 3D space is older than photography, 
with color and stereoscopy it came closer to realization, but 
viewing has been and is a problem.

In Arthur W. Judge's "Stereophotographic Photography", London 
2d ed. 1935, 3d ed. 1950 [a remarkable interval], 480 pages, a 
small chapter is devoted to "The Wide Angle Stereogram". 
Judge refers to a wide angle stereoscope lens system by 
Col. L.E.W. van Albada, which was corrected for distortion and 
chromatic aberration for an effective angle of 90 degrees.

In the Netherlands, van Albada had promoted wide-angle 
stereoscopy from 1898 on. He was in the army, then a 
lieutenant, in the end  a general. (Btw, the Dutch army was 
never engaged in battle from 1831 to 1940.) 
In the Netherlands in 1902 a camera was marketed called 
"Groothoekstereoscoop-camera" (groothoek = wide angle), but 
without a wide-angle stereoscope (I don't know if any copy of 
it survives). 

In 1911 van Albada suggested a design for a wide-angle ocular. 
In the 1920's he patented a modified design for a wide-angle 
ocular, and he held a reading for the (British) Optical 
Society on "A wide-angle stereoscope and a wide-angle 
viewfinder" (Transactions of the Optical Society 1923-24, Vol 
25 Nr 5 pp 249-260). 

In 1931 he wrote the stereophotography section of a multi-
volume German textbook of scientific and applied photography. 
The oculars were marketed by Zeiss, and records in the 
Prentenkabinet of Leyden University (an institute which covers 
history of photography) show that van Albada got small amounts 
of royalties from them in the 1930's. (I have exhibited such 
an ocular, but ground by van Albada himself, at the Founding 
Congress of the International Stereoscopic Union, Wageningen, 
1975.) The van Albada viewfinders became famous, and are still 
in production for some (mono)camera's.

There is a legend among Dutch stereoscopists about a stereo-
exhibition were wide-angle stereophotographs by van Albada 
were shown in wall mounted van Albada-stereoscopes. It is said 
that with some alpine views by van Albada several visitors got 
dizzy looking in the viewers. (Sometimes even is said that a 
handrail was mounted for re-assurance, but a photograph of the 
event shows no rail :-).)

Abram Klooswyk