Stereoscopy for your digital SLR
Loreo's lens for taking stereo photographs, shown here mounted to a Canon SLR.
(Credit: Loreo)I have had a pet interest in the 3D photography technology called stereoscopy ever since my mom gave me a stereoscope of 19th century design for some boyhood birthday. Although the technology remains a small niche of photography, it is being adapted to the digital age.
I recently came across the Loreo 3D Lens in a Cap, a stereo lens that works on most film or digital SLRs. It's a 38mm lens with an f/11 of f/22 aperture that takes two images of the same scene from slightly different perspectives.
With stereoscopy, your brain can reconstruct depth information from the two images, just as it does with the two views from your eyes.
Loreo's 3D viewer
(Credit: Loreo)Loreo also sells a basic $24 3D viewer into which you can put 4x6 printouts of your stereo photos. The lenses cost between $48 and $117, depending on what model you buy.
(Via Red Ferret.)
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
- Glad to see this article
- by 3D-Guy January 3, 2008 4:39 PM PST
- I have been using the Loreo Lens on my Pentaz SLR camera for 3
- Like this Reply to this comment
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- interesting--love to see your anaglyph recipe
- by Shankland January 3, 2008 6:07 PM PST
- I could make some guesses how you do it, but I'd love to see your recipe.
- Like this View reply
Processing -
(3 Comments)months now and it is always my first lens to use. While I like it a
lot, it does have a few finicky issues, such as framing. It takes
longer to frame a scene than regular lenses, and often the "spur
of the moment" is lost. This is due to the split in the lens, and I
have difficulty with the right side.
Another issue is being able to show the images to a wider
audience, those that don't have access to special viewing glasses
(included with the lens). My work around is to make them
"anaglyph" (the red/cyan image and glasses) by using Adobe
Photoshop (hand done - there is no filter that I know of that
does this). The end result is that I can project my images and
everyone gets to see the 3D effect.
Overall, I am pleased with the results of this lens (I did have an
earlier version of the Loreo camera and tho it was fun, it wasn't
the best for shooting real 3D).