Stereoscope

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NikonUser
Posts: 2693
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:03 am
Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Stereoscope

Post by NikonUser »

Just received a "3D inlife Stereoscope".

I have been unable, until now, to view the stereo images posted on PMG.net in anything other than 2 side-by-side flat images.

Looking at them through this stereoscope is a whole new viewing experience; an amazing WOW factor.

For those of you who can't normally see stereo I highly recommend a stereoscope. It will change your appreciation of the structure of natural subjects shown in images here on PMG.
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

For reference...

I suspect you're speaking of this one:
http://www.berezin.com/3d/3d_scope.htm

I have found Berezin 3D to be very reliable and responsive. For example for me they immediately replaced without cost or paperwork one of these viewers that was unusable due to a manufacturing defect.

What appears to be the same device can also be purchased somewhat cheaper on eBay, for example http://www.ebay.com/itm/220959788733 and http://www.ebay.com/itm/220959788686, found by searching on "stereoscope" and matching images of the product. I don't know anything more about these vendors than I see in their ads.

I've recently taken these viewers and some full-page stereo prints (8.5x11 inches) to a couple of conferences. I was quite frankly surprised at how well they worked. Of perhaps 30 people who tried to see the stereo views, only 1 person was unable to do so and that individual was legally blind in one eye. Most people required some seconds of experimenting to get their head positioned so that the views would lock up. For a few people I had to readjust the viewers because they had gotten out of whack somehow.

For what it's worth, here is my "recipe" for how to use the viewers:

Suggestions For How To View Stereo Prints
  • Be sure that the two sliding baffles on front of the viewer are slid open.
  • Look at print without viewer. Position head and glasses as necessary to get a clear and focused view. Most people like to view from a distance of about 2 feet (0.6 m).
  • Raise viewer into position in front of eyes.
  • If all is well, there will be a single 3D (stereoscopic) image in the center, perhaps with fragments of flat (monoscopic) images on either side.
  • If the 3D image does not fuse up, then try first changing distance, closer and farther from the print. Your head should be directly in front of the print, pointed toward its center divider, with the divider oriented straight up and down between your eyes.
  • If a 3D image still does not come together and fuse up, then perhaps the viewer has gotten misadjusted. In that case, proceed as follows:
    • Turn knob on viewer as far as it will go toward the right . (This will turn the mirrors so that the lines of sight splay outward, “wall-eyed”.)
    • With head positioned as described above, look through the viewer toward the print. At first you won’t be able to see the stereo print at all. Slowly turn the viewer knob to the left until two images come into view and move toward each other. If the images come together with one positioned above the other, then twist the print or tilt your head to get them on the same level. Continue to rotate the viewer knob until the two images come together and fuse into a single 3D image. Eyestrain can be minimized by tweaking the viewer knob to get exactly the right separation.
    • Caution: by turning the knob too far to the left, you can misadjust the viewer so that the left eye sees the right image and vice versa. This can produce a “reversed stereo” image that has inverted depth. Be careful to avoid this condition. A reversed stereo image has depth but looks weird, and most people are not able to recognize what has gone wrong.
  • Once the viewer is properly adjusted for one print, it should work for all the others with no change.
Suggestions For How To View Cross-Eyed Stereo Online
  • Download and install StereoPhoto Maker (http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/stphmkr/ ).
  • Launch StereoPhoto Maker (SPM).
  • Drag cross-eyed image from browser onto SPM window so that it is displayed by SPM as separate images for the left and right eye.
  • Press the Swap Left/Right button in the SPM toolbar.
  • Use viewer as if the SPM window were a stereo print. You may need to adjust the window size and/or the viewer knob to make the images line up and fuse properly.
Hope this helps!

--Rik

Craig Gerard
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Joined: Sat May 01, 2010 1:51 am
Location: Australia

Post by Craig Gerard »

Rik,

Thanks for the detailed suggestions.

NU,

Checkout the two sample images at the base of this listing:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/220959788733


Craig
To use a classic quote from 'Antz' - "I almost know exactly what I'm doing!"

NikonUser
Posts: 2693
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:03 am
Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Post by NikonUser »

Yes, that's the one Rik. I must have been lucky, the learning curve was about 30 seconds :D . Just like Zerene Stacker, it worked straight 'out of the box'.

Would it be possible to have a forum dedicated to stereo pairs?
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

rjlittlefield
Site Admin
Posts: 23561
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
Contact:

Post by rjlittlefield »

NikonUser wrote:Would it be possible to have a forum dedicated to stereo pairs?
Technically yes; in practice, I have reservations. Historically most subjects have ended up getting presented several ways, only one of them being a stereo pair. Often the stereo plays only a supporting role, the post being started with higher resolution non-stereo images. I know that I'm seldom happy with stereo alone because it costs half my resolution to get the 3D and often the stereo version shows artifacts that still images do not.

If you're looking for more examples of good stereo, try for starters issuing a Google image search on stereo site:photomacrography.net. A lot of the images returned will not be stereo themselves, but if you click through to the posting you'll find a link to a stereo version elsewhere.

--Rik

NikonUser
Posts: 2693
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:03 am
Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Post by NikonUser »

Thanks Rik, no need for a dedicated forum. The sort system you indicated works like a charm. Did not know one could do that.
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

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