Written on March 18, 2008 – 5:21 am | by Bogdan Alex |
Stereo imagery has been around for some time now and I remember experimenting with it in special issue of National Geographic back in the late 1990’s. That issue was dedicated to the Mars Rover and featured a bunch of stereoscopic pictures and a pair of red/blue glasses to help you see the real deal. Now, I know you don’t have to take two separate pictures of the same thing to make a stereographic image; you can easily manipulate everything on the PC instead. Strangely enough, someone thought two separate pictures can’t really emphasize the three dimensional illusion for your eyes and came up with a “triclopean” camera.

Known as the 120 Tri-lens Stereo Camera, you get a total of three lenses that can capture outstanding stereoscopic pictures. Don’t really know what 3D World was thinking when they designed this camera, but I’d certainly want to see it in action and some resulting images. As I’m no SLR camera expert, I’m going to leave you with the full specs, hoping you could figure out if these features make the “triclops” an outstanding piece of equipment or just another wacky gizmo.



So here you go:

• Camera Type: Medium Format Tri-lens Stereo Camera (Reflex Viewing Lens)
• Lenses: Anti-reflection coated glass optics, seven elements in six groups. f/2.8, 80mm focal length
• Lens separation: 63.5mm
• Focusing: manual adjustment, 0.8 m - infinity
• Shutter type: metal focal plane shutter
• Aperture: F2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22 and six half stops
• Shutter Speeds: B, 1,1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500Sec.
• Light Metering: consists of two of SPD’s (silicon photo diodes) for light measurement; aperture and shutter speeds are matched according to the LED display.
• Viewfinder: consists of a viewfinder hood and lens, Eye-level pentaprism type with .0.7 X magnification
• Focusing Screen: Split-image microprism type surrounded by a Fresnel screen. 3 LEDs in 5 exposure graduations display overexposure (+), correct exposure (O) & underexposure (-), bubble level for horizontal checking.
• Flash synchronization: X-contact only, sync speed 1/60 sec. or slower
• Film advance: Lever provided; 16° standoff angle and 128° winding angle, aligning film numbers through window on camera back
• Filter Interface：M46X0.75
• Power source: Two 1.55V silver-oxide batteries.
• Film: One roll of 120reversal film for a pair of 58mm x 56mm stereo images. 6 pairs per roll.
• Dimensions: Approx. 207mm x 205mm x 134mm (8.15″ x 8.07″ x 5.28”), camera body only
• Weight: 1960g or 69oz (camera body only)