Photo Opp Loot Deep Dive

In a number of occurrences at Photo Opp, John Adams and I have had conversations concerning tripods. One was about a very sad event involving a headless set of legs from a vintage mid-century travel tripod John had found in contributions to Photo Opp, and an eBay prize I had acquired of a similar model, from which I had broken a leg section. The two could be married for one useful device. In a very humbling episode, I disassembled the two and then inserted the 3/8 inch screw from the legs into the 1/4 inch camera mount hole of the head instead of its base, and made sure I tightened it firmly, thereby completely ruining both parts when the jammed screw broke trying to undo it.

About a year later, John encountered a very nice example of one of these shiny devices at an estate sale and thought of me. When he gave it to me, I assured him it would be featured on Pinholica.

It's beautiful, but like its unfortunate predecessor, it's quite delicate. Designed to hold a lightweight folding camera for one exposure at a family gathering, I have been afraid to subject it to the rough and tumble of pinhole photography. 

I did, however, immediately think its glistening three-axis mount would make a really cool subject for close-up stereo photographs.

I will present them here as pairs set up for cross-eyed viewing, which is easy to learn. They are also displayed as red/blue anaglyphs, which require an appropriate pair of 3D glasses. Incidentally, I used Photoshop to make these anaglyphs since Anaglyph Workshop doesn't have enough sideways adjustment for these extreme close-ups. At this link is a PDF file with stereocards set up for a classic Holmes stereo viewer, which are also appropriate for parallel viewing (if you can make a picture out of those Magic 3D pictures, you can probably view these without the scope).

Despite the non-existence of extreme wide-angle in lensed stereo photography, I chose the 90-degree angle-of-view Badgersette to do cha-cha stereo, where one camera is moved between left and right exposures. The Unseen Library project was done with a regular stereo camera with a similar angle of view, and I have successfully done very close-up stereo with a 67-degree camera. The half-again-wider device should be fine.

The front of the joint from about 50mm away with a 10mm baseline between images.

From the other side. Look at how different these two images are. Can you believe your brain does this all the time without trying?

It seemed appropriate to show it with another object chosen for it's beauty, the Beauty Super II rangefinder from Photo Opp's rummage sale, also still innocent of film since I got it. Still pretty close up for stereo. The sideways adjustment on the quick release adaptor on the K&F tripod only travels 20mm, so I had to revert to using a ruler to keep the camera parallel while it was moved 30mm between exposures.

The maximum height of the new tripod is only 1.2 meters. I also have a tripod that extends to two meters, acquired at that same rummage sale, but it's only held a camera for two or three photographs. Using a stick to keep the camera parallel during the move and the ruler to get back to the normal 60mm baseline.

Another acquisition from the sale was a light stand and umbrella, which I also haven't made any use of photographically, but makes a great subject for stereo photography. This time sliding the tripod along a broom handle, also at a baseline of 60mm.

Expired film from the 20th century picked up from my association with Photo Opp has gotten well used. A five-roll pack of 220 format Kodak Pro 400 MC and the specially adapted Morton to use it in, with a roll of Ilford XP2 depicted on the iPad behind them. Back to sliding just the quick-release adaptor to its maximum 20mm.

The Badgersette has two hand-drilled .23mm pinholes on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film was Kentmere 400, semi-stand developed in Rodinal 1:100. The tripod with the sliding quick-release adaptor is from K&F Concepts.