I always wondered if/when someone would knock together 2 nice, contemporary MF cameras.

Now I saw this beauty mentioned at

http://www.mcarronwebdesign.com/sdscc/newsletter/2004/2004-07.pdf

with the caption:

"John Roll's Mamiya 6 x 7 stereo camera,
he waited 3 years for this camera."

Where did it come from?

lattie_smart wrote:

> I always wondered if/when someone would knock together 2 nice, contemporary MF cameras.
>
> Now I saw this beauty mentioned at
>
> http://www.mcarronwebdesign.com/sdscc/newsletter/2004/2004-07.pdf
>
> with the caption:
>
> "John Roll's Mamiya 6 x 7 stereo camera,
> he waited 3 years for this camera."
>
> Where did it come from?

He had it built. I don't know if he has named his camera,
but I also got to see it and the images it produced in
Portland in 2004.
http://stereo.thurstons.us/nsa2004.htm
--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska
http://stereo.thurstons.us

So, he didn't tip who did the custom work? (RBT, Bald Mountain, etc.)

If it took three years to make, maybe the customizer wasn't so anxious to take on another such job - understandably.

Obtaining such a machine is always the first order of business in all my winning lottery fantasies... ;-)

>
> He had it built. I don't know if he has named his camera,
> but I also got to see it and the images it produced in
> Portland in 2004.
> http://stereo.thurstons.us/nsa2004.htm
> --
> John Thurston
> Juneau Alaska
> http://stereo.thurstons.us
>

For the curious: I just took the liberty of "nicking" and enlarging the camera's embedded pdf image and uploaded a copy in the photos section.

lattie_smart wrote:

> So, he didn't tip who did the custom work? (RBT, Bald Mountain, etc.)

As memory serves, it was discussed on the "old" list (at unh
before Sam Smith set this one up on yahoo). It is also
referenced in a Cascade Stereoscopic Club newsletter of
March 2005

http://www.cascade3d.org/Newsletters/CSC200503.pdf

>
> Stereo Views - February 2005
> Roll’s Cameras Rock
> Details of 3 Medium Formats
> By John Roll
>
> Last month several of my cameras which I had brought to the monthly meeting were described (see Stereo Views, Feb. 2005, p.1). My Twin Rolleicord had matched 75mm, F3.5 lenses, and a stereo base of 85mm, made by Ton Pennings of the Netherlands. All of the camera functions were linked, including focus, shutter, aperture, and film advance. Changes in the lenses have been made to allow for optimal window adjustment too.
>
> My 6 centimeter by 17 centimeter (6-by-17 cm) panoramic camera has a stereo block lens by its builder, Dr. Kurt Gilde from Germany. This stereo block with a 85 mm stereo base uses Schneider 75mm f4.5 large format lenses to take 6x9 cm stereo pairs on 120 roll film (4 pair per roll). Other lenses are available by special order, and stereo blocks for 6x7cm format are available as well.
>
> Focus is linked by a belt-driven system. Leaf shutters sync to a f lash at fast as 1/500 sec. W hen used as a panorama camera, there is an internal dark slide. The camera can both tilt and shift in panorama mode, but only shift in stereo mode. I have taken my 6-by-17 to places like Yellowstone,Tetons, Crater Lake and Yosemite.
>
> I also showed a twin-Mamiya 7II made for me by Simon Esseborne in Sweden. All the common elements work in sync, including the leaf shutters. Even the double-exposure mechanism works as in the original 2D camera. A extra long dark slide is one of the special modifications that was needed to make the camera work with all of its original features. Matched lenses include Mamiya 7II lenses 43mm, 80mm, and 150mm. The stereo base is 76 mm. The focus and F-stop have not yet been linked, because I am trying to decide between gears or linkages. I used this camera to make the panorama stereo slideshows I gave at the Portland NSA convention.
>
> For my image printed in last month’s Stereo Views, I used a RBT S1 (Konica Hexar stereo camera) with a 35mm, F2 lens from about 4 feet, as the subjects (two birds, red-footed “boobies”) sat on the side of the scuba diving boat in the Pacific ocean in the Galapagos Islands to the west of Equador.
>
> Naturally, I like all three medium format stereo cameras, and I have shot all three in Yellowstone, Tetons, Crater Lake, and Yosemite. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, but they all take incredibly sharp images. Mechanically and optically they are superior to the Sputnik, but the Sputnik is hard to beat for the price.

--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska
http://stereo.thurstons.us

lattie_smart wrote:

> So, he didn't tip who did the custom work? (RBT, Bald Mountain, etc.)
>
> If it took three years to make, maybe the customizer wasn't so anxious to take on another such job - understandably.
>

.
I vaguely recall the maker has done two or three. :-)

Someone else made custom underwater housings. Etc.

The thing about John is that he's a great photographer
such that his great equipment it put to good use. You
could give me his great equipment and my photos
would not look any better than my photos do now ("fair"),
just maybe sharper.

I don't even like underwater photography photos, but I love
his. A puzzlement!

Mike K.

--- In MF3D-group@yahoogroups.com, John Thurston wrote:

>
> As memory serves, it was discussed on the "old" list (at unh
> before Sam Smith set this one up on yahoo). It is also
> referenced in a Cascade Stereoscopic Club newsletter of
> March 2005
>
> http://www.cascade3d.org/Newsletters/CSC200503.pdf

Ah-ha, when I read the reference to a "twin"-Mamiya 7II, I thought it was a paired twin-rig, not an actual custom spliced job.

--- In MF3D-group@yahoogroups.com, "lattie_smart" wrote:

>
> I always wondered if/when someone would knock together 2 nice, contemporary MF cameras.
>
> Now I saw this beauty mentioned at
>
> http://www.mcarronwebdesign.com/sdscc/newsletter/2004/2004-07.pdf
>
> with the caption:
>
> "John Roll's Mamiya 6 x 7 stereo camera,
> he waited 3 years for this camera."
>
> Where did it come from?
>

Back in the late eighties, I was dreaming about getting into wide angle MF stereo. Imax had just demonstrated its new 3D capabilities at Expo 86 and I thought how great it would be to have a still camera with such wide coverage. When the Mamiya 6 was introduced, I wondered if it would be possible to splice two such cameras. Then the Mamiya 7 came out whose film format was a close match to IMAX.

I decided to contact Peter Kato, a German technician who had a lot of experience splicing 35mm SLRs (That was before RBT got into splicing cameras) and ask him if he could do it. Unfortunately, Peter had just died of heart failure at the young age of 52. I could think of nobody else who was up to doing this. So I dropped the project.

Just a few years ago, I discovered that somebody else had come up with the same idea and seen it through. The man who made John Roll's camera is Simon Esseborn. Simon is a Canon technician. I contacted him in 2006. He was asking 4500 Euros for the conversion. This price does not include the cameras or lenses. When I wrote him again for further information, I received no reply. He did mention he was in the process of filling another order for a similar camera at the time.

Francois