> Hello,
> Just a quick check to see if there are any (perhaps many) others doing swing lens stereo images. So far the work has been gathering and one wondered if there is a salon or user-group for ultra wide stereographers already? One remembers meeting ultrawide fans in an Amsterdam coffeehouse but how many are here in the North America?

 

On 11/1/2013 10:18 AM, David Richardson wrote:
> Hello,
> Just a quick check to see if there are any (perhaps many) others doing swing lens stereo images. So far the work has been gathering and one wondered if there is a salon or user-group for ultra wide stereographers already? One remembers meeting ultrawide fans in an Amsterdam coffeehouse but how many are here in the North America?

I've wanted to do some swing-lens images, but the startup
costs have slowed me down. With what are you shooting and
what subjects to find most satisfying in the wide format?

How are you mounting your images for viewing (or are you
scanning for digital presentation)?
--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska
http://stereo.thurstons.us

I tried to do swing lens stereos with a pair of Horizont cameras (metal predecessor of the Horizon).  IMO, they're not very well suited for stereo but are fantastic for 2D work.  First of all, matching lenses is much more difficult than other cameras IMO.  I think the issue is that small differences in focal length are magnified by the size of the image area relative to the lens.  I found large discrepancies in coverage between cameras.  Second, since the inter-ocular separation of the lenses varies across the image, composition is challenging.  For instance, I've seen that many stereo photographers try to grab a foreground object to add depth to an otherwise flat scene.  If you try that with a swing lens camera, you have to be mindful of where in the scene that foreground object sits and how it will be rendered in 3D.  If it's in either far end of the scene it will have less depth.  Of course this doesn't affect vertical panoramas, and I've done a few of those too but they don't have the visual impact of a full 6x6 transparency IMO.  Maybe the Hassy camera would deliver better results but that's way out of my price range.

Steve