View-Master
The view master is a device for viewing stereoscopic images, which are applied as a slide on a pulpboard liner. Similar Diabetrachter there were, for example, until the 1950s with the Tru -Vue system and in the GDR with the Stereomat.
Nature
Observer
The View-Master has two peepholes with small lenses and is held directly in front of the eyes. European models will be held in front of a light source (sun, lamp, light), American are also equipped with its own lamp and batteries. A lever on the side of the viewer allows the switches to the next image on the disc. He is now marketed primarily as children's toys.
Slices
A slice contains seven stereo image pairs. Offered discs show pictures of tourist destinations, from movies and television series, or they tell picture stories. There used medical textbooks, the greatest work of the Stereoscopic Atlas of Human Anatomy contained 221 image slices together with 1554 color illustrations of the human body. For several years companies offer private and corporate customers in the customized production of individual View-Master discs with own or created on behalf images.
View-Master discs are specified according to DIN 4531 as the " seven -piece stereo disc with dimensions of 10.5 per field x 11,75 mm ". In the Din standard be further specifications for image Nenngößen ( = outer sizes of the slides) 6 x 13 cm, set 4 x 10 cm and 5 x 5 cm. There is, in addition to the View-Master disks, one more small size for a 10-car stereo card with 10 x 15 mm per field.
History
The result is the View-Master from 1939 as an entertainment system for the home. At the time, it represented an improvement to the widely used stereoscopes in which to view the next image, a new photo card had to be inserted. It was therefore easier by the operator ago. The thematic focus of the images were destinations and scientific documentation. Available were also special stereo cameras and empty image slices, with which you could make your own photo shots for the View-Master. The image slices Initially sold individually were combined into series with usually three discs from the early 1950s.
In 1952, a stereo camera as the " View-Master Personal Stereo Camera " was marketed in the U.S. by the company Sawyer's, with the end user could create your own stereo image pairs using normal small -screen slide films. In Europe, 1961 was a revised version camera than " View-Master Stereo Color Camera " on the market. The cut with its own editing machine image pairs could be inserted into specially offered blank discs. Blank discs are available again for several years.
In addition to the hand-held devices to view the 3D images for a person, there were also special screen projectors. Simpler and therefore less expensive devices projected only one of the fields, but allowed so no spatial impression. In the more expensive projectors (model name "Stereo Matic 500) " both images were projected onto a screen and preferably metallized could then be viewed with 3D glasses spatially by several people simultaneously.
This at the same time existing Tru -Vue system owned the rights to Walt Disney Productions. Through the acquisition of Tru -Vue View-Master 1951 by Walt Disney films could be marketed, the Tru -Vue system has been set. In the GDR was a similar system Stereomat.
In Czechoslovakia, the manufacturer Meopta produced in the 1960s to the 1980s, several variations of the View-Master -like Meoskop and matching stereo cameras.
In the period from 1970 to 1981 and was the "Talking View-Master " was offered. On the back of each image slice was a small record that has been mechanically scanned. The special viewer decreed at the lower part through a loudspeaker, from which came the sound to the images.
1966 View-Master of General Aniline & Film Corporation was acquired (GAF ). After this period, the focus of the image series to adaptations of well-known feature films, cartoons and comics. 1981, the View-Master was bought and renamed again in the View-Master International Group, which was acquired by Ideal Toys in 1984 and is now called View-Master Ideal Group. In 1989, Tyco and this company merged in 1997 with Mattel, where the View-Master can be found in the toy range of the Fisher-Price brand today.
Own recordings
There were cameras that made View-Master compatible recordings on a standard slide - mm film with 2 lenses: were mixed on the film strip, the two fields located (see image example: the red arrow points to the two half- images), and had a special punch are punched out. In trading you could buy empty View-Master discs of cardboard, in these two fields were clamped or glued.