View-Master certainly played a big part in the 3D craze of the 1950s. And, starting in the spring of 1952, View-Master introduced a 3D camera for personal use that would let shutterbugs take their own 3D pics that could then be turned into personal View-Master reels.
View-Master touted the news in its April 1952 newsletter:
The new View-Master Personal Stereo Camera has three outstanding features that put it far ahead of anything in its field:
Good stereo pictures for everyone,
Decided economy of operation, and
Simple and enjoyable picture mounting.
The new View-Master products—the stereo camera and its accessories—will give your customer and his family more pleasure than anything else he can buy with the same dollar value on the market today.
I guess only men liked photography in the 1950s?
Key elements of the View-master Personal Stereo Camera system included:
Personal View-Master Camera, of course
Leather carrying case
24-inch close-up attachment (rare these days, with fairly limited use)
36-inch close-up attachment (considered a valuable add-on)
Light attachment (now unusable due to outdated technology) and transformer
Type A color correcting filters
Film cutter
Personal reel mounts
Film insertion tool
You would also need:
Tripod
Slide film (Kodachrome, of course)
Optional but delightful:
Stereo-Matic 500 View-Master 3D Projector
Polarized glasses (with appropriate orientation) for the whole family
Silver screen for projecting in 3D
View-Master album to store completed reels
I was lucky enough recently to score the whole basic kit!
I now just need the 24-inch close-up attachment.
I already have a Stereo-Matic 500 with screen and polarized glasses, and that’s worthy of a whole nother post. Back in the 1950s, if you didn’t want to go to the trouble of making your own individual reels, you could ship the film off to the View-Master factory in Oregon and they would develop and mount the reels for you!
From the cost of the camera to all the accoutrements, this was an expensive hobby for 3D enthusiasts.
Some Neat Details
One thing that fascinates me about the V-M Personal Camera is that it takes tiny little images, so small that you can get double the number of photos out of every roll of film! And to achieve this wonder, there is a dial in the middle of the camera. When you reach the end of the film, you adjust the dial and the entire photo capture mechanism moves up and the film is then shot along the top row.
You have to use 35mm slide film with this camera in order to create the tiny transparencies that are viewed in View-Master viewers. And it’s very important to note DO NOT CUT when developing. You have to cut it yourself using the Film Cutter.
The Film Cutter is the same size as the film thereby creating a pair of perfectly aligned 3D images every time (or so I’ve been told; I haven’t started using it myself yet).
The Close-Up Attachments pop right onto the front of the camera like so:
The Type A filters are set on the camera lenses and then held in place by the retaining rings, which screw into place on the front of the camera:
View-Master Camera Marketing
View-Master always employed print and TV marketing campaigns to launch products:
The barrier for entry — cost, technical acumen and special hardware — has always been high for 3D. It’s one reason that it flares and wanes in popularity every few years. I have a 3D TV that I love! But it was discontinued, and I can no longer get 3D Blu-Ray discs because those were largely discontinued though I sometimes score them off eBay from other regions — and that requires a region-free Blu-Ray player, which is yet another barrier to 3D content.
Given the hurdles, I’m guessing the camera wasn’t as hot a hobby as they had hoped. By summer 1955, View-Master dropped the price of the camera by $50, from $139.50 to $89.50. They highlighted the price drop in their July Dealerscope newsletter and noted that they planned to do a summer print promotion to support it:
That didn’t save it and it was discontinued.
That said, it’s a really fun object on its own and I’m excited to finally have a kit. Now it’s time for me to actually take pics with it. But, first, I’m sending it out for a thorough cleaning and tune up.
By the way, what I’ve detailed here is the U.S. personal kit. The global/European market had a different version, called the Mark II, and that one required a completely different kind of film cutter! When buying a camera and film cutter, be sure they work together (the Mark II’s cutter has images cut at an angle while the Personal View-Master camera has images cut in a straight line).
I’m not much of a gear head, so if you’d like a deeper dive into the specs, check out this great resource that includes a bunch of downloadable instructions, including a repair manual!
If you made it this far, be sure to SMASH that like ❤️ button Or just touch you finger to it gently on your phone…
Excellent article. One interesting thing is that although the camera manufacture was discontinued, they continued to sell them for many years. Also the reel mounts were amazingly still made well into the early 2000s when they decided to mothball the specialized machine that produced them. They definitely supported the system long after they made the camera (under various ownership too).