DIY Viewmaster Reels

by kenyer

63K9049

Intro: DIY Viewmaster Reels

Perhaps you remember the virtual reality glasses from the previous century? Well we've found a viewmaster viewer in a box with old discarded toys. Because there where no reels with the viewer, we came to the idea to make our own.

We ended up with our own, analog, old school, 3D pictures.

We've learned a lot and we are blown away by the great results.

STEP 1: You Will Need

Photo stuff

Shooting day

  • Bright weather
  • Little or no wind
  • Places with depth and without people or animals

For the reels

  • Cardboard
  • Lasercutter (or a makerspace with one)
  • Scissors
  • Tape
  • Pray glue
  • Sharpy
  • If you have it a light table

To see the result

  • A viewmaster

STEP 2: The Pictures

No step was really easy with this project. It was harder than I thought to get an old analog SLR camera that still works. It was also hard to get the right batteries for this camera. And it was also hard to get the 35 mm dia (slide) film.

But finally we managed to get all the camera stuff. We already made a slider for the tripod with a ruler on it and it was a bright day.

There are a couple of things to think about when you make your pictures.

The settings on the camera

  • You want everything in focus, so you need to use the A-setting (aperture priority) on your camera and use the smallest diaphragm. We used 22.
  • Because of this small diaphragm, you will get long shutter times. So you will need to use a tripod. To get the shutter times a little bit down, we used ASA 200 film.
  • In the end you will cut only a very small piece out of your slide, so you will want to take your pictures with a wide angle lens. We used 28 mm.

The weather

  • Because you will have to take two pictures that needs to be (almost) the same, you need weather without wind.
  • The slow shutter speeds will demand a bright day.

The scenery

  • When you choose what to shoot, you want to choose something with a lot of depth. So something close by, something far away and something in the distance.
  • You also need a scene that doesn't move. So no people or animals. Trees and clouds are ok as long as there is no wind.
  • You also need to take in account that you will use only a very small part of your picture, so zoom in in your imagination to imagine what the result will look like.

Shooting the picture

  • When everything is set, it is time to shoot the picture(s). You will need to shoot two pictures for every 3D image you want to make. These pictures need to be taken from a position just a little bit next to each other. We took most of our pictures 10 - 12 cm (4 - 5 inch) from each other. If your image is farther away, the distance between the two pictures needs to be bigger.
  • To not get confused, we always first took the left shot and then the right.
  • Take your time to frame the first shot and then swiftly move the camera and take the second. (You don't need to frame this second shot, just move the camera and shoot) The faster you do this, the less change that something moved in your scene.

(because it was a learning experience for us, we kept notes of all the settings)

Waiting

  • When all the (36) pictures are taken, you need to bring the roll to a shop where they can develop it and wait for a couple of days for it to return. I had forgotten how great the feeling is to open the envelope and see how the pictures came out.

STEP 3: The Reels

While waiting for the film to develop, it is a good moment to get the reel cards made.

  • I first designed the viewmaster reel in Adobe Illustrator. (if you don't have Illustrator you can open it in Adobe Acrobat Reader by simply changing the .ai at the end in .pdf)
  • I don't have a lasercutter (yet) so I went to a fablab (Waag society in Amsterdam) to get the reels cut out of card stock that I brought with me from home. I used two colors so that it would be easy to see what the front of the reel is on the final result.

The reels came out great and they did fit perfectly in the viewmaster.

STEP 4: How the Reels Work

We have learned this the hard way, but there are some things you might need to know before you start putting the pictures in.

  • A reel can show 7 3D pictures, so it will need 7 left and 7 right frames, 14 in total.
  • Every time push the lever on the viewmaster the reel will turn two! frames clockwise.
  • The frames always have to be pasted in the holes above the small rectangular holes.
  • The pictures will endup, when you go around, straight, upside down, straight, upside down...
  • Every finished reel is two cardboard reels with the pictures sandwiched in between.

STEP 5: Choose Your Pictures

The great moment when the pictures come back from developing!

We used a bathroom lamp from Ikea as a lightbox. You could also use a window during the day.

  • First we choose and sorted the pictures.
  • Make sure what frame is the left and what is the right. (it won't work when you get them mixed up)
  • Use an empty reel to choose witch part of the slide you are going to use.

STEP 6: Montage the Frames

  • Spray one empty reel board with spray glue.
  • Use the other cardboard part of the reel to decide on your cutout and mark this with a sharpy.
  • Cut on the marking.
  • Push the picture on the glue in place. (you might want to add a small piece of tape, to be sure)
    Make sure you use a spot above a small rectangular hole.
  • Now take the other picture with the same image and frame it on exactly the same height. Take a point as far in the distance on the scene as you can find, to align it sideways. Glue this frame also in place.
  • Now turn the reel two frames clockwise and put in the next picture.
  • Keep on doing this until all 7 pictures (14 frames) are in place.

STEP 7: To Finish

  • Spray the other reel board also with spray glue and glue it on the reel with the pictures on it.
  • Put the reel in the viewmaster.
  • Be amazed with the result!

We where very amazed. The result was amazing.

What did we learn the hard way?

  • It is difficult to get 35 mm dia (slide) films.
  • Old camera's have death batteries.
  • You will need a wide angle lens.
  • You will only use a really, really, really small part of your slide. (remember this when you frame your scene)
  • Not every developer still knows that there is a different between developing normal film and dia (slide) film.
  • You'll need to turn the reel two frames for every next picture.
  • Sometimes you can cut two pictures out of one slide.
  • People and animals will not stand still.

40 Comments

supercoolgirl 8 months ago

Hi!! I’m kind of new to film photography but I am currently studying shooting & developing 8mm&16mm. I love this idea!!! When you get the film roll back isn’t it just the negative? how do you get the positive film? Not sure if that is a silly question haha. Also, do you think that 8 or 16mm film would work for this project? Thank you for sharing!!!!!!

kenyer 8 months ago

I am not sure how it works in 8 or 16mm, but normally in film, after they shoot the negative, they cut the film. This is really cutting. You throw away the pieces you don't need and tape together the pieces you want. This cut film goes back to the lab to make te positive (final) film. I think that in hobby film the result is directly diapositive, but I am not sure. We used dia positive photo film that is used to make slide's. This is directly positive on the roll. I am not sure if film film would work, but you can surely try.

3dArtist 1 year ago

Well done. I made my first 3D images about 20 years ago. I bought 2 cheap digital cameras and attached then to a ruler so that they were both eyeballs apart and focussed/centred on the same subject. Then clicked down on the button of each at the same time. This way you don't have to worry if the subject is moving. I then found an analogue 3D camera and was able to put slde film into this, which created perfect Viewmaster film (in those days I carefully parted some useless Viewmaster film and put my own in). A few years later, I came across the Fujifilm Finepix 3D camera. It's fantastic because the screen is lenticular and you can view your shots in 3D on the camera. When I upload the shots to the computer, I can convert the images, using free software, to side by side or red/cyan images, which look wuite amazingly 3D when you wear the red/cyan glasses. Hope this is another inspiring bit of info.

kenyer 1 year ago

Cool to hear that we are not the only ones having fun with this.

Viewmasternerd 4 years ago

This is absolutely brilliant! I'm keen to print some images for my reel and would absolutely love your help. How do I go about printing for the reels on my inkjet to get the closes "authentic" images? DO you know the best paper to use? Also what camera do you recommend? As I desperately want to print in 3D but like to do it in house so not sure how it all works? Do I get old fashion camera on roll, get the rolls scanned then cut the original scan and insert? Seem for a simple thing I'm very confused haha love all your helpful input on camera, process, printing especially

kenyer 4 years ago

Hi, We used an old analog camera with real film. If you use positive (dia) film that people used to use for slides, than your film is directly usable after it is developed. It was a bit hard to get the film, but very easy and cheap to find a place where they could develop the film. You might be able to use a digital camera and print on a overhead projector sheet, but I have no experience with that. You do want to use a wide lens because you only cut a small piece from the film.

Viewmasternerd 4 years ago

Thank you! The search continues as I'm now obsessing on how it could be done haha
: )

Yaralsham 3 years ago

Hey! Im trying to do the seem and print my photos using an injekt printer. Did you find the right type of paper? Thamks

kenyer 3 years ago

I am using 300 gr/m2 card, and that works great.

kenyer 4 years ago

250 or 300 gr/m2

pheenix42 4 years ago

Ahh, one of the best pieces of DIY entertaiment! Sadly, the original slide punch from Sawyer's is now considered a collector item with resulting sky-high prices. But, thanks for the information for an analog fellow in a digital world!

kenyer 4 years ago

You are very welcome. :)

onilx 5 years ago

This looks awesome! Thanks for posting the .ai file for us!!!

kenyer 5 years ago

You are welcome. We've made new viewmaster reels two weeks ago, and they came out perfect.

kenyer 4 years ago

Try to change the .ai extension in .pdf
That often works.

rachel7989 4 years ago

I just made a view master reel cut out thee of Cardstock made three of them to make up the a single reel I cut them out using my Cricut explorer air 2 and glued them together but i didn't make the photos in the reel because i dont have a analog camera it worked great it worked in my view master pink cardstock i used

NicolasU12 5 years ago

Great article! Thank you very much. About 40 years ago I went through a 3D photography craze. I found that it was perfectly feasible to photograph people if you warned them to remain absolutely still. (Remember that in the early days of photography exposure times were something like 20 minutes!) Also, I got very good results even without a tripod or slider. I simply moved the camera to the right for the second exposure, a distance that a judged was perhaps 5 or 6 inches. Try it! Do NOT limit yourself to still life, as truly interesting subject matter involves PEOPLE.
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