My interest in stereoscopic photography first started a few years ago when a friend of mine purchased a Nikisha N8000 from eBay. “What is this four lensed analogue camera, and what does it do?” I asked. Well, by taking four separate images simultaneously at slightly different angles- think about looking at your finger and switching back and forth between left and right eye- one is able to later combine the four images in Photoshop and turn it into a gif to create a somewhat 3-D effect of a single moment in time. These are affectionately known as ‘wiggle gifs’.
I thought this was fantastic at the time, but rather than trying to purchase a stereoscopic camera of my own (either Nimslo or Nishika), I decided to focus on really understanding the film camera I already had at the time- big. fucking. mistake. After seeing one pop up on my Instagram feed more recently I chose to do a bit more research and decided that this camera is definitely something I want (and being the impulsive person I am, I want it right now). The only problem about this is the fact that this camera is very much very ‘hip’ and ‘trendy’ due to an explosive use of it in the past couple of years- one major influencer being the Mursa Masa video ‘What If I Go?’ which uses a number of these collated images in their music video. Instead of a cool $50 on eBay, these bad boys are selling upwards of $300- well out of my uni student budget.
(Click gifs. to view them)
Because of my limited funds, I tried to source a digital alternative, eventually stumbling across this phone attachment that essentially ‘splits’ your phone’s camera lens in two. So, for the time being, I’ve settled and ordered this until I (hopefully) manage to come across one of these quadratic cameras for a much more reasonable price.
Because of my limited funds, I tried to source a digital alternative, eventually stumbling across this phone attachment that essentially ‘splits’ your phone’s camera lens in two. So, for the time being, I’ve settled and ordered this until I (hopefully) manage to come across one of these quadratic cameras for a much more reasonable price.