Vintage Nimslo 3D Quadra Lens 35mm Film Camera And Flash
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:14737063 | Color: Black |
| Brand: Nimslo |
The Nimslo is a stereo camera with a Brightfield viewfinder that produces 3D pictures. These can be made into view-able 3D photos that can be viewed without glasses using Lenticular printing. It uses 35 mm film. It was produced in the 1980's by Nimstec Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and manufactured by Timex in Dundee, Scotland.
-- Visually in good condition, camera cocks and fires. Batteries are dead so I am unable to test. The camera did work when I stored it years ago, but I cannot guara...ntee that it still does; sold as is.
-- The Opti-lite flash does not power on; not sure why. Last I knew it worked when I put it away. But alas, fresh batteries did not produce the whine of charging, nor did the little red light come on. Battery compartment is not corroded, but the batter door does not latch and has been held shut with film processing tape.
-- I ship outside of the United States using the eBay Global shipping program. On the listing, find and click on the shipping tab next to the description tab, select your country from the pull down menu and click the "get rates" button to get a shipping estimate. If your country is not on the list then I am sorry to say that I cannot ship to you.
I personally have been a 3D/Stereoview hobbyist since the 1990's and using slide or print film I've made my own viewable 3D photos using various cards and slide mounts that are still available in the world; I’ve made Holmes style viewing cards, the older slide viewing cards and even my own View-Master discs!
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You will need to get your own 35mm film, have it processed by a lab that can do special processing (the images are created using four-half sized frames which overall is larger than one regular frame, and most standard labs can't handle that correctly. Ask to not have your negatives cut; have them long-sleeved and returned to you; many labs now make CD/DVD and throw your negative away; be careful!).
Lentistic photos require another special lab and process to make. To date I don't know where you can currently get this done, but if I find some sources I will post them here.
The Nimslo has fixed focus and automatic exposure. It featured a leathered metal body and glass lenses. Using its four lenses, four images from slightly different viewing angles were taken simultaneously. With the individual images half the size of the usual 35mm image frames, each 3D photograph taken used the space of 2 full 35mm exposures on the film. So a roll labeled as “36 exposures” would yield 18 3D pictures with four images each.
The Nimslo was the first consumer level three-dimensional lenticular camera of the 1980s. There were previous lenticular cameras aimed at amateurs, such as the 6 lens Lentic, introduced in 1953 which used 120 roll film, or the Stereo Realist from the 1940s-70s that used 35mm film, but the Nimslo was the first that could fit in a pocket.
The camera used a red LED to put a green dot on the negative. This was how the printer knew where a group of four negatives started. This dot appeared in the otherwise blank area above the image so it didn't appear in the printed frame. This feature appears to be unique to the Nimslo. Other lenticular cameras don’t have it and other lenticular printers don’t use it.
The Nimslo was originally built in a Timex factory in Dundee, Scotland. A massive strike in Dundee, as the U.S. rollout was gaining strong momentum, caused Nimslo to miss the delivery dates on all cameras sold. This led to the cancellation of the Timex contract. Later cameras were built by Sunpak in Japan.
Nimslo and its lenticular printer were invented by Jerry Curtis Nims from Georgia, USA, and Allen Kwok Wah Lo. Jerry Nims received one of the ten outstanding engineering achievements in the United States for the Nimslo Three-Dimensional Photographic System at the 17th Annual Competition of the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1983.
-- Visually in good condition, camera cocks and fires. Batteries are dead so I am unable to test. The camera did work when I stored it years ago, but I cannot guara...ntee that it still does; sold as is.
-- The Opti-lite flash does not power on; not sure why. Last I knew it worked when I put it away. But alas, fresh batteries did not produce the whine of charging, nor did the little red light come on. Battery compartment is not corroded, but the batter door does not latch and has been held shut with film processing tape.
-- I ship outside of the United States using the eBay Global shipping program. On the listing, find and click on the shipping tab next to the description tab, select your country from the pull down menu and click the "get rates" button to get a shipping estimate. If your country is not on the list then I am sorry to say that I cannot ship to you.
I personally have been a 3D/Stereoview hobbyist since the 1990's and using slide or print film I've made my own viewable 3D photos using various cards and slide mounts that are still available in the world; I’ve made Holmes style viewing cards, the older slide viewing cards and even my own View-Master discs!
=====
You will need to get your own 35mm film, have it processed by a lab that can do special processing (the images are created using four-half sized frames which overall is larger than one regular frame, and most standard labs can't handle that correctly. Ask to not have your negatives cut; have them long-sleeved and returned to you; many labs now make CD/DVD and throw your negative away; be careful!).
Lentistic photos require another special lab and process to make. To date I don't know where you can currently get this done, but if I find some sources I will post them here.
The Nimslo has fixed focus and automatic exposure. It featured a leathered metal body and glass lenses. Using its four lenses, four images from slightly different viewing angles were taken simultaneously. With the individual images half the size of the usual 35mm image frames, each 3D photograph taken used the space of 2 full 35mm exposures on the film. So a roll labeled as “36 exposures” would yield 18 3D pictures with four images each.
The Nimslo was the first consumer level three-dimensional lenticular camera of the 1980s. There were previous lenticular cameras aimed at amateurs, such as the 6 lens Lentic, introduced in 1953 which used 120 roll film, or the Stereo Realist from the 1940s-70s that used 35mm film, but the Nimslo was the first that could fit in a pocket.
The camera used a red LED to put a green dot on the negative. This was how the printer knew where a group of four negatives started. This dot appeared in the otherwise blank area above the image so it didn't appear in the printed frame. This feature appears to be unique to the Nimslo. Other lenticular cameras don’t have it and other lenticular printers don’t use it.
The Nimslo was originally built in a Timex factory in Dundee, Scotland. A massive strike in Dundee, as the U.S. rollout was gaining strong momentum, caused Nimslo to miss the delivery dates on all cameras sold. This led to the cancellation of the Timex contract. Later cameras were built by Sunpak in Japan.
Nimslo and its lenticular printer were invented by Jerry Curtis Nims from Georgia, USA, and Allen Kwok Wah Lo. Jerry Nims received one of the ten outstanding engineering achievements in the United States for the Nimslo Three-Dimensional Photographic System at the 17th Annual Competition of the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1983.
