ANALOG vs DIGITAL - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine
ANALOG vs DIGITAL - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine
ANALOG vs DIGITAL - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine
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Publicity photo for Muppet Vision 3D at Walt Disney World. The<br />
It’s not the first wave of 3D, nor<br />
the second, nor the third. Threedimensional<br />
images arrived not<br />
long after the dawn of photography.<br />
The first 3D images arrived not long<br />
after the invention of photography itself.<br />
Making 3D pictures was easy enough:<br />
you took one picture, then moved the<br />
camera over a few centimetres, then<br />
took another. You did have to make<br />
sure the subject didn’t move, but then<br />
the exposures were then so long you<br />
couldn’t capture movement anyway. You<br />
would view the prints with a handheld<br />
stereoscope. The Viewmaster, still sold<br />
today, is a descendant of the stereoscope.<br />
But even a color Viewmaster slide is<br />
not a movie. You might be surprised to<br />
learn that the very first 3D film was made<br />
by the appropriately-named Lumière<br />
brothers, often considered the inventors<br />
of the motion picture. Their first<br />
3D movie lasted under a minute, and<br />
showed a train seemingly coming out of<br />
28 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY <strong>Magazine</strong><br />
Cinema<br />
3D Wave<br />
the screen, the sort of effect that would<br />
be replicated again and again.<br />
The year was 1895.<br />
In the years since, we have been<br />
assured that 3D technology had finally<br />
been perfected, that it would become as<br />
natural to make a movie in 3D as it is<br />
to make it in color. As we shall see, the<br />
problems have remained stubborn. Many<br />
have been solved. Many have not.<br />
Forgive us for a quick explanation of<br />
the principles of 3D. In “real life,” each of<br />
our eyes sees a slightly different image,<br />
because they are separated by a distance<br />
of about 8 cm. Our brains fuse the two<br />
images into a single one so that we may<br />
perceive depth. If we use two cameras<br />
also spaced about 8 cm apart, and if we<br />
can find a way to let each eye see only<br />
the image “meant” for it, the viewer will<br />
see depth just as he or she would in real<br />
life. How to make each eye see only the<br />
appropriate picture is the challenge.<br />
As far as we can tell, the first real<br />
3D wave was in the late 1930’s. A crude<br />
viewing system was used for viewing.<br />
The two images would be superimposed,<br />
one of them red, the other green or bluegreen.<br />
The viewer would wear glasses<br />
with lenses of those same colors. The<br />
red lens would block the green image,<br />
and the green lens would block the red<br />
image.<br />
The same system is still used for 3D<br />
images in print media and the Internet,<br />
but its drawbacks are many. Blocking is<br />
imperfect, which means the viewer sees<br />
a double image. The system is not compatible<br />
with natural color. The image is<br />
relatively dim, and spectators often see<br />
unpleasant color flashes when they take<br />
the glasses off.<br />
You’ll often read articles claiming<br />
that during the feature-film 3D wave of<br />
the early 1950’s, red-green glasses were<br />
used. Not so. A then new technology was<br />
developed, still at the heart of 3D today,<br />
based on polarization.<br />
The Polaroid Corporation is best<br />
remembered for instant photography,<br />
but founder Dr. Edwin Land named his<br />
company for its first product, the polarizing<br />
lens, which he had found a way to<br />
manufacture inexpensively. A polarizer<br />
lets through light waves vibrating in<br />
one plane while blocking light waves<br />
vibrating in the plane perpendicular to<br />
it. Polarizing sunglasses are excellent for<br />
cutting reflections from road surfaces.<br />
Hollywood was convinced it had<br />
solved the problem of 3D movies. Two<br />
films were projected one atop the other.<br />
Polarizing filters, turned at 90° apart,<br />
were placed in front of the projector<br />
lenses, and viewers would wear glasses<br />
whose two lenses were also polarizers<br />
rotated appropriately. No more problems.<br />
The studios brought out a wave of<br />
hit 3D films, and predicted that, from<br />
now on, all films would be in 3D. Sound<br />
familiar?<br />
The wave didn’t last.<br />
There were good reasons for that.<br />
Movie theatres had two projectors,<br />
so that multiple reels could be shown<br />
without a break, but 3D required both of<br />
them. Now movies needed an intermis-