Belplasca

The Belplasca was the main part of VEB Belca-Werk's product palette for stereoscopic photography. This stereo camera for two times 24×30mm exposure format had been introduced at the international fair Leipziger Frühjahrsmesse in 1954. The other products where stereo slide frames, the stereo slide viewer Belcaskop, and later the stereo slide projector Belplascus and the stereo viewing polarization spectacles. The camera had been crafted very precisely. It had the distance selection ring around the one and the aperture selection ring around the other lens, both selectors affecting both sides. A knob between the lenses served as speed selector for the double shutter. A double aperture scale around the distance selection ring helped to estimate depth of field.

With the appearance of this equipment stereoscopic slide projection evenings became trendy for a while.

A Belplasca with a pair of Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 37.5mm/3.5 lenses image by Uwe Kulick (Image rights)

specifications

• Type: viewfinder camera for stereo photography
• Manufacturer: VEB Belca-Werk (Dresden, East Germany)
• Year of launch: 1954
• Film: 35 mm (20 to 22 image pairs on one film possible)
• Lenses: two Carl Zeiss Jena 1:3.5/37.5mm lenses, distance between optical axes 64mm, minimal subject distance 2.5 m, or 1 m with nearness glasses on the lenses
• Shutter: double shutter with speeds from 1 sec. up to 1/200 sec.
• Diaphragms: iris type, located between optical elements of lenses, aperture 1:3.5 to 1:16
• Viewfinder: telescope type finder, coupled to distance selector for parallax correction
• Dimensions: 15.8×7.7×6 cm
• Weight: 800 g

Links

• technical data at Stereoscopy.com
• camera images and German manual excerpt at Stereoskopie (in German)
• images of accessories