Stéréospido

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The Stéréospido is a rigid, wooden-bodied stereo camera made by Gaumont in about 1900. It won the Grand Prix at the Expo of Paris in 1900, and "Grand Prix 1900" was imprinted on the front plate of later, similar Gaumont stereo cameras of the 1920s. It takes twelve 6×13cm or 8x16cm plates in an Elgé magazine back. It has a stereo shutter of the French shutter maker Decaux, with speeds up to 1/120 second. The focusing of the two lenses is linked with a bar, on which the distance scale is engraved. On the 8×16 model, the lenses focus from 1.5 metres to infinity. The camera has two folding Newton finders. The wide shape of the finder on the top of the example shown here shows that it is for taking a single panoramic photograph on the whole plate; for this, the lens board must slide sideways, positioning one lens centrally, and the septum inside the camera must be folded away. In the photograph, however, tthe finder is masked for normal, stereo use. Both finders have cross hairs. Ground glass viewing and focusing was also possible, by removing the plate magazine. There are also spirit levels for horizontal and vertical orientation.

The camera was available with different lens pairs, each made by one of the best lens makers:

for the 6×13 camera:

for the 8×16 camera:

  • Goerz (on the Stéréospido or similar Gaumont stereo camera on images above)

The camera was marketed as "appareil stéréo-panoramique", the version with Olor Berthiot lenses as "non panoramique". On its top was a sign saying "L. Gaumont & Cie. - Ingénieurs-Constructeurs - Grand Prix 1900 - Paris". A wooden and a metal version were made.

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