Chinese manufacturer Loreo has launched a compact stereoscopic lens add-on for 3D photography.
The snappily named Loreo 3D Lens in a Cap 9005 is a 40 mm, f11 f22, 2 element lens in a break resistant polymer composite housing. The add-on is designed to mate with APS-C format subframe digital SLR sensors (22-24mm) x (14.5-16mm).
The Lens features a twin blade diaphragm with 3 stop aperture settings: f11, f16, f22, and a continuous focusing slider from 1.5m to infinity. There’s also a focus coupled Parallax Compensation system. When the lens is focused on a subject at a given distance, the image pitch is automatically adjusted within the unit itself to suit the object distance.
The images taken with this set up consist of side-by-side images in the frame. The Loreo 2D viewer can be used to view or the images can be easily converted to be viewed in other systems such as PC-powered 3D display systems like Nvidia’s 3D Vision.
Loreo’s main web site doesn’t seem to be updated but the there is a page featuring the new 9005. 3D Display Info is reporting that versions are available for Canon, Nikon, Konica-Minolta, Sony, Olympus cameras and Panasonic cameras.
The cap is set to cost $165 in the US for the Canon model and $10 more for the other versions, but so far it’s only an Amazon partner listing. Hopefully wider availability will be seen soon.