Vistascreen 3d Viewer

[Apolonio Hicks]

TheVistaScreen Co Ltd was a stereographic photography outfit launched in the late 1950s by Jack Spring & Jeffrey Leigh, who, at the time, owned a paper merchanting company called Capital Paper Company, and Stanley Long, a former RAF photographer. Long shot the vast majority of the stereo images, mostly using a 1920s Franke & Heidecke Heidoscop stereo camera with a 6x13 cm plate back.[1] The VistaScreen viewers were manufactured in ivory-colored plastic and were designed to fold flat in order to be able to be compactly stored.

The viewers were priced at 1/6d (around 7.5p in today's terms). The 3D experience given by these viewers was astonishing for the time at which they were invented, whereas more discriminating collectors favored use of higher quality viewers such as those produced by Raumbild. Picture cards were supplied in boxed booklets, with each series containing 10 cards. The individual series packets cost 2/6d (around 12.5p today).[2]

The card packets were marketed at souvenir booths at various locations photographed,[3] and most were also available through mail-order.[4] In some instances, two sets would be taken on a given day - one exclusive to the venue, and one that was marketed to the general public through supply lists included with each new set. The exact number of series released is unknown, though it is known to be in excess of 300 10-card sets over the 5-year lifespan of the company.[5]

Although most of the stereoviews produces by the company focused on Great Britain, or at least intended for UK viewers, there is evidence that some VistaScreen sets were printed in other languages and sold in non-Anglophone markets.[8]

Queen guitarist, astrophysicist, and stereography expert Dr. Brian May credits Weetabix VistaScreen cards with his lifelong passion for stereography.[9] May is credited with resurrecting the formerly-defunct London Stereoscopic Company.[10]

This was used to promote the Australian equivalent of Weetabix, know an Weet-Bix. The lenses on this viewer are far inferior to the Vistascreen viewers shown above, causing ripple distortion to the image being viewed.

This dates from around 1960. This viewer is a far eastern copy (Hong Kong) of a Vistascreen viewer. It is made out of brittle plastic and has 'Empire Made' printed on the side of the box. The quality of both the viewer and slides is much lower than the Vistascreen originals. The set came with 6 sets of story cards, each set comprising of ten drawn and coloured slides. The pictures used were copied from a USA toy viewer system of the same era. The clone below was made in Hong Kong for the USA market. It is almost identical to the viewer on the left other than the drawing of the girl has been altered and the viewer has been blister packed, presumably because that was more acceptable to the intended market. It is priced at $2.98. On the bottom of the packaging it is marked, "Made in Hong Kong" Expressly for Justen Products, Chicargo. Ill 60654

The Vistascreen viewer incidentally looks very similar to the 3D viewer made by Coronet of Birmingham, England, which seems to have a metal base, plastic body parts but ground glass lenses (a bit of an improvement over the Vistascreen). Same company produced a 3D camera in 1953, which might point to them producing their viewer around the same time; before Vistascreen.

Vistascreen was a system for viewing photographs or illustrations in 3D, similar in concept to the earlier Stereoview. Each card consists of two images at slightly different angles that when viewed together through a special viewer appear as a single stereoscopic image.

The Vistascreen Co Ltd was formed in the UK in 1955. Although the competing View-Master system was already available at this time, the content of most of the View-Master reels was of limited interest in the UK. Most of the original sets of black and white Vistascreen photographs were taken by photographer Stanley Long on a 1920s Rollei Heidoscope stereo camera. Picture cards were supplied in packs of 10 cards, and eventually almost 300 Vistascreen sets were produced. The bulk of Vistascreen card sales were as souvenirs at UK tourist attractions. A small number of glamour photos were also available by mail order.

In the 1960s, the Vistascreen business was sold to the Weetabix cereal company, and the viewers had the Weetabix logo added. Single cards were given away with Weetabix cereal in a promotion that lasted for a number of years and featured 6 different sets of 25 cards; Working Dogs, Thrills, British Cars, British Birds, Animals and Our Pets. Viewers could be purchased by mail order directly from the Weetabix factory. The original Vistascreen picture cards had a glossy, photographic finish and were of a much higher quality than those given away by Weetabix, which were made from printed card.

3D viewer Weetabix 60s with 25 various cards animals, cars, sports, etc. + Card brokers Speedway. The condition is used. Dispatched with Royal Mail 2nd Class Letter Grande.When the company Vistascreen stumbled financially, was absorbed by Weetabix Weetabix Ltd. is a manufacturer of breakfast cereals and bars and needed the viewer for your collectible 3-D images that were included in each package. Weetabix has been a classic part of the English breakfast for about 60 years.Measures Viewer / Glass 4x11

After trying several suppliers, most of whom had trouble producing a reasonable quality, thin, distortion-free injection moulded plastic product for just a few pence, a company was finally chosen. After a few experiments they managed to get the viewer body parts right, but the problem was now the lenses. Finally, after a few false starts Combined Optical Industries in Slough, Berkshire, actually came up with a lens that could be produced by injection moulding at the right price.

Eventually almost 300 Vistascreen sets of 10 views were produced, mostly photographed by Stanley, although other photographers were occasionally used. As time and money were really limited on each photographic trip, Stanley Long simply could not afford to spend several days in each location scouting around for the most photogenic or important scenes. So he simply arrived in town, went into the first newsagent he found and bought a set of postcards and a map. Inspired when you think about it!

Stanley used a 1920s Rollei Heidoscope stereo camera with a plate back for almost all his Vistascreen shots - and he still has this camera today! (see image, left). Around six different plate backs were used, and these could easily be reloaded later that evening in the bathroom of the hotel or guesthouse where he was staying. Ilford FP3 plates were preferred because, although slightly slow, they tended to be less contrasty than the Kodak equivalent at the time. This was to be a definite bonus as the negatives would need to be copied several times.

Without a full-time photographer and with no new sets being added, the popularity of the system started to decline. The whole business was finally sold out to Weetabix who continued the production of the viewers (in cream and then later in red) with their logo on the rear. These were sold for a subsidised 1/6d plus a special offer token printed on the Weetabix box. The actual 3D cards were given away inside the cereal box. Although all Weetabix cards were printed in full colour, their production was of basic quality, presumably due to the costs constraints of an on-pack promotion.

The measure is constructed of a white coloured plastic. Scale and direction of use arrows are etched into the plastic and painted red. The remaining green and yellow colouring is simply painted on to the body.

This is a very cheaply made plastic measure that has similarities to the Practical Motorist map measure. That measure was originally made available for purchase to readers of the magazine in 1959 and 1964. The cheaply made plastic map measure subsequently became generally available for a further forty years.

VistaScreen was launched in the 1950s as a rival to the US manufactured ViewMaster. These were 3D stereographic photograph viewers. The VistaScreen viewers were made from white plastic and designed to fold flat. Later, red plastic versions were made to promote the Weetabix breakfast cereal.

VistaScreen viewers were made by Combined Optical Industries in Slough, Berkshire. This company pioneered techniques in the precision moulding of plastic optics using injection and compression moulding and may have also produced this map measure. There is a very small number of unrelated plastic artefacts surviving that also bear the Vistascreen brand. Did the stereographic viewer company diversify and create other plastic products such as this measure?

So how good a measure is this little instrument? Considering a quality, metal-cased, measure coming from France or Switzerland would have been an expensive alternative, there would definitely have been a place on the market for these inexpensively produced measures, any slight inaccuracy in measuring capability would have been acceptible. Despite its cheap construction, my example is still working some sixty years after it was made.

Opening at Watts Gallery on 4 July 2023, Victorian Virtual Reality presents highlights from the Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy to explore the 19th-century photography craze that, for the first time, enabled pictures to appear in 3D.

Featuring over 150 stereoscopic photographs that visitors will be able to experience through a wide range of viewers and digital techniques, Victorian Virtual Realitywill show why this lesser-known Victorian innovation continues to be captivating today.

Stereoscopic photographs comprise two images of the same scene taken from slightly different viewpoints. When these are mounted side by side and viewed through a stereoscope, the observer sees just one three-dimensional image. The experience of seeing these pictures fuse into one, and having the chance to virtually transport oneself into another place, would have been a truly thrilling experience for Victorian viewers. Stereoscopic photographs eventually became affordable, and in the late 1850s and 1860s they circulated world-wide in their tens of thousands.

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