C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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The View-Master Personal Stereo Camera is a 35mm stereo camera produced by Sawyer's Inc. of Portland, Oregon, introduced in 1952. Unlike the Stereo Realist and Kodak Stereo, the View-Master Personal does not use the 5-perforation Realist format. Instead it uses a 7-perforation spacing to produce pairs of stereo frames on 35mm film that can be cut and mounted into standard View-Master reels for viewing in any View-Master viewer. Two matched lenses of approximately 25mm focal length sit at a stereo baseline matched to the View-Master reel format geometry. The camera was positioned as the consumer product that let amateur photographers populate their View-Master viewers with personal photographs rather than being limited to commercially produced reels.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →C41
Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
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Kodak UltraMax 400 is a versatile consumer-grade ISO 400 daylight-balanced color negative film with T-grain emulsion, delivering warm Kodak colors, fine-for-speed grain (PGI 46), and wide exposure latitude. Currently in production and available globally as a single-roll and multi-pack.
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Before you buy used
About this camera
The only way to shoot your own View-Master reels - a 35mm stereo camera built for a proprietary 7-perforation format.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm (7-perforation View-Master format) |
| Frame size | ~11 x 13 mm stereo pairs (on reel disc) |
| Stereo baseline | ~77 mm |
| Years | 1952 - ~1965 |
| Lenses | Twin fixed lenses, ~f/2.8 or f/3.5, ~25mm |
| Shutter | Central leaf, 1/10s - 1/100s + B |
| Flash sync | X-sync |
| Meter | None |
| Focus | Scale / zone focus |
| Battery | None required |
Sawyer's Inc. had been producing View-Master viewers and commercial reels since 1939, building a significant consumer audience for the View-Master format through commercially produced scenic and entertainment reels sold at tourist destinations and toy stores. The Personal Stereo Camera, introduced in 1952, was Sawyer's attempt to let consumers participate in production rather than merely consumption - a concept that anticipated the personal photography and personal media trends that would accelerate through the following decades.
Because the View-Master reel format uses a circular disc with seven stereo pairs per disc rather than a linear strip, the 35mm film from the Personal camera must be processed, cut, and individually mounted into reel discs. Sawyer's offered the Personal Stereo Mounter as a companion product to allow users to perform this cutting and mounting themselves. The system was aimed at dedicated enthusiasts willing to do significant post-processing work.
A successor, the View-Master Mark II, followed in approximately 1957 with refinements to the optical and mechanical package. Production of the Personal wound down as the broader stereo photography movement contracted in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The View-Master Personal occupies a unique position in stereo photography history: it is the only consumer-market camera purpose-built to feed a specific branded viewing system (the View-Master viewer) that had mass-market distribution through toy stores and tourist locations. While the Realist-format cameras produced slides viewable in specialized stereo viewers sold through camera shops, the View-Master format was embedded in American childhood - by the early 1950s View-Master viewers were ubiquitous enough that nearly any American household with children owned one.
The camera therefore served a market segment that the Stereo Realist did not: people who wanted to create stereo images viewable by a family member who already had a viewer, without the viewer itself being a hobbyist purchase. The incompatibility between the Realist/Kodak format and the View-Master format is a significant historical dividing line in 35mm stereo photography, analogous to later consumer format wars.
For current collectors, View-Master Personal cameras with functioning shutters and clean lenses can still produce film for cutting into reel discs - a practice that remains active in a small but persistent community of View-Master enthusiasts who continue to shoot, mount, and distribute personal reels.
C41
Kodak ColorPlus 200 is an affordable, consumer-oriented daylight-balanced color negative film at ISO 200. Known for warm, slightly muted color rendition, fine grain, and wide exposure latitude, it is currently in production and widely available in Asia and select global markets.
View profile →BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
View profile →Sawyer's Personal Stereo Camera
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