The world of 3-D photography is rapidly changing to digital, HD aspect displays, and movies. Until recently (see bottom of page), one had to hack their own equipment. Now, things are much easier with the Canon CHDK/SDM hack, and real stereo cameras and displays are appearing. Youtube now supports stereo video in many different formats with the yt3d:enable=true tag. This link uses the tag to search for stereo videos on Youtube. Use the drop-down 3D Style menu under the video to select the 3-D view mode.
This approach requires two supported Canon cameras and a simple homemade or purchased switch and a bracket to hold the cameras. It doesn't void the Canon warranty and is fully reversible. Any number of cameras can be synched together. It is free and open source. The key idea is that the assembly commands controlling the computer in the Canons were deciphered and new program code can be loaded from the memory card on bootup. This adds new functionality to the cameras, including the ability to synch functions such as the shutter from the usb ports. All the info is available at the Stereo Data Maker page.
Now there are the first true digital stereo cameras which allow taking stereo
right out of the box. The first is the
Fuji W1.
This camera has an autostereo 3-D display (no glasses) which can play back stereo images and movies. There is also a standalone autostereo 3-D picture frame from Fuji and also from other vendors
which may be cheaper/better than the Fuji display. Here is a link to a less expensive 3D digital picture frame that can show
pictures and video without glasses. The Berezin website also sells many other stereo supplies and viewers. Other camera manufacturers have also
announced digital 3-D cameras but they aren't available yet.
Great software to mount and display digital stereo images in many different formats is also available for free, StereoPhotoMaker. Batch processing is a real timesaver and automates some of the tedious processes. There is a also free StereoMovieMaker software, since all these cameras also shoot video, though the video is not as perfectly synchronized as pictures.
3-D displays are rapidly becoming available for home and computer use. There are too many possibilities here to enumerate including shutter glass systems for Samsung and Mitsubishi DLP HD TV's and 120 Hz LCD monitors which are 3-D ready. Monitors based on circular polarization may be the best choice and two interesting versions are the Zalman monitor and the Acer Aspire 5738DG laptop which are available now at reasonable prices.
A digital five camera hardware hack for lenticular 3-D from 2004, before SDM, and an early homemade digital viewer with adjustable interocular.