3D in 19C = region squared (away) | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

Wairarapa filmgoers may have to wait to enjoy the 3D technology that movies such as Avatar and Tron Legacy have made famous, but for one Masterton man 3D imagery is nothing new.

Family historian Gil Caroll has a 19th-century stereoscopic viewer and 20 stereograms of Wairarapa scenes, as well as pictures of himself as a 1-year-old, which he can view three-dimensionally.

The stereoscopic viewer belonged to Mr Caroll's grandfather, Kemble Welch, an amateur photographer who had a darkroom at his Te Mara farm in Kiriwhakapapa.

Stereoscopy uses two offset images presented separately to the left and right eyes, which the brain views as a single image, giving the illusion of 3-D depth.

Sir Charles Wheatstone invented it in 1838.

The stereoscopic camera his grandfather used is stored at his sister's house in Napier with "hundreds of slides" ranging from picnic scenes, pictures taken on a US trip in the 1920s and landscapes taken as part of a stereoscopic camera club to which Kemble Welch belonged.

Images in the collection include early photographs of the bush at Kiriwhakapapa.

The members of the camera club would develop and enlarge their own images in home darkrooms to circulate between themselves through the post, seeking comments and critiques of their work.

Mr Caroll is unsure of the viewer's age but says the stereoscopic camera was made in the 1890s.

Mr Caroll says Brendan Holster, his niece's husband, is trying to source film for the stereoscopic camera to produce new images for the viewer. Mr Holster works as a cameraman for Peter Jackson and used modern stereoscopic film cameras on the set of James Cameron's Avatar.