Nimslo
Encyclopedia
The Nimslo is a stereo camera
with a brightfield viewfinder
that produces 3D pictures which can be viewed without glasses. This is done using Lenticular printing
. It uses common 35 mm film
in 135 film
format cartridges. It was produced in the 1980s by Nimstec Atlanta
, Georgia
, USA
.
es. Using its four lenses, four images from slightly different viewing angles were taken simultaneously. With the individual images half the size of the usual 35mm image frames, each 3D photograph taken used the space of 2 full 35mm exposures on the film
. So a roll labeled as "36 exposures" would last for 18 3D pictures with four images each.
The Nimslo was the first consumer level three dimensional lenticular camera of the 1980s. There were previous lenticular cameras aimed at amateurs, such as the 6 lens Lentic, introduced in 1953, which used 120 roll film, but the Nimslo was probably the first to use 35mm film, and certainly the first that could fit in a pocket.
The camera used a red LED
to put a green dot on the negative. This was how the printer knew where a group of four negatives started. This dot appeared in the otherwise blank area above the image so it didn't appear in the printed frame. This feature appears to be unique to the Nimslo. Other lenticular cameras don't have it and other lenticular printers don't use it.
The Nimslo was originally built in a Timex factory in Dundee
, Scotland
. Later cameras were built by Sunpak in Japan
.
Nimslo and its lenticular
printer were invented by Jerry Curtis Nims and Allen Kwok Wah Lo, both from Georgia, USA.
Lenticular prints would be ordered from special print shops using dedicated printers.
The pictures produced by the Nimslo camera create a three dimensional image that can be seen with the naked eye. This 3D image is made possible by the lenticular printing process that was customized by the Nimslo inventors, though professional lenticular prints had been around for a while.
.
"Fred Olsen", in charge of the Fred. Olsen & Co.
shipping company. Fred Olsen is a technological and industrial visionary and believed strongly in the Nimslo product. He wanted the Timex factory in Dundee
in Scotland
to produce the cameras, as they had already produced cameras for Polaroid
. He established a guarantee of 25 million USD for the acquisition of the Nimslo shares.
processor. The operator had to view the actual images to align the images. The time to create a picture was measured in minutes. The second photographic printer was the Mark 1A. This printer was controlled by a Data General
MicroNova processor, using the MP/OS operating system. This machine used a video system and was able to create a picture in about 15 seconds.
Nimslo prints are created by printing the four images through the lenticular print material, each at a different angle, to a photosensitive emulsion on the back of the lenticular material. The print material is then processed in a normal photofinishing machine, as the back of the print material is permeable to the photofinishing chemicals.
Also, though no glasses or other viewing aids were needed to view Nimslo prints, the quality and depth paled in comparison with the images produced by more conventional stereo photography techniques and with professional lenticular prints.
company called Nishika
. In April 1989, Nishika introduced the four lens Nishika N8000 and later the four lens N9000. The N8000 featured a plastic body with plastic lenses, a fixed 1/60 shutter speed and a 3 position manual aperture lever that that selected f8, f11 and f19. The N9000 was a more compact, sleeker version but was essentially the same camera, except with 2 aperture settings, f8 and f16, instead of 3. Part of the marketing effort included a promotional/instructional video starring Vincent Price
. Nishika also offered a companion flash, similar to the Nimslo Optilite but much bulkier and with just one contact plus ground. They also offered a number of other accessories including a "professional" strap, Nishika Tripod, a Nishika deluxe deluxe camera case, a lens cleaning kit and even a line of Nishika brand color print film, marked with both regular and 3D exposures, though the advertising stressed that it could use any ASA 100 color print film.
Nishika also, of course, offered a lenticular processing service.
The design of the Nishika N8000 was a bit overstated. The flash contact sits atop a small platform which resembles the Pentaprism found on an SLR. The camera is much larger than it needs to be, a lead weight was included to make it heavier, there is a plastic panel on top designed to look like an LCD readout and the two AA batteries serve no function except to power the "light meter" which merely indicates whether or not flash should be used. The "use flash" indicator is not coupled to the aperture lever and is thus valid only when f8 (cloudy/indoors) is selected and when ASA 100 film is used. Also, the hot shoe has three contacts (in addition to ground), but two simply sit on top of the plastic with no internal connection. The companion flash has only a single contact in addition to ground.
Misleading and even illegal tactics were used to market the camera, including an infamous fraudulent prize promotion scheme, which is usually blamed for the company's demise.
Though N8000s are constantly available on eBay, they rarely get any bids.
The confusion on the part of Michael Starks may stem from the introduction about a year later of the 3 lens Trilogy, which sported a built in electronic flash and motorized film advance, and was originally marketed through a system very similar to the multilevel scheme used by Nishika. The same camera was later renamed to Image Tech 3D 1000 and marketed through more traditional channels.
Several other 3 lens cameras were released, such as the 3D wizard, 3D magic, 3DFX, and Kalimar, some of which sported more modern features such as built in electronic flash and motorized film advance but lacked the auto exposure features of the Nimslo. The 3D trio featured 3 element coated glass lenses, built in flash, motorized film advance, automatic exposure control, compatibility with DX coded ASA 100, 200 and 400 film, and a built in protective lens cover, making it the closest 3 lens equivalent to the Nimslo. These 3 lens cameras gave more pictures per roll of film, 16 for 24 exposure roll rather than the 12 yielded by Nimslo/Nishika and had less ghosting, but also less depth. There were other 4 lens Nimslo clones as well, such as the 3DNext and the Rittai. Like the Nishika, several of these were marketed through multilevel schemes, often in Asian countries, occasionally being the basis of a scam.
In 2005 the Canadian firm Snap 3D began selling several 2 lens and 5 lens lenticular cameras made by US technology Ltd in Hong Kong. The 5 lens cameras were particularly odd producing five images that were 29.94 mm high and from 24.75 to 26.33 mm wide, all five images having a different width. These were deluxe cameras, featuring glass lenses, adjustable focus with rangefinder, adjustable shutter speeds 1/125, 1/60, 1/30 sec. and "B", continuously adjustable aperture from f/5.6 to f22 and a spirit level. They also had automatic film loading and motorized film advance. Indeed, these cameras were so far removed from the Nimslo, that it might be stretching things to call them Nimslo clones. Snap 3D no longer sells these cameras but still does lenticular processing and offers a few related services, such as lenticular prints form traditional stereo pairs and from digital stereo cameras such as the Fuji w3.
There are still a small number of companies that can process Nimslo pictures. These companies specialize in three dimensional lenticular printing and allow Nimslo users to receive prints similar to the original Nimstec creations.
In a somewhat "retro" development, many stereo photography buffs used the Nimslo to take stereo slides which were mounted in "4P" (half frame) slide mounts. This was done by using either slip in cardboard mounts, some specially labeled with the Nimslo name or aluminum masks such as the Realist "closeup" mask. These masks were sometimes put in metal frames and placed between glass, much like Realist format slides. The resulting stereo slides could then be viewed using conventional Realist format viewers or even projected with stereo projectors.
The dot that was green on negatives was red on slide film and so stereo hobbyists could tell which chip was the left frame after
cutting the film by looking for the red dot. Because many slide mounts were designed for an image frame taller than the Nimslo frame this red dot was sometimes visible in the picture.
The glass lenses and automatic exposure control of the Nimslo made it well suited for this purpose, unlike similar cameras such as the Nishika that typically sported plastic lenses and limited adjustability, relying on the latitude of the print film to give good results under varied lighting conditions.
Others used the Nimslo to produce half frame prints that could be used to make stereo cards which could be viewed in conventional stereoscopes.
Since only the two outer images of the four images formed by each snap were mounted, using an unmodified Nimslo to produce stereo pairs results in a lot of film wastage and making prints is even more costly since half of them will be thrown away. The problem of paying for twice as many prints could be solved by covering the two center lenses, but that doesn't solve the problem of film wastage. This spurred some enterprising individuals to come up with modifications.
Technical enterprises came out with the Teco-Nimslo which exposed two images at a time and modified the film advance so that there was no film wastage. This produced 24 half frame pairs on a 24 exposure roll. The result was an ideal camera for those satisfied with half frame format slides.
David Burder came up with more radical modifications. One, the original Burdlo, featured a modified lens board with two lenses but essentially the same film advance to take full frame stereo pictures. The stereo base was greatly reduced to only 36mm, but this was adequate for closeup work. Other cameras also going by the name Burdlo included multiple Nimslos joined together to make 12 lens and 24 lens lenticular cameras. None of these were as popular as the Teco-Nimslo but pictures of them are easy enough to find on the web and have occasionally been the subject of blog entries.
Others have modified the Nimslo to make a wide format camera, or have found other non 3D uses, with or without modification.
There has been a lot of buzz lately about the release of consumer level lenticular printers. This would allow users to make their own lenticular prints. This would obviously bring new life to the market for used and NOS cameras, but it seems unlikely that a company which made a lenticular printer wouldn't also market a camera to go with it.
At first this may use the existing film technology, but eventually they would likely release a digital version, since the printing would almost certainly be from digital files. The release of a trilens or quadralens (or other multilens) digital camera may be just around the corner. Of course, like the Nimslo, such a camera could also be used to make stereo pairs.
Stereo camera
A stereo camera is a type of camera with two or more lenses with a separate image sensor or film frame for each lens. This allows the camera to simulate human binocular vision, and therefore gives it the ability to capture three-dimensional images, a process known as stereo photography. Stereo...
with a brightfield viewfinder
Viewfinder
In photography, a viewfinder is what the photographer looks through to compose, and in many cases to focus, the picture. Most viewfinders are separate, and suffer parallax, while the single-lens reflex camera lets the viewfinder use the main optical system. Viewfinders are used in many cameras of...
that produces 3D pictures which can be viewed without glasses. This is done using Lenticular printing
Lenticular printing
Lenticular printing is a technology in which a lenticular lens is used to produce images with an illusion of depth, or the ability to change or move as the image is viewed from different angles...
. It uses common 35 mm film
35 mm film
35 mm film is the film gauge most commonly used for chemical still photography and motion pictures. The name of the gauge refers to the width of the photographic film, which consists of strips 35 millimeters in width...
in 135 film
135 film
The term 135 was introduced by Kodak in 1934 as a designation for cartridge film wide, specifically for still photography. It quickly grew in popularity, surpassing 120 film by the late 1960s to become the most popular photographic film format...
format cartridges. It was produced in the 1980s by Nimstec Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Features
The Nimslo had fixed focus and automatic exposure. It featured a leathered metal body and glass lensPhotographic lens
A camera lens is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capable of storing an image chemically or electronically.While in principle a simple convex lens will suffice, in...
es. Using its four lenses, four images from slightly different viewing angles were taken simultaneously. With the individual images half the size of the usual 35mm image frames, each 3D photograph taken used the space of 2 full 35mm exposures on the film
Photographic film
Photographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film...
. So a roll labeled as "36 exposures" would last for 18 3D pictures with four images each.
The Nimslo was the first consumer level three dimensional lenticular camera of the 1980s. There were previous lenticular cameras aimed at amateurs, such as the 6 lens Lentic, introduced in 1953, which used 120 roll film, but the Nimslo was probably the first to use 35mm film, and certainly the first that could fit in a pocket.
The camera used a red LED
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
to put a green dot on the negative. This was how the printer knew where a group of four negatives started. This dot appeared in the otherwise blank area above the image so it didn't appear in the printed frame. This feature appears to be unique to the Nimslo. Other lenticular cameras don't have it and other lenticular printers don't use it.
The Nimslo was originally built in a Timex factory in Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. Later cameras were built by Sunpak in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Nimslo and its lenticular
Lenticular lens
A lenticular lens is an array of magnifying lenses, designed so that when viewed from slightly different angles, different images are magnified...
printer were invented by Jerry Curtis Nims and Allen Kwok Wah Lo, both from Georgia, USA.
Lenticular prints would be ordered from special print shops using dedicated printers.
The pictures produced by the Nimslo camera create a three dimensional image that can be seen with the naked eye. This 3D image is made possible by the lenticular printing process that was customized by the Nimslo inventors, though professional lenticular prints had been around for a while.
US patents
The technology was protected by US patentsUnited States patent law
United States patent law was established "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;" as provided by the United States Constitution. Congress implemented these...
.
- 3,960,563 - Methods and apparatus for taking and composing stereoscopic pictures
- 4,037,950 - Camera for taking stereoscopic pictures
- 4,063,265 - Apparatus for taking stereoscopic pictures
Nimstec, Timex and Fred Olsen
The shares of the Nimstec were bought by Eagleville Company in October 1980, again controlled by the Ptarmigan Trust that at the same time gained control over Timex Corporation. The whole operation was controlled by billionaire Fredrik OlsenFredrik Olsen
Thomas Fredrik Olsen or Fred Olsen is a Norwegian shipping magnate and Chairman of the companies in the Fred. Olsen Group. He is the fourth generation running the Fred. Olsen Group, founded by his great grandfather Petter Olsen and named after his grandfather Thomas Fredrik Olsen...
"Fred Olsen", in charge of the Fred. Olsen & Co.
Fred. Olsen & Co.
Fred. Olsen & Co. is a large shipping company based in Oslo, Norway. The company was founded by Petter Olsen in 1848. Today it is the holding company that controls the Olsen family's interest through Bonheur and Ganger Rolf.-History:...
shipping company. Fred Olsen is a technological and industrial visionary and believed strongly in the Nimslo product. He wanted the Timex factory in Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
to produce the cameras, as they had already produced cameras for Polaroid
Polaroid Corporation
Polaroid Corporation is an American-based international consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February...
. He established a guarantee of 25 million USD for the acquisition of the Nimslo shares.
Mark 1S and Mark 1A Printers
The original Nimslo photographic printer (the Mark 1S) was controlled by a KIM-1KIM-1
The KIM-1, short for Keyboard Input Monitor, was a small 6502-based single-board computer developed and produced by MOS Technology, Inc. and launched in 1976...
processor. The operator had to view the actual images to align the images. The time to create a picture was measured in minutes. The second photographic printer was the Mark 1A. This printer was controlled by a Data General
Data General
Data General was one of the first minicomputer firms from the late 1960s. Three of the four founders were former employees of Digital Equipment Corporation. Their first product, the Data General Nova, was a 16-bit minicomputer...
MicroNova processor, using the MP/OS operating system. This machine used a video system and was able to create a picture in about 15 seconds.
Nimslo prints are created by printing the four images through the lenticular print material, each at a different angle, to a photosensitive emulsion on the back of the lenticular material. The print material is then processed in a normal photofinishing machine, as the back of the print material is permeable to the photofinishing chemicals.
Market failure
Although the idea of a consumer level camera that could make lenticular 3D prints similar to those that had appeared for many years on book covers and other novelty items certainly had appeal, the idea never really caught on, perhaps partially due to the high costs of processing and long wait times.Also, though no glasses or other viewing aids were needed to view Nimslo prints, the quality and depth paled in comparison with the images produced by more conventional stereo photography techniques and with professional lenticular prints.
Nishika
According to Michael Starks, Nimslo went bankrupt and was partly sold to a NevadaNevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
company called Nishika
. In April 1989, Nishika introduced the four lens Nishika N8000 and later the four lens N9000. The N8000 featured a plastic body with plastic lenses, a fixed 1/60 shutter speed and a 3 position manual aperture lever that that selected f8, f11 and f19. The N9000 was a more compact, sleeker version but was essentially the same camera, except with 2 aperture settings, f8 and f16, instead of 3. Part of the marketing effort included a promotional/instructional video starring Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
. Nishika also offered a companion flash, similar to the Nimslo Optilite but much bulkier and with just one contact plus ground. They also offered a number of other accessories including a "professional" strap, Nishika Tripod, a Nishika deluxe deluxe camera case, a lens cleaning kit and even a line of Nishika brand color print film, marked with both regular and 3D exposures, though the advertising stressed that it could use any ASA 100 color print film.
Nishika also, of course, offered a lenticular processing service.
The design of the Nishika N8000 was a bit overstated. The flash contact sits atop a small platform which resembles the Pentaprism found on an SLR. The camera is much larger than it needs to be, a lead weight was included to make it heavier, there is a plastic panel on top designed to look like an LCD readout and the two AA batteries serve no function except to power the "light meter" which merely indicates whether or not flash should be used. The "use flash" indicator is not coupled to the aperture lever and is thus valid only when f8 (cloudy/indoors) is selected and when ASA 100 film is used. Also, the hot shoe has three contacts (in addition to ground), but two simply sit on top of the plastic with no internal connection. The companion flash has only a single contact in addition to ground.
Misleading and even illegal tactics were used to market the camera, including an infamous fraudulent prize promotion scheme, which is usually blamed for the company's demise.
Though N8000s are constantly available on eBay, they rarely get any bids.
Other Clones
Starks claimed that Nishika also made a 3 lens camera, but there if no evidence that such a camera ever existed oustide his article. It is interesting that some of the Nishika "dealers" claimed that the Nimslo had only 3 lenses.The confusion on the part of Michael Starks may stem from the introduction about a year later of the 3 lens Trilogy, which sported a built in electronic flash and motorized film advance, and was originally marketed through a system very similar to the multilevel scheme used by Nishika. The same camera was later renamed to Image Tech 3D 1000 and marketed through more traditional channels.
Several other 3 lens cameras were released, such as the 3D wizard, 3D magic, 3DFX, and Kalimar, some of which sported more modern features such as built in electronic flash and motorized film advance but lacked the auto exposure features of the Nimslo. The 3D trio featured 3 element coated glass lenses, built in flash, motorized film advance, automatic exposure control, compatibility with DX coded ASA 100, 200 and 400 film, and a built in protective lens cover, making it the closest 3 lens equivalent to the Nimslo. These 3 lens cameras gave more pictures per roll of film, 16 for 24 exposure roll rather than the 12 yielded by Nimslo/Nishika and had less ghosting, but also less depth. There were other 4 lens Nimslo clones as well, such as the 3DNext and the Rittai. Like the Nishika, several of these were marketed through multilevel schemes, often in Asian countries, occasionally being the basis of a scam.
In 2005 the Canadian firm Snap 3D began selling several 2 lens and 5 lens lenticular cameras made by US technology Ltd in Hong Kong. The 5 lens cameras were particularly odd producing five images that were 29.94 mm high and from 24.75 to 26.33 mm wide, all five images having a different width. These were deluxe cameras, featuring glass lenses, adjustable focus with rangefinder, adjustable shutter speeds 1/125, 1/60, 1/30 sec. and "B", continuously adjustable aperture from f/5.6 to f22 and a spirit level. They also had automatic film loading and motorized film advance. Indeed, these cameras were so far removed from the Nimslo, that it might be stretching things to call them Nimslo clones. Snap 3D no longer sells these cameras but still does lenticular processing and offers a few related services, such as lenticular prints form traditional stereo pairs and from digital stereo cameras such as the Fuji w3.
After market
Despite the fact that Nimstec has ceased to exist and can no longer produce Nimslo cameras, one can still obtain a Nimslo through various internet auction sites. Original Nimstec cameras cost around $200 dollars at their first release but can now be found for less than $50. The Nimslo has fallen out of fashion, but still maintains a small but loyal following among photography buffs.There are still a small number of companies that can process Nimslo pictures. These companies specialize in three dimensional lenticular printing and allow Nimslo users to receive prints similar to the original Nimstec creations.
In a somewhat "retro" development, many stereo photography buffs used the Nimslo to take stereo slides which were mounted in "4P" (half frame) slide mounts. This was done by using either slip in cardboard mounts, some specially labeled with the Nimslo name or aluminum masks such as the Realist "closeup" mask. These masks were sometimes put in metal frames and placed between glass, much like Realist format slides. The resulting stereo slides could then be viewed using conventional Realist format viewers or even projected with stereo projectors.
The dot that was green on negatives was red on slide film and so stereo hobbyists could tell which chip was the left frame after
cutting the film by looking for the red dot. Because many slide mounts were designed for an image frame taller than the Nimslo frame this red dot was sometimes visible in the picture.
The glass lenses and automatic exposure control of the Nimslo made it well suited for this purpose, unlike similar cameras such as the Nishika that typically sported plastic lenses and limited adjustability, relying on the latitude of the print film to give good results under varied lighting conditions.
Others used the Nimslo to produce half frame prints that could be used to make stereo cards which could be viewed in conventional stereoscopes.
Since only the two outer images of the four images formed by each snap were mounted, using an unmodified Nimslo to produce stereo pairs results in a lot of film wastage and making prints is even more costly since half of them will be thrown away. The problem of paying for twice as many prints could be solved by covering the two center lenses, but that doesn't solve the problem of film wastage. This spurred some enterprising individuals to come up with modifications.
Technical enterprises came out with the Teco-Nimslo which exposed two images at a time and modified the film advance so that there was no film wastage. This produced 24 half frame pairs on a 24 exposure roll. The result was an ideal camera for those satisfied with half frame format slides.
David Burder came up with more radical modifications. One, the original Burdlo, featured a modified lens board with two lenses but essentially the same film advance to take full frame stereo pictures. The stereo base was greatly reduced to only 36mm, but this was adequate for closeup work. Other cameras also going by the name Burdlo included multiple Nimslos joined together to make 12 lens and 24 lens lenticular cameras. None of these were as popular as the Teco-Nimslo but pictures of them are easy enough to find on the web and have occasionally been the subject of blog entries.
Others have modified the Nimslo to make a wide format camera, or have found other non 3D uses, with or without modification.
The future
It seems pretty clear that the Nimslo will remain history and will never again be manufactured and the Nimslo clones seem to have also met their demise. Despite this, many such cameras are still in use and can be found in mint condition or as NOS and lenticular prints can still be made. Though it is possible that the last companies doing lenticular printing will cease such activities and that the whole concept will fade into obscurity, it may well be that a new chapter in the story will be written.There has been a lot of buzz lately about the release of consumer level lenticular printers. This would allow users to make their own lenticular prints. This would obviously bring new life to the market for used and NOS cameras, but it seems unlikely that a company which made a lenticular printer wouldn't also market a camera to go with it.
At first this may use the existing film technology, but eventually they would likely release a digital version, since the printing would almost certainly be from digital files. The release of a trilens or quadralens (or other multilens) digital camera may be just around the corner. Of course, like the Nimslo, such a camera could also be used to make stereo pairs.