Remember that camera with 16 lenses, the Light L16? Well, it looks like Jack Joy from Graindead found its dad: a 3D film camera known as the 3DS EXP. While the L16 was (or still is?) a tiny, futuristic digital camera, this beast sticks to old-school film and pure mechanical madness. Jack walks us through the strange, frustrating, and surprisingly charming experience of using the 3DS EXP. And while doing so, he uses a great sense of humor, which makes this video a real pleasure to watch!
What Is This Thing?!
When Jack first laid eyes on the 3DS EXP, he was pretty stumped. He’d never seen this thing before. And neither have I, despite seeing my fair share of weird gear over these 9+ years at DIYP. When trying to Google it, Jack went down a rabbit hole of Nintendo consoles and printer cartridges. In other words, the internet was no help. With no manual and no instructions, Jack decides to figure it out the old-fashioned way: by poking around and guessing.
The first thing you notice is, apparently, that this camera has six lenses. Not a factory error. As Jack guesses, it’s designed for lenticular photography: capturing multiple images at slightly different angles at the same moment to create a 3D effect. He jokes that lenticular printing works “by a combination of witchcraft and blood rituals or something like that.” Sounds about right.
How It Stacks Up Against Other 3D Film Cameras
Jack compares the 3DS EXP to more familiar names like the Nimslo 3D and the Nishika N8000. Those cameras are popular for making 3D GIFs today, but they’re basically point-and-shoot toys in comparison. The 3DS EXP offers real control — shutter speeds from 1/500th of a second to a full 16 seconds, and manual aperture control (even if f/5.6 is as fast as it goes).
It’s also surprisingly well-built. Unlike the Nishika, which Jack jokes is “held together with pure willpower alone,” the 3DS EXP feels solid in your hands. The viewfinder works like a twin-lens reflex (TLR) system but with six lenses, leading Jack to coin the term “Sextuplet Lens Reflex” — or “SLR” if you don’t think about it too much.
The Big Surprise: Medium Format Film
Most 3D film cameras shoot regular 35mm film. The 3DS EXP? It’s way cooler, but sadly, also way more painful for your wallet. Yup, you guessed it right — it shoots medium format 120 film.
Instead of squeezing lots of little images onto a strip of 35mm, the 3DS EXP gives you huge, beautiful negatives. Sharper images, better quality… but at a serious price. You only get two finished shots per roll since it burns through five exposures to make one 3D photo. With film and developing costs, Jack calculates each photo could easily cost £10 or more.
Piecing Together the Camera’s History
Digging into the camera’s past, Jack finds a clue. While the branding says ImageTech (a name linked to 3D and lenticular gear), the actual maker was Sakai Special Camera MFG Co. It’s a Japanese company that went bust in 2002.
No manuals, no detailed specs — until Jack finds a genius on an old auction site who had glued a set of handwritten instructions directly onto the camera. These instructions include ominous warnings like “NEVER switch off during a roll” (triple underlined), making Jack wonder if turning it off mid-roll would vaporize Earth’s atmosphere. Now I kinda wonder the same thing too.
Battery and Film Loading
Just when it seems like it can’t get worse, Jack discovers the camera doesn’t take regular batteries. Instead, it uses a rechargeable RC car battery with a weird, long-extinct connector. After lots of hunting, begging, and about £50, Jack finally gets one that sort of works. Although he notes it got “hotter than a McDonald’s apple pie” while charging.
Loading film is its own circus. The film door won’t close properly, and since the camera refuses to fire unless the door is fully latched, Jack ends up manually holding it shut while shooting.
The 3D Film Camera Shooting Experience
Once loaded, operating the camera is fairly simple. At least in theory. Push the shutter button, pray it doesn’t show an H error (which Jack says stands for “How about no”), and hope everything holds together.
Test shots reveal the quirks quickly. Sometimes, one lens decides to underexpose its frame, causing a flickering effect in the final 3D images. In one test, Jack jokes that the camera turned his girlfriend invisible between frames. This is either because the shutter lagged or because “it’s a Goosebumps ‘Say Cheese and Die’ situation.”
Despite all the issues, Jack also sees the potential. Shooting nighttime flash photography with long exposures, the camera actually behaves. The results, while not groundbreaking, show what this camera could do in the hands of someone more patient and luckier than Jack.
A Forgotten Masterpiece?
If you’re fascinated by rare gear or 3D film cameras, or both, maybe this one’s worth hunting down. However, I wasn’t lucky in finding one even after typing its name into Google. There’s a 3D printer model though. If you happen to know more about the mysterious 3DS EXP, feel free to share. Because, honestly, I’d love to learn more about this beast!
