When 3D printers first started to become a thing, they were hailed as the future of manufacturing. We’d be able to make anything we want. The reality is that most 3D printer owners are making all kinds of weird stuff. But not Nick Sherlock!

We’ve featured Nick here before, but now he’s back with a new stereoscopic macro lens for Sony E. Yes, that’s right, it lets you shoot 3D macro images. It utilises a pair of camera bodies, but it’s a very strange-looking setup!

DIY 3D Macro Photos

You can see from Micael Widell’s video above that it produces some very interesting results. It does have some caveats, however. Micael talks about the potential issues with using it and how to overcome them – such as ensuring identical settings on both cameras.

But when you nail the cameras, settings and timings just right, it looks to produce some pretty spectacular macro. And you’ll be making them big, too, as each “eye” comes from a separate camera.

Download and print your own

As is usually the case, Nick has made the files for the stereoscopic 3D macro lens available to download. It is designed for full-frame Sony mirrorless cameras, so there are no guarantees of compatibility with other systems (in fact, you can probably guarantee non-compatibility) or with Sony’s APS-C sensor cameras. I expect APS-C bodies might work, but I think they’ll present their own unique set of challenges if they do.

While the files are available to freely download and print, you won’t be able to build this completely free. After all, it’s a beam splitter lens. So, you’ll need to buy a microscope objective and some beam splitter glass to install inside the printed parts.

You’ll probably want a few tools, too, but Nick has made all of the instructions, bill of materials and STL files available on Printables. The alternative for taking Stgereoscopic photos would be well over $6,000, and no macro. Heh.

Overall, it’s a very interesting-looking lens. I can see it being particularly useful in some studio situations I sometimes find myself in. As I don’t have a pair of identical Sony bodies (or even any Sony bodies), I think I’ll be skipping this one for now.

It would be interesting to see somebody shoot some 3D footage on a pair of Sony FX3 bodies (buy here) with this adapter. That could be some fun video to watch!