The red viewer below was made in the GDR (East-Germany) by Kamenzer Speilwerken near
Dresden, from around the late 80's
to the early 90's. It is one of several different models. They were made in a
large variety of colours The lens side of the viewer looks very similar to a Meoskop
5 and it also bears a vague resemblance to the Gaf Model K 'Space'
viewer and provides a very similar 5.5x viewing capability. The viewer
bears no obvious makers name or identifying details.
Because the GDR often suffered from
shortages, when a new production run of viewers was manufactured they used
whatever plastic they had available at the time. This has resulted in
these viewers being available in a very wide range of colours.
Looking even more like the GAF Model K this Stereobox
viewer had the name 'REAL STEREO VIEWER' moulded into the plastic. The
only significant difference to the Model K is that the light diffuser is
squarer. The plastic is a matt finish, against the gloss finish of the
GAF.
 Another format of Stereobox Viewer
from East Germany
This Stereobox viewer is based on
the View-Master Model E. The viewer shown below was made in the former GDR
in the 1980's for sale in Saudi-Arabia. The reels supplied with it were
pictures of the Saudi town of Medina and the box was in Arabic. The GDR
reels and viewers are not of particularly good quality and are noticeably
inferior to Sayers and Gaf products. The reels are manufactured in a
different manner to View-Master reels, being made from two sheets of heavy
gauge paper with the slides pressed between them. The are prone to warping
and feel as if they would easily sustain damage.
A more shocking example of colour used in the
manufacture of Stereobox viewers, fluorescent green!
A slightly more sombre blue example
Special Arabic Boxed Set
An older variant of the type of
Stereobox viewer shown above.
This viewer has a screw-together case
and bears no identifying marks, which is quite common for East German
Stereobox viewers.
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