The View-Master Circuit is a small group of stereo photographers working in the View-Master format who circulate their work for appraisal by others. The View-Master system (comprising seven small stereo pairs on a reel) has its own set of advantages and drawbacks, and membership of the Circuit is a good way to share experiences and learn from others.

The View-Master Circuit has been running for many years (probably started sometime in the late 1950’s) and as at January 2010, is on round no. 87. Since 1986 the circuit secretary has been David Robinson. At one time there were upwards of a dozen members, but over the last twenty years numbers have fluctuated between four and six. This level of membership is only just enough to keep the circuit viable, so new members are always welcome.

There is no membership fee, but as the View-Master Circuit is run under the auspices of the Third Dimension Society, circuit members are required to be be members of the Society. The Circuit currently has members in UK and USA but is open to Society members worldwide. Although intended for active stereo photographers, the Circuit is also open to those having a genuine interest in View-Master photography, who for whatever reason (often lack of suitable equipment) are not currently able to contribute pictures, and thus participate as ‘viewing only’ members.

The circuit is a postal folio comprising three loose-leaf booklets of A5 size in landscape format, with pockets for the reels, packed in a re-usable padded bag. At one time, circulation was slow (over a year for a round) due to the large number of members. Nowadays it is deliberately limited to a maximum of two rounds a year, normally starting in April and October. The package is quite light and costs about £1.40 (UK) in postage. In the last 30 years there has been no loss or significant damage to the Circuit in something like 400 journeys through the post, a tribute to the standard of our postal services!

The Circuit comprises folders for ‘Current Round’, ‘Last Round/Future Round’ and ‘Notebook’.

The Current Round consists of a complete set of members’ entries, which each member in turn views, comments and votes on.

Each entry has a comment sheet, on which all except the photographer write their comments, primarily on the artistic merit of the picture. There is less emphasis than in some other formats on technical aspects such as mounting, because the V-M photographer has less control over these. Pictures are marked out of ten on a voting card, which is sent directly to the secretary.

The member's own previous round reel and comment sheets are removed from the Last Round section. An entry for the next round is added to the Future Round section, and details of each slide are entered onto new comment sheets. Each member contributes a reel containing four of his or her own photographs each round. The remaining three positions on the reel may be blank or may contain pictures associated with the entries or of general interest, according to personal preference.

The Notebook is used for members’ general comments, questions, news and discussion. In here members can also include personal or commercial reels of general interest.

At the end of each round the secretary transfers the Current Round reels and comment sheets to the now empty Last Round section, the new contributions in the Future Round section to the Current Round folder and adds new comment sheet blanks for the Future Round. In this way, there is a complete set of members’ entries in the Current Round, and all members see the same pictures during the same round. Although this scheme involves each entry travelling around twice, which adds a little to the weight of the package, it has the advantage that all members see the same pictures during the same round, and voting for the awards is on the same set of pictures for all. At the end of each round, the secretary calculates the scores from the voting. The highest scoring picture (the Top Slide) and the reel with the highest total marks (the Top Reel) each earn an Award Certificate for their photographer.