View-Master came into being in the late thirties, and as an established format was well placed to take advantage of the resurgence of interest in stereoscopic photography which came in the fifties when colour slide film became widely available.
Sawyers produced a camera which took small pictures on 35mm film. After cutting out using a special film cutter, the pictures could be mounted in a special type of reel. The high quality of this 'Personal' camera, with the accurately made cutter and reel mounts, enabled the amateur photographer to produce results as good as any commercial reel.
There are many people still taking View-Master photographs. The cameras are straightforward to use, with fixed focus and simple exposure controls. They are also economical, taking around 80 stereo pairs on a roll of film. Mounting the slides is straightforward, the design of the film cutter and reel ensures the pictures are accurately aligned for viewing without any fiddly masking or adjustment.
No new equipment has been available for many years but used cameras are relatively easy to find, although the film cutters are scarce. The cameras may be 40 or 50 years old, but will remain useable as long as slide film is available.
In fact, special equipment is not essential, there are enthusiasts who use a standard 35mm stereo camera and cut down the pictures to fit V-M reels. It has to be admitted this is not easy - a steady hand and good eyesight are an advantage!
Having once obtained the equipment, the only other essential is a supply of blank reels. These are similar to the commercial reels, but have pockets into which the punched out film chips are inserted. Unfortunately these are no longer made and are becoming hard to obtain.