3D - 2

When you close one eye watching movie in IMAX 3D cinema, do you get the same picture quality as in 2D?

I'm asking cause I'm amblyopic - nerves don't correctly connect my left eye with the brain and I can't really see in 3d. There's not any cinema around that shows Avatar in 2D (I'm not American), so I'm asking - does seeing through that polarized glass distort the picture or change its quality in any way? Thanks.

Public Comments

1. It dims the image slightly but that's true whether you're watching with one eye or both. You wouldn't want to watch it without the glasses because it would look like a blurry double image.
2. Sadly there are many people like yourself who cannot see in 3D, I say sadly first of all because 3D or stereo-photography has been my hobby for over 40 years (see avatar picture), secondly I know it makes distance judgement a bit more difficult for you. The polarising filters in the glasses don't distort or affect the quality of the image, the original films are taken with a camera with two lenses and two separate images are recorded , when the films are projected the projector has a polarising filter in front of each lens but each filter polarises the light in opposite planes, the glasses you wear have similarly opposite polarising planes, so in essence your left eye sees the film taken with the left camera lens and your right eye the right camera lens. Therefore if you watch with one eye, you will see a perfect picture taken with the corresponding camera lens, it won't be dimmed, but it would be blurred if you kept both eyes open because on the screen the two images are superimposed one one top of the other. I would suggest if you do go and watch it, you just cover up either lens with a piece of tape or black paper for instance, otherwise it will be tiring keeping one eye closed all that time. No offence to the next answer, but I can say that definitively.
3. Honestly, I can't answer that definitively. But the polarized glasses should do it for each eye. I certainly hope so, because this is an awesome movie, and I want you to enjoy it. Check out my review.
4. If you close one eye then the open eye will see a clear 2d movie. That is how they got 2d versions of 3d movies made in the 1950's. They just showed the images for the left eye or the right eye by themselves and it looks like a regular movie. The camera has two lenses that film at the same time, show the movie filmed with the left lens by itself and you have a 2d movie. Close your right eye with the glasses on and you will still see the left lens movie by itself.