Don's mounting magic (Re: News from Green Bay)

[Greg Erker <erker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Later when I had a chance I told Donn I *still* did
>not believe anyone could mount MF images that fast,
>and asked him for a demonstration.  He removed one
>chip from one of his slides and, working on a solid
>table top with no light source behind the image, and
>no mounting gauge, proceeded to replace it in the
>slide mount.  I didn't put a stop watch on him, but
>he was pretty quick.  I'd guesstimate over 10 seconds
>and under 20.  He didn't reposition both chips, but
>of course it's aligning the second with the first
>that is the most difficult.

  Wow. He must have X-ray vision as well as
zoom vision!

  I usually mount without wearing my glasses
(am nearsighted) on a light table, which gives
me the equivalent of a 250mm FL viewing lens
(4 diopters). But even with this semi-closeup
viewing I still have trouble getting the two
film chips perfectly vertically aligned (when
viewed with 84mm viewer lenses).

  So Don must be a magician as well as a great
MF stereo photographer.


>When I told this story to Dwight Cummings, Martha McCann,
>and Boris Starosta the next evening, Dwight added "and
>you never see any mounting errors in any of his images,
>either," and asked if I concurred.  I mentioned that I
>only noticed one slide with even a hint of a mounting
>error, and that was a *tiny* window violation.  Now that
>might be because I was so absorbed in the gorgeous images
>that I never got around to carefully checking for mounting
>problems, but there certainly weren't any significant ones.
>(As opposed to mine, most of which still need mounting
>problems fixed.)  Perhaps someone in a folio with Don
>has had more of an opportunity to judge Don's accuracy.

  In early loops of the folio I recall commenting
on several slides of Don's that had slight window
violations. Later I learned about his viewer with
the super short FL viewing lenses (so he doesn't
really view the edges) so I stopped commenting on
this.

  From the last loop I can't recall if any of his
had window violations. Minor if there was one.

>Now the sad part of the story: Don handled that slide
>chip with his bare fingers!  I thought I felt a dagger
>through my heart when I saw that!  How could anyone
>handle such spectacular images so cavalierly?  Could it
>be that when you have many hundreds (thousands?) and
>the ability to make many more at any time...??  I don't
>think I'll ever know.

  [Ref: Tom's story about fingering his slides
and not leaving prints]

  When our house was robbed they sent over the
Identification Unit to see if they could get
some finger prints from objects we knew the
burglars had touched. No go. The officer said
that in winter they only get prints about 25%
of the time since people's skin is so dry in
winter.

  I know that getting a usable fingerprint
for identification purposes isn't the same
as a grease smudge on a slide, still it shows
that some times and some people's fingers don't
leave much grease.

  Now if you've just touched the bridge of
your nose look out :)

---

Greg