[MF3D.FORUM:1528] RE: Recent newcomers

["Peter Lushing" <petelush@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Paul has asked newcomers to say a bit about themselves and their MF 3d
interest, so:  I had the viewmaster and even a mono viewmaster projector,
which must have been the cheapest as my loving parents were of modest means,
when I was about 9 or so back in 1950. I think it was compensation for the
mumps.  Maybe had a half dozen reels.  I'll save you the trouble; they were
probably discarded before your parents got married. Earlier I had seen my
older cousin's viewmaster, so archaeologically speaking, my first 3d look
would be about 1948.  Flash forward to about a month or so ago and I catch
the ebay bug.  That's the procedural part.  The substantive part is as 6 0
approaches in April, I decide it's time to satisfy every gadget desire I've
ever had.  I purchase a Colorist, which takes only a few frames because it
is damaged inside (seller offered a full refund, but I'm probably going to
pay for a repair so I don't have to repeat the buying process).  This
reminds me of another older couple of cousins who must have had a Realist
type camera, because around 1952 they passed a viewer around, and I still
remember that everyone thought the best shot (this was a Paris trip on film)
was an accidental exposure on a restaurant tabletop, bottle in foreground.
I know I don't have to convince people on this list that I can remember a
picture seen for a few seconds when I was 11, 59 years ago.  Around the time
the colorist arrives, my Sputnik arrives (perfect, and I mean perfect shape,
about $150), and I've meanwhile read the horror stories on the sites about
light leaks, which sound almost hysterical (the Light Leak's gonna get
ya!!!!).  To my amazement, a roll I snap off in 5 minutes on the streets of
Manhattan in bright winter sunshine comes out focussed, correctly exposed (a
personal first for me, who had had nothing but grief with a hand-held
lightmeter shooting chrome), and no sign of the DREADED LIGHT LEAK.  (I'm
since advised by Paul that that is not much evidence that light leaks don't
exist in my Sputnik and will some day ruin other rolls, and his explanation
for that is entirely convincing so I've arranged for a fix for the Sputnik).
Paul asked me to quote here what I told him next, this by the time I had
hurriedly mounted the Sput's and viewed them on his wonderful antiquey
viewer:
 In a word, I'm amazed.  Now a problem:  the colorist I bought around the
> same time on Ebay and am having put into shape (camera had some real
> problems)...now seems trivial.  I was warned about MF stereo by you or
> somebody.  There's no comparison.  My pictures compositionally are
nothing,
> and still are thrilling.
Meanwhile, yesterday I arranged for a NY seller of movie equipment to the
trade, a fine, highly reputable older gentleman, to put together a fairly
inexpensive Bolex 16mm camera 3d package.  Why am I doing all this, buying
like a fool and his money soon to be parted, one camera coming in even as
the last one is shipping out for repairs, opening up an email correspondance
with another ebay seller who sent me a Bolex H8, having described it as an
H16, hoping I'll get my real bucks back totally (no, I won't tell you how
much I was taken, but if you surf ebay expertly you can find out), tracking
down xeroxes of old manuals nobody read in the first place, taking pictures
that stink compositionally but are often technically good, making a mess of
my home office, cameras, slides, printouts, film, viewers, odds and ends,
books on stereography I won't get around to until I'm 85, ticking off my
wife who doesn't complain about the money per se but thinks "you're getting
too much stuff"?  Because I want to, that's why. In the day I teach law.  I
have a good friend in Buffalo and will try to swing a trip from NJ here that
would involve I guess a day's visit at the conclave.  I love people who are
obsessed, and the more particular and obscure the object of their obsession,
the better...so long as it's one I share.  OK Paul, that was a "bit about
myself".