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Intro



Hello,

I am new on the list. The first search for 3D brought
me right here ! My first experience with stereo was,
I think, when I was about five. We had a box with
Christmas decorations at home, and in that box was,
for whatever reason, a smaller one, containing some
200 stereocards (even some glass-plates), a Holmes
viewer and a Brewster one. They were collected, as I
found out, by my grandfather who was a sailor
during the 1880's and 1890's. He brought them home from
his trips around the world. Every year, when my mother
decorated the tree, I was gazing through that
wonderful device of which I didn't understand a thing,
sorting the cards on number, on country, on whatever
and didn't care about the Christmas tree.
After Christmas the joy was over (sic) until next year.

When I was about twelve, I got it from my father, but
still I didn't understand. It had something to do with
photography and a camera, both of which were lacking
in our household. Over the years I learned to use a
camera (a little bit, I do it just for fun and not for
gathering admiration (not that there is something wrong
with that !)). When I was eighteen I started collecting
camera's and everything that had to do with it.

Apart from the abovementioned, my 3D hype started 25
years ago with a Stereo Revere 33 . A wonderful camera !
I started working with it but not for long :-(. I didn't
pay attention for a moment and a truck drove over it,
letting 'pop' the lens- and shutter-part off off the
camera and made an ultimate wreck of the 'body'. I still
keep the lenses/shutters (seem to work OK, a miracle),
in the hope that some day I'll find a 'body' with
missing or broken lenses/shutters. Now, 25 years later,
I still didn't succeed. Anybody out there ?

I tried 'one-camera-3D', used two camera's (Olympus OM-10
with standard lens) on a bar, bought a Pentax BS with a
viewer a couple of years ago, secondhand, for the
equivalent of about $70, bought a Loreo set as well as
a Viewmaster Stereo Color set, including exposure meter,
leather case, viewer, cutting device, six boxes with
empty reels (How about $175 ?) but nothing comes even
a little bit close to the Revere.

I hope this isn't all too long for an introduction.
To make things worse, I have a couple of questions
and remarks :

1) I'm a 'little' bit shortsighted (-14, both sides)
   so I always have to use some sort of viewer. I have
   tried parallel viewing, free viewing, crossed-eyes
   and a lot of Aspirin with my glasses ON only to
   discover a year ago (on the age of 46) that I don't
   need a viewer and not even my glasses, when I look at
   stereo-pairs with a stereo-base of anything between
   3,5 and 5 cm, including the ASCII ones ! I can see
   perfectly sharp from a distance of 7 cm or less. Never
   use a magnifying glass ! My eyeballs feel as if they
   are cross-eying while viewing, but that seems
   impossible to me with 'standard' stereo-pairs. Things
   would mess up, wouldn't they ? R=R and L=L, OK ?

2) Is it possible to 'attach' a file to a mail I sent to
   the list ? I'm using Lotus cc:Mail, and attaching
   files (never mind what the format is) is very
   common for me. Would I mess up things ? If it is
   impossible, is there an alternative, supposed I
   want to share something interesting with my
   co-listers (hear him, he is just joining)

3) Is there ANY good information available about home-brewed
   viewers ? Over the years, I have collected a whole lot
   of 'strange-format' stereo pairs (cards & Xparancies),
   and I like to look at them with a 'native' viewer.
   I don't know a lot about optics, but I am not afraid
   of any 'handy-work' that is needed (wood, metal or
   whatever).

4) Any ideas about the high costs involved, when I want
   to order something from the States ?
   The cost of money orders is $12 when I order something
   from Holland ! If I want to order a catalog, worth $1,
   I have to pay 12 bucks extra to get it !
   After all, I have a (wonderful) wife, two (w) daughters
   and a (w) son as well as a (not so w) mortgage.

5) Anybody the proud owner of a junk-box, containing at
   least one broken down Revere or Wollensack with a
   'usable' body ? Any ideas about a cheap way (not just
   for me) to let it arrive at my home address ? You are
   gonna make me very happy if I can use my 33 again !

6) 3D Book Productions, Borger, The Netherlands (look at
   the 3D Yellow pages) is also supplier of the FED stereo
   camera. No problems to get it in Holland. Cameras are
   directly imported from the Oekraine. 3D Books does a
   complete check on each of them and gives 3 months
   warranty. Prices :
   - Camera                     Dfl. 550,-  USD 325,-
   - Stereo viewer model W      Dfl.  60,-  USD  35,-
   - RBT mounts (50)            Dfl.  60,-  USD  35,-
   - 3D Mounting Guide          Dfl.  18,-  USD  11,-
   - Complete set               Dfl. 660,-  USD 388,-

7) Why is it that co-listers, responding to a question,
   start by repeating the question (prefixed with '>') ?
   A reference to the Digest # and the number from the
   Digest Index will be more than sufficient to identify.
   All this takes unneccesary web/mail/whatever time &
   space. Or do I miss something ? I keep all the Digests
   on my PC in .TXT format, and use a simple text search
   to find anything I want.

   I sincerily hope this is not too much for the first time .
   Scratch out anything that is boring you, and don't be too 
   critical about my English. We use a lot of Dutch over here 
   y'now. I hope to contribute a lot to the list, just to help
   other people, as good as I can, with my humble knowledge.

   Happy Listing !

   Peter van Zuijlekom
   The Netherlands (also known as Holland)

  Time flies like an arrow
  but fruit flies like a banana



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