More from Rochester

[P3D Tim Smith <TSMITH@xxxxxxxxxx>]

The spotlight auction Friday night was the place to be if it was view cards 
you were looking for.   A good mix of casual view collectors battled the 
heavy hitters in competing for rare and unusual views of all types.  Sets 
and singles went from $10 to over $600.  The only camera in the lot was a 
Realist 2.8.  A few old viewers, and some assorted other views in different 
formats rounded out the 200+ lot auction.  I left at lot 85 an hour and a 
half after it started.   Some of the most memorable items were views shot of 
Newt Gingrich, Bubba Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Colin Powell...these all 
brought $40-65 each while poor new reporter Morley Schaffer brought only 
$10.    After the auction I did some late night room hopping until around 
midnight.  This included having a nice chat with an informal group of 
photo-3d'ers

The big event of today was the Trade Fair.  Since I didn't buy an early-bird 
pass I headed over to the Convention Center at 8:30AM to rub some more 
elbows with fellow 3D'ers prior to the floodgates opening at 9:00AM  (A few 
of the vendors and individuals with tables said early-bird volume was very 
light).

Upon entering the trade fair the first thing that met my eyes were 
views...tons and tons of views.  Reels, cards, and more cards.  I would have 
to estimate that better than half of the table area was occupied by cards 
and the rest was books and hardware of some form or another.  The tables 
loaded with cameras, viewers, projectors and other accessories had quite a 
selection to choose from.  It seems the hot item was Realist Red Button 
viewers...with the average price going for around $100 in good physical 
shape.  I saw at least 7 or 8 sold in the first hour of the show so I 
decided to buy one while they lasted.  I along with another couple of 
photo-3d'ers that bought viewers will no doubt be putting them through the 
Themelizer soon for a wash, rinse and spin cycle.

Speaking of Dr. T...I would say that his table was probably one of the most 
popular.  Every time I looked over there he had a crowd gathered around 
while he demonstrated various restoration techniques for sick viewers of 
every make.   Halogen bulbs were flashing, switch contacts getting cleaned, 
and buttons getting polished.   He had a great deal on frosted halogen bulbs 
when you bought four.   I think that if there was any potential of getting 
injured it would be from trying to get a spot in front of Dr. T's table.

Stopped by Harry Poster's place and saw a great selection of goodies to 
choose from (however he got to my wallet two days earlier during my initial 
room hopping expedition).   Harry had probably the best prices on the floor 
as far as dealers go.  He had a good supply of TDC projectors, viewers, and 
cameras (including a Realist or two at less than $100!).

No doubt the biggest selection of goods presented at the trade fair was 
Dalia.  She and her 2-way radio equipped army of 3D soldiers kept the 
counters busy.   A real nice selection of Realist views were offered by 
category along with reels and TrueViews.  She had at least a dozen different 
types of stereo cameras for sale along with every imaginable viewer 
available...all graded according to cleanliness and level of restoration if 
any.

It was a great show for me to be able to check out cameras up close...the 
ones you can normally only read about in Stereo World or here on photo-3d. 
 I saw Wirgin, Graflex, TDC, Tower, Delta, Iloca, RBT, Coronet, and many, 
many types more.   It was also a great opportunity to pick up mounting 
supplies from Joel Alpers at Rocky Mountain Memories, RBT mounts from my Bay 
State neighbor, Jon Golden, some Easy Mounts from Susan at Reel-3D and some 
view card masks from Q-Vu.

A welcome break from being on my feet was the programs offered throughout 
the day in the 3D Projection theater.  Several programs were shown on the 
wide screen including Simon Bell's 3D MultiMedia Extravaganza.  All 
projection programs were inspiring artistically and technically.  There was 
one shot of an airplane where the window was placed such that you thought 
you were going to bump your head under the wing....a great show both days. 
  Hats off to Bill Duggan of Baltimore.  He worked tirelessly keeping the 
projection theater technically on par.  Rumor has it that he didn't go to 
bed Thursday night, working al through the night setting up the projection 
gear.  Speaking of projection gear someone in NSA convinced Kodak to loan 
the use of their new bulbs that provided 30-60% brighter images.  That 
combined with the internal polarizers provided by Mr. Bracket (I think) made 
for a technically superior program.   Mr. Bracket also provided his Bracket 
Dissolver projection system for the Realist format which were the brightest 
I've seen.

Well here I am in the hotel room, shoes off nursing my sore puppies, 
thinking how I'm going to arrange all theses viewers, cameras, mounts, slide 
cases and more back into this little suitcase.    Thank goodness for the 
Salvation Army store down the road...a one dollar suitcase stores alot of 
3D!

I wish I could stay for Sunday's activities but I promised my daughter that 
I would take her to a baseball game tomorrow night.  (Maybe I can test my 
new Realist 2.8 there!).    It was good seeing old friends and making many 
new ones.  NSA '97 will be hard for me to get to as it's over the July 4th 
weekend so I'll see you in '98!

Best Regards,

Tim Smith


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