NSA Rochester - 1st time attendee comments

[P3D Kenneth Staffan <staffan@xxxxxxxx>]

I hope everyone's not going to be too bored by the multitude of NSA Rochester
posts!  As a first time NSA convention attendee, I wanted to throw in my
comments, in hopes of encouraging others who haven't been to try attend one
of the future shows (Washington state next year, Virginia in '98).

I live in the Rochester area, so I didn't have to deal with the travel, or
the hotel (at least from a guest standpoint), etc.  Thursday after work
I swung by the hotel and did some room hopping.  Boy, they weren't kidding
when they said that this was the hotbed of activity for the first few days
of the show!!  I went way over budget the first night, and found so much of
what I was looking for, that I actually felt like I wasted my money buying
an "early bird" entrance for the trade show on Saturday.  (That feeling went
away after I saw the _size_ of the trade show.  I needed the time, because
I still wanted to attend the stereo projection theatre shows during the
day).

Spending all day Friday at the stereo projection theatre was quite 
fascinating.  So many different types of formats and presentations.  It
was the first time I had seen stereo projection (and was suitably
impressed :-), but at the same time it was enough of an immersion that
you really became somewhat selective about what you saw by the end of
the day.  The quality was mixed.  Interestingly, though, it wassn't _just_
quality that was a factor.  I was discussing some of the presentations
with people afterwards, and was surprised to find that we had
opposite impressions of some of the shows.  (e.g. the underwater show
was one of my favorites, and the Arctic adventure one of my least
favorites, but someone else's opinion had those two exactly reversed,
so I guess there was a mix to match different peoples' tastes...)
Bill Duggan was encouraging more people to use the wide screen for 
multiple images, but I have to say that only appealed to me in cases
where intelligent use of the presentation was used (and planned for). 
I just found it distracting when unrelated images where alternated
next to each other on the screen - the different windows and perspectives
were annoying, because you could see the other in your peripheral
vision.

I agree with everyone else that Dr. T doesn't look anything like you
would expect :-).  I spent 2 hours in Dalia's room staring into the
_many_ different viewers she had, trying to decide which I wanted (I
am a long time stereo card collector, but am just beginning to try
shooting slides).  I finally settled on a Realist red button.  Dalia 
said that if I ever had trouble, or wanted to get it overhauled, that
Dr. T could do the work.  I told her that I knew of his reputation from
Photo-3d, but that I hadn't met him.  She said, "well, he's right over
there - Oh George!".  So, I then had the pleasure of sitting in on 
Dalia & Dr. T's discussion over the merits of frosted vs. unfrosted 
halogen bulbs.  We opened up the viewer that I had picked out, and 
decided that it's internal condition wasn't the best, so Dr. T helped
me pick out a better one (thank you, again, George!).  I certainly went
away a happy customer.

The trade show was huge...  As I mentioned I was, and still am, a view
collector, so I nearly fainted when I saw the miles and miles of views.
I was literally stunned for the first half hour or so - I just made my
way from one end to the other to see what was there, then I slowly
made my way back to actually search and purchase.  (He who hesitates,
gets things sold out from under him, though.  A few things that I
wanted were gone before I got back through, e.g. an ASA/PC adapter.)

The Eastman house/museum tour was great.  They had a suprising number of
their stereo items out in one of their displays.  They also pulled some
of their other equipment for us to see down in the archives.  (Not
everything, though.  I know they've got some gorgeous floor-standing
card viewers, etc. which they have had out in the past, but I didn't
see them this time).  They also opened up their "potting shed" for a 
garage sale of old photographic books and materials.

All-in-all, I certainly did get my stereo fix for '96.  I'm still
overwhelmed!  Thanks to _everyone_ who invested so much effort in pulling
it off.  I know a tremendous amount of work went into it.  I won't be
able to attend in '97 (unless a fortuitous business trip comes along), but
I'm already planning and saving my money for '98.

Ken
--
|  Kenneth E. Staffan
|  Johnson & Johnson Clinical Diagnostics
|  staffan@xxxxxxxx
|  The views expressed herein do not reflect those of Johnson & Johnson.


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