Olden Stereo and F40's

[P3D Harry Poster <hposter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dr T notes:  "He also told us about the Menardi (sp?) brothers who invented
this 
amazing beamsplitter (more properly, framesplitter).  He showed us the 
prototype viewer made out of wood.  After the show I had the chance to 
check out the viewer and sample slide and, I promise, I am never going 
to say a bad word about beamsplitters again!  This one was splitting the 
full frame horizontally and was giving a 3-d image of landscape format 
and incredible quality, definitely equivalent to two lens stereo."

Actually, I saw Mr. Minardi 5 or 6 years ago, if I remember correctly. At
that time I was having trouble getting $150 for a Tri-Delta outfit (also
called Prism Stereo or Olden Stereo), and he said that there were 200 more
set-ups, unsold, but that he wanted $400 each (and he wanted me to buy the
lot!). Needless to say, I passed, and they probably ended up in a garage
sale for $5 each... 
   This system is popular in Europe, but never caught on in the states.
Unless you're taking pictures of landscapes with nothing tall, it is a poor
format. I really think the best thing about the unit was the hermatically
sealed mirrors. The real production units are black molded plastic, and once
you use the taker, you've got to "punch" a mark into each slide to make sure
it alignes properly in the viewer. Dr. T gets first shot at my next
outfit...and I won't make him buy 200 outfits from me.


 Sam Smith mentions..."I didn't see a single 120 rollfilm camera, Belplaska,
or F40 the whole time I was there. Did they get scooped early, or where they
just not available ?"

Sam missed our room where there were 2 F40's for sale (they were priced at
about $650 and $700 each), but they didn't sell. They did sell, however,
during the early admission, to a collector who will enjoy the pair. As for
the Belplasca, the only one I could find was around the neck of a user, who
asked me to help him fix it. I offered to pay some exhorbitant price, but he
decided to fix it and keep it...oh, well. And, several people had Sputnik's,
including Ron Speicher.
   If you would like to try something, I do have a Mamiya Beamsplitter, new
boxed, for the Mamiya Universal (but it would fit many 120 cameras).
Unfortunately it came home with me, but it does want a new home!

            We did Rochester and lived.............Harry and Anna


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