3Discover update

[P3D Gabriel Jacob <jacob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well I finally got a 3Discover in my possession and have to say 
for the price it's great. It will be available at the end of 
October in Quebec at selected stores and then the rest of Canada.
But it is available for immediate order and residents of Canada
(US already have it) can order it immediatly and don't have to wait
for the end of October. I picked mine up at the company on my way 
home from work and didn't have to rely on snail mail to get it.
The toll free number 1 888 973-2248. This number only works from
North America but order sales person at Wrebbit mentioned that they
accept international orders if you fax them or call them long distance
and charge it to a credit card. This is not confirmed but that is what
they told me. At the present time they have 15 titles available with
a couple of more immanent. The titles available so far are

Niagra Falls
San Diego
SW National Parks 2 
Washington
Yosemite
San Francisco 2
Los Angeles 1 and 2
Grand Canyon
New York
Great America
Canadian Rockies 1 and 2
Montreal
Ville de Quebec

and soon titles with London, Paris, Celine Dionne and others.
Each title holds 12 3d images in each cassette. Now these are
mature titles for a change and it seems Wrebbit thinks there
is a market for it compared to Tyco. Yes I know Tyco is a toy
company but they really messed things up when they gave up at
the first signs when they tried to introduce teen material
didn't do so well. What did they expect when you sell them in
Toy's R Us! 

The 3d views range from good to excellent. The problem I
initially noticed with their first one that I was able to see
awhile back has been solved and the motor advance doesn't jump
or move to fast when you press the button which is good because
on the early model it had a tendancy to go to fast and skip a
frame. The quality is very good but would not say excellent. The
diffuser that is incorporated with each film cassette gave some
slight problems in that some had minor scratches and in some 
views with light shading they were quite discernable and 
distracting. The format as was mentioned numerous times is
panoramic, but I am surprised after studying it that no one
mentioned that the field of view of the slides is limited and
you can't see the complete slide at any one time. To see the
inside edges of the stereo pairs you had to glance in the
viewer from an angle. They do provide interocular adjustments
on the viewer but it's limited to two positions and clicks onto
those two positions. Therefore it is not variably adjustable
between those two positions. It's too bad because I found for
my eyes that was the best postion and the only way I could
adjust it to that position was by forcing it, to not lock on
to the predefined positions. The manual mentions that you can
offset the positions but this I think is not  a good idea. 
When I have it adjusted just right the coverage is exactly 
like my modified view-master that can take 8p 3d slides! The
mod VM I am refering to is the one that uses the same optics
as the VM and everything else on it is the same except the
inside components were taken out and the insides were dremeled
out to widen the view for 35mm slides. The 3Discover does
have slightly more magnification thou. I would estimate 20%
more than the modified VM. Of course compared to a regular
VM with the regular reels it's much bigger, I would estimate
roughly 8 times. Quality wise the lenses are better than the
VM, but I still think the VM optics are quite good.

On a side note I would like to touch upon what they use to
take the 3d pics for the viewer. I mentioned that a while
back that they said they are using regualar paired SLR's,
but from Dr.T's recent posting regarding the RBT he mentions
that for it to provide a full-frame 35mm pair with reasonable
interocular, a 4p size blank is left between the pairs. Now 
my question to Dr.T or anybody else is, is it possible they
are using a RBT since the stereo pairs do seem to have a 4 p
separation also. If yes then maybe with an RBT it might be
possible to just develop the slides and cannibilize a 3Discover
3D film cartridge and put in your own slide film in it. Just
think no more mounting! Even if they are using the RBT they
probably are augmenting there shots with paired SLR's because
some of the images they have could not have been done with the
stereo base of a RBT.
 
All in all I am very pleased with the viewer and I recommend
it highly. The viewer is of modern design and is a joy to hold
and use. The cassette system is very easy to change. Boy this
is going to solve alot of my problems of what to buy for my
Christmas shopping list. Oh yes and batteries are included
with the viewer, which is nice for a change. :-)

For any product inquiries Suzanne Kosturik, product manager of
3D Vision Internationale, Inc. looks forward to any comments or 
questions regarding the 3Discover. As was mentioned her e-mail
address is vision3d@xxxxxxxxx

And I wish the company success with their product launch in Cana3da.
http://generation.net/~jacob/cana3da.gif
 
Gabriel


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