Realist Red Dots

[P3D <PTWW@xxxxxxx>]

Well I checked my Realists when I got home and found I had remembered
the red dots incorrectly.  My newer model Realist has them, and my
older model Realist has none at all.  So, for those who have not seen
them, there are three red dots on the newer model: one for aperture,
half way between f/5.6 and f/8; one for shutter speed at 1/50; and one
for hyper-focal focusing, roughly 1/3 of the way between 15 feet and 25
feet on the focus distance scale.  The idea is that if you merely set
all three dials to the red dot, you will get good results under a
specified set of "normal" conditions, with a particular speed of film.
The inside of the lens cover has a Sunny 16-based shutter speed-f/stop
table printed in the center portion (but with no indication whatsoever
what film speed was used to calculate the values in the table!).  Several
of the entries list an aperture setting of f/6.3, which, presumably,
is what the red dot on the aperture ring marks.  I think the Realist
manual discusses this, but I do not have one handy.  As noted earlier,
f/6.8 would be mathematically half way between f/5.6 and f/8; the minor
difference is most likely due to the non-linear nature of the aperture
scale.


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