Re: 3Discover idea

[P3D Gabriel Jacob <jacob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greg W. writes

>Here's a wild idea.
>
>What if one were to make 3Discover cartridges which, instead of a 35mm
>film strip, contained an acetate carrier strip which behaved like the
>film strip (with sprocket holes and the opaque dots in the proper places),
>but instead of images contained slip-in pockets for film chips?
>
>Then you could take your slide bar or twin-SLR or RBT images and slip
>them into the pockets, and voila, instant 3Discover cartridge.
>
>Alignment should be no worse/better than cardboard slip-in mounts.

That's a pretty nifty idea if the right type of carrier strip can be
found. In the meantime what I have done (since I don't have the 
infamous Themelized Red button) is convert the 3Discover to view
RBT or other cardboard type mounts. Also have done this of course
in pre-3Discover days with my trusty VM viewer.

All it entails is making a narrow groove on the bottom portion of the
3Discover and a slightly deeper groove on the top portion. This is for
inserting the mount on the top groove and then being able to sit the
mount on the bottom groove. In this way the 3Discover can accomodate 
the slightly larger height of the mount and the film chips are flush
with the apertures of the viewer. As for the diffuser, I gutted a
cassette by taking out the film strip in it and grinding out the
black plastic between the left and right takeup spools on the
cassette. Thus the mount is put in the viewer and the diffuser is
placed over it as a normal 3Discover cassette would be. A small slot
has to be made in the top center of the mount to accomodate for the
sprocket gear of the 3Discover viewer. In this way the 3Discover is
still fully functional to view regular cassettes. 

This works pretty well optically except for the inconvience if your
looking at alot of slides. The only other minor problem with this
set up is that you can only view with the two wider interocular
adjustments. That is at 65mm and 60mm. At 55mm you can't fuse the
image because the mounts are wider spaced apart compared to the
3Discover cassettes. Anyways this might be all immaterial in the
near future as Mary Ann commented regarding the 3Discover camera
that they are coming out with. :-)

Gabriel


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