Re:Duplicating Slides

[P3D John Fairstein <jfairstein@xxxxxxx>]

I duplicate my Realist format slides to avoid damaging the originals in
projection or handling.

Like Elliott Swanson, I use Kodak's daylight balanced duplicating film. 
This is an extremely fine grain film with lower contrast.  I spool
cassettes from a 100 ft roll, including some short 1 ft. lengths  for
testing color balance and speed.  Many pro labs will run these short
tests for free.

I built a light box out of a cheap white styrofoam cooler with an opal
glass window mounted in the top. Inside the cooler is a dedicated flash
connected to my Minolta Maxxum 35mm camera with a 55mm 1:1 autofocus
macro lens.  The flash is aimed up at the window and the camera looks
down on the window.

On top of the window I mounted a simple pair of guides made from brass
right-angle stock bought at the hobby store.  The stereo original slides
in this guide so that the left and right images can be aligned under the
camera lens.  Note that using an autofocus macro lens and a dedicated
flash greatly simplifies the process of duplicating.

After receiving the processed film from the lab, it is a matter of
cutting and mounting.  I used the Hama cutter from Reel3D and EMDE glass
mounts.  I showed some of these dupes at Michael Kaplan's 3-D Show n'
Tell recently and heard no complaints about the image quality.  My
mounting leaves something to be desired -- but I'm working on it.  Maybe
switching to RBT mounts will help.


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