Re: Mounting Realist slides

[P3D Dr. George A. Themelis <fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello and thank you for sharing with us your first experience with 
mounting Realist format slides.  I cannot get your email address 
from the header so perhaps you can sign it at the end with your name.
This way you can be contacted in person if needed.

>I just completed mounting a roll of Realist slides, for the first time,
>and want to report on my results from that perspective.  My biggest
>problem was the curl of the film.  I reverse rolled the film for 2 days

How tight did you reverse-roll the film?  Usually one day is enough.
Did you roll it with the emulsion out? (sometimes labs will reverse-
roll it, which means it should be fairly straight; reverse-reverse-
rolling it would bring it back to the natural curl, which is undesirable)

>The roll turned out to be mostly overexposed...

Please allow me to speculate why did this happen:

1. You are using a Kodak stereo camera
2. You *are* using a light meter

These are the only two documented cases of consistent underexposure that
I have encountered.  Some Kodaks have a slow shutter which leads to 
overexposed slides.  (Mis)using a light meter is also common. I had a
person recently who used a spot meter and only got two decent exposures
in the roll.

I recommend that beginners use the sunny day rule at first.  It works!
Here  is how the rule is applied with 100 speed film:

Shutter	f-stop  Rating	Light Conditions
-------------------------------------------------------------
1/100   f22     +1      Extremely bright w/sand or snow
1/100   f16      0      Sunny and bright, distinct shadows
1/100   f11     -1      Weak sun, soft shadows, side light 
1/100   f8      -2      Cloudy bright, no shadows
1/50    f8      -3      Heavy overcast, bright shade
1/50    f5.6    -4      Dark shade
1/25    f3.5    -7      Bright interiors; Max exp. handheld

Once you master this rule you can advance to light meters but at first
make sure that the readings are consistent with this table.  Also,
make sure that you dial the correct film speed in the meter.

Regards -- George Themelis


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