P3D Airequipt

[fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Dr. George A. Themelis)]

Greg W. gave a very good assessment of the Airequipt Stereo Theater VIEWER.

>I have a few Airequipts, in various stages of renovation.  The optics are
>glass doublets (pairs of plano-convex lenses), which are better than simple
>lenses, but not as good as achromats.  However, if you like, they can be
>fairly easily
>replaced with 50mm F.L. achromats from Edmund Scientific or other sources.

At a cost of $80+ (for ES)

An article by Larry Moor (he is in photo-3d but I don't know if he reads it
or he values his time better :-)) on "Supercharging Your AST"  was
published in Stereo World some time ago.  Some of the improvements
suggested include the lens' replacement (you are looking at 25 mm dia.
lenses), trimming to widen for 7p, etc.

>In practice, these contact points become coated with
>grime, and unreliable, producing flickering.  I have supplanted the spring
>contacts with a roller-lever microswitch from Radio Shack

Clever idea!

>This modification requires
>completely disassembling the viewer, which in turn requires drilling out
>the rivets from the handle of the actuator arm in order to remove the
>plastic housing.

One of the problems with this viewer is that it is very difficult to
disassemble to clean, etc.

>There are no internal apertures except whatever is provided by the slide mount.
>Thus the only limiting factor is the field of view of the lenses. It will
>definitely work with 7p slides; full-frame is pushing it a bit.

There is a piece of plastic blocking the light from the light bulb.  This
will block part of the 7p image and needs to be trimmed.

I have an Airequipt viewer.  Once it is cleaned, lenses, (doublets tend to
fog and cleaning between the elements is recommended), mirror (be careful!)
and electrical contacts (good luck!), fitted with a bright bulb, etc., they
are good viewers.  I still prefer my red button but use the AST for showing
a group of slides to the public.

-- George Themelis


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