P3D Re: Questions & Suggestions re filters w/ Realists (Properly formatted, I hope!)

["Greg Wageman" <gjw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

From: John Edmark <johnedmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>


>Question 1.2) I see people mentioning Realist filter kits that come in
>leather cases. Is there only one kit type (ie one set of colors) or are
>there several?


Based on the catalog numbers for Realist items that people have posted
in the past, I believe there is only one set that comes in the wallet.

>Question1.3)  If there is only one kit type, does it include ALL the
>Realist filter colors ever made?


No, I don't think it so.  It includes three pairs which were commonly
used at the time.  (Remember that film emulsion has changed radically
since the 1950's, as well as people's usage [primarily print film now].)
Things are different now and you may not find them terribly useful at
all today.

I'm missing one set of the three, but the two I have are the "haze"
filter (type 1) [still useful] and the "type a" filter, which allowed
the use of type-a tungsten film with daylight or flash (tungsten film is
so rare today you'd typically use the other arrangement).  The third set
was probably also an orange filter of some sort; it seems that they were
very popular back then.

>Question 4) Is it true that Series-5 filters are only available second
>hand?


You might find a large older camera store with "new-old-stock" series-V
filters, but as far as I've been able to discover, none of the current
manufacturers makes them any more (Hoya, Tiffen, etc.).

>Question 5) Can anyone suggest a good source for series-5 filters?

The ones I have either came with the camera kit, or were purchased at
used camera shows.  There are a number of companies that travel to
various shows and set up tables and tables of filters.  They're usually
quite cheap, like $2-$3 each, but will require careful inspection and
usually a thorough cleaning.

     -Greg W. (gjw@xxxxxxxxxx)




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