P3D Re: Viewers for 2x2 systems

[Peter Davis <pd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike Watters wrote:
>How about a conversation about viewers for 2x2?    I've usually used
> one of the old 50's viewers and mounted in standard sized
> mounts (mostly 7P).   I'd like to switch to something
> where I'm not forced to chop down the slides
> too much though.   What are other 2x2
> shooters using to view?   Seems the viewers
> I've seen tend to be either the ultra cheapo plastic
>things or VERY expensive handtooled jobs.  Anything
>in between?  Has anyone just built their own based on traditional
>viewer designs?   I find myself torn between two forces when thinking
>about this myself.   I really like the idea of a "stereo mount" where
>you can mount the slides together.  Makes flipping through
>slides in a viewer handy.  But twin 2x2 slides are
>appealing in that it's easy to send one off to
>be printed (if you want that) or to project in twin projectors.

I just got one of the Franka 2x2 viewers from Reel-3D, and it seems pretty
good.  It's certainly a step up from the quality of the $3 Realist-format
viewer they sell, though not up to the optics of a red button or Kodaslide
II.  However, from talking to David Starkman at Reel-3D, I gather that it
would be pretty easy to replace the lenses with some achromats from Edmund
Scientific or something.

As an option for the Franka viewer, you can get either a reusable 2x2
adapter that you leave in the viewer and just pull slides in and out, or
buy slip-in plastic mounts that hold two 2x2 slides, already mounted, so
you can pop the pair in and out easily.  Then you could still easily remove
half the pair for making into prints, etc.  The downside is that the
plastic mounts are about $13 for a box of 12, so it would cost you $39 to
mount a pair of 36 exposure rolls.  Ouch!


-pd


--------
                             Peter Davis
               Funny stuff at http://world.std.com/~pd

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