P3D Re: MarinSolar, SLR macros, etc.

[Michael Watters <mwatters@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: LSmart@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Smart, Lattie            MD06)

>I was recently looking at some close-up portraits in my vintage slide col=
>lection, apparently taken w/ the Zeiss Stemar. They really had a neat qua=
>lity. This interest was stimulated by Elliott Swanson's Sell3-D ad for hi=
>s Hyponar Exakta attachment. Does anyone have much experience with these =
>two lens attachments?  I saw in my old Reel 3-D magazines a mention of th=
>e Marin Solar underwater cameras with several stereo lens attachments sim=
>ular to the above. Are they still around? Anyone know of sources for the =
>other attachments?

I used a hyponar quite a bit several years ago (borrowed it from a relative). 

The picture quality really was quite good.  Having the TTL finder was a major
bonus over most of the other macro rigs too.  The ONLY thing I didn't like
about it was that it shot 1/2 frame.  There's no way around that with an SLR
lens of course, but that drove me nuts.  I was always finding myself
being cramped by the sides of the frame.

Don't know about the availability of an underwater housing, but since it's attached
to a stock Exakta SLR, I wouldn't think housings would be that hard to find.  Any 

conventional Exakta housing should work.  


What would have been much nicer IMHO would have been if the hyponar had
been built to attach to the medium format Exakta bodies.  Go ahead and shoot 120 film
in it and chop it down vertically to fit a normal frame, but you'd have gotten Realist
format slides out of it easily.  (With lots of room for window setting as well!).

That's been one of my back-burner ideas for a long time (a medium format version of
the hyponar).  Had problems getting the right lenses at the time as I recall.  If I get
adventuresome, I might haul out the old 2 1/4 SLR and try hacking it up though.  :) 

(an adapter that is... not the SLR).

mike


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