P3D Stereo World Statistics...

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>It would be interesting to do a quantitative analysis to see 
>"who got more pages".   I'll bet the shooters got the most.  
>But I wouldn't be surprised if it came out even.
>Dick Wood
    
Hmmm... what do we have here?  Another dissatisfied collector? :-)

As Mike K. correctly pointed out, IMAX hardly qualifies as "shooter
material".  You seem to be working under the assumption that anything
that is not of historical interest, is classified as material for
shooters.  Stereo World carries reviews of contemporary products
for the stereo consumer but very little tips, etc., for the active
stereo photographer.  

I took up the challenge and "measured" the last volume (24) looking 
at issues 1-5 (all published so far).  I used the following categories:

A: Articles of interest to collectors/historians
B: Articles of interest to stereo consumers but not shooters
   (like book, VM reel reviews, etc.)
C: Articles of interest to shooters (very stretched since I
   included the SSA pages and also the lengthy ISU and NSA 
   conventions, even though these do not qualify for direct
   shooter material.)

Here is what I found, in terms of pages devoted to each subject:

Volume   A (History)  B (Consumer)  C ("Shooter")
------   -----------  ------------  ----------------------------
 24-1       16             7           8
 24-2       17             7          15 (12 are ISU convention)
 24-3       17             7          12 (10 are NSA convention)
 24-4       26             1           1
 24-5       18             2           3
------   -----------  ------------  ----------------------------
TOTAL       94            24          39

I only found one lengthy pure "shooter" atricle, in Vol. 24-1: 
"Hong Kong Through Paired Minolta's" -- but at least 2 lengthy 
historical articles in every single issue.

But what really tipped the scales and was the spark for my first 
posting on this subject was the combined 24-4/5 recent issue which 
contains 44 pages of historical material, vs. 7 of ANYTHING ELSE 
(or 85% historical/collector's stuff).  I could hardly call this
balanced coverage.

This might sound like a critique for the Editor, the Society,
or their choices, but it is really a statement of facts from my
side.  I am an NSA member since 1988, I attend the conventions, 
I have written one article in SW (review of RBT S1 some time back)
but still would like to see more material for the contemporary
stereo photographer in Stereo World simply because it is the BEST
stereo magazine published in the USA.  If I did not care for NSA
or SW I would not be making a big issue out of this.

See you in Richmond VA -- NSA '98 (just made reservations!) 

-- George Themelis


------------------------------