P3D Re: re: View Master Personal and Viewers

[michaelk@xxxxxxxxxxx (Michael Kersenbrock)]

> >> Next, I want to know about viewers.  What viewer do you prefer to look
> >> at your reels with?  Is the Model D all it's cracked up to be?  Do
> 
> Mike responds:
> 
> >It's by far the best Viewmaster built viewer I've used.
> 
> >However, for not all that much more in price (depending where one gets
> >one's Model 'D' from) is the $200 Duke's viewer version-2 which is a far
> >far far far nicer viewer than the viewmaster Model-'D' one.  Optically
> >anyway.
> 
> I've never heard of this Duke's viewer - can you give more info?  New?
> Easily available?  How's it compare to the model D apart from optics (which
> would strike me as consideration #1)?

It's new (John Duke's "version 2"), and is in Dalia's (http://www.3dstereo.com)
latest catalog.  I don't know the current availability, but I have seen a
prototype, and I loved it.

A Model 'D' has two single element lenses (non-color corrected) that yields
a magnification of  7.35 , which is a good bit more than other Viewmaster
made viewers, which is significant in a format with such a small film size.

John Duke's viewer has a Viewmaster viewer "base" for the reel handling, but
the lenses have been replaced with big looking 3-element ones with a 
magnification of 12X, which I understand brings it close to ortho 
(assuming a VM personal camera).

Looking with it gives a very large view of a reel's image.  Probably would be
a good idea for the reel to be *clean* because any scratch or dust will be
larger too, but as I said, when looking through one, it was very impressive.

On the downside, the 'D' viewer has built-in lighting which is very nice, 
particularly when halogenized, while the JD-2 viewer is a hold-up-to-the-light
type of viewer. 

> Me, I'm always hoping to find a model D in a yard sale for a buck, but that

Actually, I *did* find a Model-D for very cheap a year or two ago, but I had
been looking for a LONG time, and finally got lucky.  I'd still like a JD-2, but
have other things ahead of it in my wishing-for list, but if they stay 
available, I will get one eventually.  :-)

Mike K.


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