P3D Dukes 12X Viewer

[fotoschack@xxxxxxxxx (Gary Schacker)]

I have been the owner of a Dukes Super 12X View Master viewer for about
a week now and it has become one of my favorite possessions.

The viewer body is the standard modern viewer that is still widely
available although this is a black version.  This gives you a darker
surround for the image.
The lens tubes have been cut off and a nicely machined black aluminum
lens plate is neatly attached.  The viewer name is nicely printed in
white in the center between the lenses.  Ahh.....the lenses.
These are triple element beauties mounted in threaded lens tubes that
focus individually over a wide range.  The movement is nice and smooth.
My experience has been that I pretty much set and forget them once
adjusted for my eyes.  I guess some adjustment is necessary if the
viewer is passed around.

The combination of quality optics and high magnification is a
revelation!  The focal length of the lenses, by the way is 23mm which is
a close match to the 25mm VM Personal lenses.  The results simply blow
away anything else including the Chinese Art version of the Model D
viewer which I've been using until now.  The image from good reels
rivals that of Realist format slides.  You find yourself inspecting the
details in images that were not visible previously.  My modest reel
collection consists of about 10,000 individual views, many of which I've
re-visited in recent days. If you collect or shoot VM format and you
really like looking at 'em this is
a worthwhile investment.  If you can spare about 3 times the price, Jon
Golden can get you a more luxurious viewer.  The images themselves
however are of comparable quality.  IMO

Congratulations to John Dukes.

Gary


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