P3D Fluorescent viewer illuminator

[SHIELDS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hi!

I finally got my fluorescent viewer illuminator put together, and like
so many other projects, wish I had finished it a long time ago!

It is fantastic--for brightness, for color temperature, and for image
steadiness.

Not even my halogen-bulb viewer can touch it for brightness, and I was
reading in the archives, this element alone can make or break the
interest shown in people who have not experienced stereo before.
Things really stand out, and focusing is less critical.

Not only is the color temperature higher than even halogen, it is
absolutely consistent. I got tired of putting fresh batteries in my
halogen viewer just to keep the color temperature up--alkaline cells
have a steadily declining voltage, and that means declining color
temperature.

I did not realize how important image steadiness was until I finished
the setup. I had been using a "loose" fluorescent setup for my
steal-the-light viewer for a long time, but now that the viewer
and the illuminator have become one, the illumination is constant,
and since the whole thing sits on the table, it does not move around
as I look at slides. The difference is remarkable!

Yes, it is a tabletop unit, but the improvement is such that my handheld
viewer is going to stay in the closet unless I figure out how to put
together a battery fluorescent illuminator. I figure there isn't any
point in showing my slides unless they can be seen at their best.

How? I installed a GE Biax screw-in adapter in an old bed lamp. I cut
out the top of the bed lamp to fit my viewer. It so happens that it
had an egg-crate design that, when trimmed out, was a beautiful snug
fit for the viewer. I put an uneven spacer between the lamp socket and the
fixture itself to make the fluorescent tube parallel to the viewer
diffuser. The bed lamp hooks, with non-scratch tubing extended, make
adjustable legs (I do plan to extend them with longer tubing and/or
internal stiffeners as they are just a bit short). The GE Biax lamps
come in 7- and 9-watt sizes, but the 7-watt is plenty big enough for
my viewer. I am using a beamsplitter system--a Realist format viewer
might need the additional length of a 9-watt, but probably not. The
Biax adapters and lamps are generally available at electrical supply
houses rather than consumer outlets, and for me have been available
in a choice of two color temperatures (guess which one I picked!  :-)  ).
These are very small, bright fluorescent lamps--when I showed some
slides with a bare bulb before I finished the viewer, I got some complaints
that it was too bright just to look at before actually viewing the slides!
I'm not sure how critical it is, but there was some discussion on the list
a while back about UV output of fluorescent lamps and possible slide
damage, so I just got a used camera-type UV filter (happens to be 49mm)
and fastened it between the viewer diffuser and the fluorescent lamp.

Mark Shields

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shields@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.netcom.com/~northws1/stmatt.htm
"Let the little children come to Me," Jesus said, "and don't keep
 them away. The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
  -Matthew 19:14



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