P3D And now, the official review

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

Now that you have read the "behind the scenes" version, here is the
official review:

The great weather we have been having in Cleveland since Thanksgiving
contributed to a fine meeting with over 30 attendees, including a couple
of guests.  Members and guests are coming all the way from Pittsburgh,
Columbus and Detroit.

"Open House" featured a few unusual items.  DrT brought his expensive
toys: RBT S1, Hugo DeWijs Comby viewer, Van Eckeren's Stereo-active
Alignment Magnifier... Also a few rolls from the S1 taken during
Thanksgiving and an uncut roll from the ISU Duplex 120.  Also, my
usual variety of books, bulbs, viewers, cameras, etc.  Sales went
great, grossing $10 from two light bulbs. :-)

Ron Fross demonstrated his fine work on an Arrow sequential viewer,
fitted with fine Wollensak achromatic lenses and widened to 7p.
One of the trays was loaded with slides from the last NSA convention,
including a picture of Bob Aldbridge, holding his twin Hasseblads.
Also, a Dukes 12x VM viewer, 2.8 Realist with wide angle adapter.

Mark Dottle brought samples (or the entire stock?) from his recent
interest in special effects, applying colored gels, etc.  Jim Motley
brought unusual viewers and stereo print sets.  David Kazdan brought
large transparencies and samples of his work using everything from
a Nishika to large format cameras.  (I was impressed by the quality
of some of the Sputnik slides!)

The print competition, conduced by Wayne Karberg and Peter Smakula,
went fine.  Three top-of-the-line Keystone achromatic "Visual
Telebinoculars" were lined up for the judges.  Entries ranged from
the classic Holmes' cards to View Magic and also freeviewing SIRDS
(by "inventor" Don Peck).  First Place went to Wayne Karberg for
his fine B&W stereo view work.  

Look for the next issue of the Stereogram for the full details, 
including plenty of pictures from the meeting (while I usually take 
4-5 slides with my Realist, I took 1 1/2 rolls with the RBT S1!!!) 
and reproductions of some of the winning stereo print entries.

Our next meeting will be on January with Don Peck presenting a
program on his European Travels... Subject of the stereo slide
competition is "Animals".  Hope the good weather will hold up!

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

George Themelis

PS.  Almost forgot!  We did play the "guess the camera" game.
     I had 10 slides, 5 with Realist and 5 with RBT S1.  Mark
     Dottle guessed correctly 6 and missed 4.  Good try Mark!






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