P3D Re: Realist photos

[gbelton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Gerald Belton)]

Paul Talbot wrote:

>> My local WalMart (across
>> the street from the office) has a supervisor who understands what a
>> half-frame negative is and how to print it properly.

>In my (less than exhaustive) investigation of local printing
>options for Realist format negatives, I noticed that half-frame
>(4P) masks seem pretty common at photo labs.Ý Finding a lab with
>a Realist-compatible (5P) mask, however, is far more difficult.

>I highly recommend mailing your film to Grand Photo, where you

I like Grand Photo, but I just don't have the patience to wait for the
mail anymore.

OK, I'm not exactly using Realist format; my current stereo camera is
a Nishika four-lens camera that was made for shooting lenticulars.  I
don't use it for that, though -- see my above comment about waiting
for mail.

After I shot my first roll of film in the Nishika, I took it down to
my neighborhood Winn-Dixie Supermarket.  They have a surprisingly good
one-hour minilab there, and a very friendly and helpful young lady
running the minilab. 

I dropped off the film, mentioned that the negatives were in an
unusual format, and that if she handled it like normal prints it would
print two nearly-identical pictures on one 4x6 sheet of paper.

And that's what she did.  I ended up with four 3x4 inch prints of each
view.  This gives me the option of using the two outside frames and
throwing away the two inside frames, or using frames 1 and 3 to make
one pair and frames 2 and 4 to make another pair. 


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