P3D Taylor Merchant Viewers

["Franklin J. Flocks" <fjf@xxxxxxxxxx>]

            Taylor Merchant changed the design of their cardboard 
       viewers sometime in the last (approximately) 3 years.  - The 
       cardboard part was not changed significantly, but there was 
       big change in the lenses.  The old lenses had a fairly small 
       diameter, and low magnification - They were installed from 
       inside the viewer- with no protrusion of flanges.  The new 
       lenses have a larger lens diameter and have flanges that 
       protrude outside the viewer. The magnification of the newer 
       lenses is higher than that of the old lenses.

            While the new higher power lenses give a closer to ortho 
       view, the quality of the new lenses are in my opinion, 
       significantly inferior to that of old lenses.  In addition, as 
       others have pointed out, the new lenses have the effect of 
       cutting off part of the top part of the image. The old lower 
       power lenses did not do this.   If I should order from Taylor 
       Merchant again, I will definitely point out these problems. 
       Perhaps if other people do the same, they will return to the 
       old design.  Despite the dust and dirt, I found the old 
       viewers quite satisfactory when an easily mailable viewer was 
       what I needed.

       Franklin J. Flocks fjf@xxxxxxxxxx


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