P3D The solution to my mounting woes

[Paul Talbot <ptww@xxxxxxxxx>]

David W. Kesner wrote the other day:
> I have also mounted for other people
> and not had any complaints. My last batch for someone else was
> four rolls with 113 slides in a little under three hours. It would have
> been quicker but I just had to admire the slides as I went along.

By interesting coincidence, Ronald Beck wrote today:
> Well gang, after over a dozen rolls of properly developed, mounted and
> promptly returned stereo slide film, Kodak has failed me.  This last
> roll was returned in two ugly generic slide boxes rather than the yellow
> & black Kodak slide boxes.  EVERY SLIDE IS PSEUDO!  

And then Peter Davis replied:
> I've had a similar experience.  I had been using them for years with no
> problems, but I think the service has gotten worse since they moved to Fair
> Lawn, NJ.

The four rolls to which David refers were mine, and I
received them in the mail from him yesterday. I am amazed
that anyone can crank out well mounted slides at that pace!
I shipped my unprocessed film to David on Monday 4/26; he
received it on Thursday the 29th, had the film processed
(dip-n-dunk) at a pro lab, cut and mounted the film and
put the finished slides back in the mail to me on Monday
May 3rd.   (You might recall that David had 9 rolls of film
of his own to mount also!  DrDave is not running a slide
mounting "business" so of course I expect that sometimes
I will have to wait a few weeks for him to get around to
working on film I send him.)

The cost for David's superb mounting service was the
actual cost of processing and supplies, (about $10 per
roll of 28 pairs); a mere $5/roll for DrDave's labor,
and round trip postage to Idaho.  At $15 per roll plus
postage, this is obviously more expensive than KodaLouse,
er, Kodalux processing if you are buying cheap mailers
from B&H.  But I am getting a lot of additional value
for the extra money.  I get hand mounting by a stereo
fanatic who knows not to mount PSEUDO, and who understands
the Colardeau progression and thus does not mismatch chips
from different stereo pairs.  I also get custom setting
of the stereo window; selection of appropriate size Spicer
mount; slide pairs free of rotational error; and a nice
classy appearance from the silver mylar tape David uses
to seal the slide mounts.

Compared to local pro processing of the film and mounting
the slides myself, I also: save about $2 on the cost of
processing; get the slides finished MONTHS earlier than I
would otherwise; and avoid wasting hours of my time trying
to satisfy my pathetically picky perfectionist mounting
standards! ;-)

I can't thank DrDave enough for offering this service...
now I get to enjoy VIEWING stereo photos instead of just
SHOOTING stereo photos!  I've been very hesitant to remind
everyone on this list about David's mounting offer...I'm
worried TOO MANY people will adopt this approach and David
will be overwhelmed!  But here it is.  Try it yourself and
see!

Paul Talbot, ex-Kodalux stereo processing customer


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