P3D Re: Sticking with beamsplitter

[Greg Erker <erker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>I would like to hear from some people who switched from
>beamsplitter to standard twin lens stereo.  I know two
>of them:
> The other is Greg Erker.
>He did his initial work with a beamsplitter and he has
>slides from his wedding in this format.  He later
>discovered the Realist and promptly switched.  Now I
>understand that he is heavily into medium format 3d.
>I don't think he has touched the beamsplitter for years
>now.

  The last BS (ha ha) photo I took was when
my 2.5 year old daughter was one day old. We
were snapping (2d) photos for the announcement
card and then I mounted the Pentax Stereo Adapter
(PSA) and took a couple of 3d photos (prints).
I sent them to a few 3d e-friends, maybe even
you George, instead of the flat photo.

  Here's why I stopped: the half width of a 50mm
lens just seems too narrow to me. I'd be walking
around with the PSA on my camera and see a scene
that would look good as a 3d photo. But when I
look through the viewfinder most of it is cut off.
If the PSA worked with a 35mm lens I'd probably
still be using it (though probably still not as
my primary 3d method).

  #2 is that I'm very grain sensitive. More than
most people on this list judging by past discussions.
Even Kodachrome 25 slides in the Red Button viewer
seem too grainy to me often. That's why my "serious"
photography is all done in medium format. My Realist
is now just for snapshots of the kids etc. The reason
this matters is that the recommended aperture for
the PSA is f5.6 to avoid the center black bar from
becoming too wide. Thus you often have shots with
out-of-focus or nearly-in-focus objects in them. Because
the blurred areas have no sharp edges for your eyes
to lock onto they try to find edges using the film
grain. So even K25 looks grainy when the background
is soft.

  #3 stereo window control. I'm a mount to the window
guy (vs mount to infinity). Having the scene just
the right amount behind the stereo window (or sometimes
having something poke through it) vs having it way
behind the window (or violating the window) makes the
photo work for me. The PSA shots have a mushy window
due to the dark bar in the middle. You can cut the
2x2 slide in half and remount in a Nimslo/4p type
Realist mount but often the grey edges of the dark
bar are still visible. And that defeats the no
mounting benefit of BS slide shooting.

  I'll finish by saying that I'm much more
3d-photographically experienced now than when
I gave up on the PSA. I could probably do much
better if I used it seriously now. I also have
an antique stereoscope now and an Alan Lewis's
Freeviewer's Assistant, so if I was into prints
I could use it to take 3d prints for viewing
with these viewers.

  But for slides I prefer square images most of
the time with the ability to crop to portrait
or landscape orientation. 5p Realist slides give
me most of this and medium format 6x6 gives
me all of this (with the 4 types of MF mounts
RMM sells) plus grain free viewing.

Greg E.