P3D More on Mounts (Moron Mounts?)

[Michael Georgoff <Michael_Georgoff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I said, in the context of Paul Talbot's survey on slide mounts, that I was
"...not thrilled with lack of control in the RBT process either..." and
George Themelis said:

> I am curious as to what you mean by this Michael.  
> The RBT mounts offer a good amount of control.  
> Potentially they can eliminate vertical misalignment 
> or offer a stepwise system to control it)and they 
> offer infinite horizontal adjustment with the clever
> system of sliding rails. 
 
Perhaps wrong choice of words...  For me, the RBT mount, with it's sliding
perf-holder pieces, is hard to control as I have to "drive a plastic hunk
down a square trench track" in order to get what I want where I want it.
Maybe I'm not a very good driver in this context.  I'm sure that practice
makes perfect.  And that after a while you are used to noting "which end up"
on the plastic perf holder hunks, as you have to be consistent in how you
use them to get the proper "stepwise" control on vertical placement.  

I moved from RBT to paper mounts and devised a rig wherein I mount the left
chip, and (being right handed) can control the right film chip with minimal
resistance (as compared to "driving a plastic hunk...").  I am really
floating a chip with full horizontal, vertical and rotation movement, and I
can get some pretty good precision mounting, but I am assessed the penalty
of it taking me time to get there. And, once I "got it" (while watching
things line up with a gauge, my eyeballs about 50mm away ,looking through
viewer lenses) then I say "Whoo-HOO!" and tape it down, whereupon Bob is,
indeed, my uncle. I pile the mounted ones up and later I seal a whole mess
of 'em, usually while reruns of the Brady Bunch, or Dexter, or better yet,
Johnny Bravo, are on TV.

The RBT system is very precise, very smart, but since the precision is
"downstream" at the smart mount level, you pay for precision per mount.   My
point is that precision built upstream in a good rig allows the use of
"dumb" paper mounts.  At a price that I don't flinch at.

Michael Georgoff
San Jose, CA