P3D Mr. Smith Strikes Back!

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Remember Mr. Smith?  The opinionated "inventor" who sent me the copy
of the parody of the Realist camera? 

>So, I was amused.  But kept thinking, why did Mr. Smith sent me this
>copy?  It does not sound like he has a great (or any for that matter)
>sense of humor.  Did he want to entertain me, or to prove his point 
>that the Realist is not a camera but a product and the designer of 
>the camera "must be shot"?

I had called him and asked him not to contact me again.  Today, I
received this little post card in the mail.  It does not say
where it is coming from.  In the front side it has the following
scribed:

"HOW MANY OF THE BRITISH CRITICISMS CAN YOU REFUTE?"

It took me a while to realize what this is all about... It is from
Mr. Smith and he wants me to refute the "criticisms" from the article
that he sent.

So, I was correct!!!  Mr. Smith did indeed take this parody piece
seriously.  He wants me to refute it!!!  That's unbelievable!!!

How many people in the world would read that piece ("A Fable for
Christmas", ISU Bull. vol. 26, no. 114),  and take it as a serious 
criticism of the Realist camera instead of a entertaining satire?
Granted, it is a satire with a agenda, as my good friend Bob
Howard said.  But still, a satire.  You cannot read it seriously
and reply because it was not intended to provoke serious thinking,
but just to entertain and possibly annoy.

For example, the satire writes:

>"Lenses.  These are of glass construction with a maximum aperture
>of f/3.5.  At this aperture they display all the optical qualities
>of the bottom of a Co-op milk bottle."

What can one say about this?  Or the procedure for loading the film?
For those who know what they are doing, the Realist is not hard to
load, certainly not harder than any other stereo camera I have used.  

Sometimes I wonder why the Realist has provoked such strong feelings
among stereo fans.  There are definitely those, like Mr. Smith, who
hate it and those who love it.  But it is a dead issue.  You hate it,
you don't use it.  It's over!  There are dozens of stereo cameras
around to use.  No sense in telling those who like it that they
should hate it too.  So why insist in beating a dead horse?  This
phenomenon is more like "Realist envy".  The biggest and most 
successful in any business were always criticized heavily.

About the inventor... Seton Rochwite is criticized 50 years
later for making certain decisions that ultimately influenced stereo
photography.  Like the 5p (Realist) format.  Or the 41x101 mount.
It is easy to make these criticisms 50 years later in the light
of what followed.  But Seton could not possibly imagine the impact
that his invention will have in stereo photography and the
direction photography would go.  Without the Realist most probably
would not be any Kodak or TDC or Revere stereo cameras.  And most
probably there would not be photo-3d and I would not have heard
of stereo photography.  So we have a lot to be thankful for,
especially with Thanksgiving coming soon... 

What should I do with Mr. Smith?  I think I will sent him a copy
of my postings.  If Mr. Smith is as clever as he thinks he is,
he can learn to use a computer and join photo-3d where we can 
discuss these issues further as we have been doing for years now.

See you in photo-3d Mr. Smith! :-)

George Themelis