[photo-3d] Constant infinity mounting - III

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <drt-3d@xxxxxxx>]

Here is how I use my modified RBT tool...

While I was mounting slide after slide taken with my S1
at the Grand Canyon, I had my RBT-Spicer transfer mount
ready with the chips centered and separated with this
tool.  I would just take my chips and place them over
the RBT rails.  In 90% of the cases I was happy with
the composition and the placement of the stereo window.
I would then transfer the chips to Spicer mounts.

The 10% of the cases where an adjustment was needed 
included the following:

1. Composition - wanting to see more of one side. I would
then place the tool between the rails and shift both
rails to one side or the other, maintaining a constant
rail spacing.

2. Foreground closer than normal.  After placing the chips
I would tweak one rail (usually push the right rail to
the right with my fingernail) to push the scene a bit
back to get a better window (otherwise I would have a
window violation - and I hate window violations! :))

3. Scene with no foreground.  In this case, I might find 
the large gap between the window and the distant scene
a bit bothersome and I would reduce it by slightly tweaking
one chip.

Now, one might say that by my actions #2 and #3 I am still
mounting to the window and the tool is useless.  But here
is the beauty of it:  These cases were the exceptions.
I was inclined to accept the "recommendation" of the tool
instead of tweaking every scene.

And that's where I find a fault with the mounting to 
the window philosophy.  While bringing the foreground 
to the window we tend to create this tight situation 
with no room to breath.  In many cases the little space 
between the window and the foreground is actually good.  
In gives a nice feeling of depth and allows the eye
to comfortably explore the scene.  That's why this tool 
is useful for me. It makes a recommendation which would 
not be there if every slide was mounted to the window.

While I was mounting slide after slide, almost blindly
centered in the RBT mount and then transferred to the
Spicer mount, I realized that automated mounting is
not very difficult based on this method.  One of the
greatest difficulties of automated mounting has always
been related to the cutting of the film.  If the film
is not cut well, mounting would fail.  But with the
RBT mounts, based on film sprockets, and for any 
camera which advances based on film sprockets, how the
film is cut is not important any more.  Correct spacing
is achieved based on film sprockets.

I hope I have inspired some of you to look into making
a similar tool to simplify mounting or just for
guidance.  

George Themelis