[photo-3d] Viewing showdown?

[Paul Talbot <ptww@xxxxxxxxx>]

We (almost) had the Realist/Kodak shoot-out showdown,
maybe it's time for a viewing showdown.  ;-)

Mike Kersenbrock wrote:

> Dropping those 2x2's into my Comby viewer is something I
> find enjoyable.
> 
> With "no" labor involved,

Mike has made the no labor point several times, and even
got DrDave to wave the white flag on mounting "speed."  But
apart from just seeming like an incessant quibbler, I'm
truly curious...is the Comby dramatically faster to use
than the simple 2x2 hand viewers?  Picking up TWO slides
from TWO stacks, making sure they are BOTH from the same
pair, making sure they are still BOTH correctly oriented,
putting them in TWO viewer slots, taking them out of TWO
viewer slots, returning them to TWO separate stacks, is
(more than) DOUBLE the work of viewing R-mounted slides
in a Red Button.

It may sound trivial if you've never done it, but I find I
can tolerate it once for the immediate gratification of a
quick preview; after that the hassle level is too great and
I don't have much interest in doing it again.  If you look
at the images enough times, you'll end up spending more
time on those hassles than you would have spent mounting!

I don't say this to dissuade Mike from what he likes.  It's
just that when I shot 2x2 I was expecting a great advantage
from not having to mount, based on reading similar praise
in the past.  For me, the advantage didn't last beyond the
quick fix, because of a) the window problems; b) the hassle
of viewing 2x2; and c) having to use an STL (non-lighted)
viewer with cheap lenses.  Before you jump to 2x2 for the
advantages, consider the other side of the coin.

Paul Talbot