Re: [photo-3d] Viewing showdown?

[Mike Kersenbrock <michaelk@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Paul Talbot <ptww@xxxx> wrote:
> 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
 
When taken in the quibble resolution you're speaking about,
yes it is dramatically faster than remounting in a realist
mount, THEN putting it into a red-button viewer.  Also
note that "labor" is more than just time. 
Operating for 2 minutes in brain-free mode late at night is less
labor than 2 minutes where one has to concentrate, make
decisions, and actually still have one's brain turned on.  :-)
 

> 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.
 
Well, except that I don't do it that "hard way".
I'm lazy, so I do things a bit more organized and quite
a bit easier.  I've been trying to get things as 
brain-free and quick/easy to do as I can!  :-)
 
When I open the little yellow plastic boxes that
the processor provides,  the slides in it are in two
small stacks stacked in sequential order. They have the 
process date and slide number printed on each slide.
 
First thing I do is to put them away.  I keep them in
those archival clear-plastic sheets that hold 20 slides
per page -- 5 rows of four slides.  I put the slides into
the sheets (two sheets per roll) in pair order so each
row has L-R  L-R  for two pairs, ditto down the page.  The
whole roll takes about two minutes to "put away".  How?
I made a template consisting of two sheets of paper with 
LARGE slide-numbers printed on them. I put it behind the 
plastic sheet (already in a folder) and then with a
stack of slides in my hand put them into the slots 
(top loading) as fast as my hands will move just counting
"1..2..3..4..." putting them into the slots where the same
large numbers are, which is a couple seconds per slide. I then
have two sheets with pairs that I can freeview as well.  
Orientation happens to be with the printing toward me on the 
bottom (upside-down), so I orient the stack in my hand that
way for quick straight loading.  Obviously, I made the 
template to accommodate the order of slides that my RBT X3B
creates them.
 
How to look at the images?  I put left slide in left viewer
slot and right slide in right slot.  No thinking required, 
and the orientation is correct automatically.  Gets put away 
the same way. Keeps things tidy, organized, clean, and easy to 
view in viewer (or freeviewing directly still in the sheets).
 
The sheets are available "everywhere" -- got my current batch
down at the local camera store where I have the slides
developed.
 
> It may sound trivial if you've never done it, but I find I

I've done it en masse recently.

> 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!

It's hassle free, IMO.

> 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.
 
We've already talked about 'A' so I won't go into that
further.  'b' doesn't happen with my setup, and I DEFINITELY
don't have "C", the lenses are NOT cheap in the de Wijs comby!  
It's also a lighted viewer as well (not that the comby doesn't
work surprisingly fantastic in gather-light mode).
Of course, I use that same comby for realist-compatible
mounts as well. Nowhere did I say that the methods I'm using 
are cheap... just fast and easy.  Well, most things are cheap,
just not the camera and viewer.  Minor detail.....  :-)
 
I'll still need to remount projection slides and/or ones taken
to the stereo club.  But then, I'm "even" on those slides, 
and still "ahead" for the (majority) rest.  Slides are in
plastic mounts which are trivial to open almost instantly
with a little force.
 
2x2's should also be easier for scanning in a slide-scanner
(usually made for 2x2's).  That's something I think I'd
rather do pre-mounting full-frame.
 
Anyway, I'm somebody who *STILL* has thirty-some uncut
rolls of 5P/7P/120 film sitting around waiting to be mounted
someday as well as being someone who has already "null-mounted"
and viewed probably more than 60 rolls of 2x2 stereo slides in 
the short  time I've had my X3B (all AFTER the last roll of 
uncut film was processed).
 

Mike K.
 

> 
> Paul Talbot