[photo-3d] Re: Which RBT?

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

From: Olivier Cahen <o_cahen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

> I would NEVER buy a stereo camera with autofocus. It is a major
> drawback, like as in the RBT S1, in which the autofocus cannot easily be
> disabled. 

Excuse me?  Pressing a button is hardly "cannot easily
be disabled"!

>It automatically gives pictures being sharp at two meters and
> quite fuzzy in the background.

Not always!!!  As I've said before, there are many photographic
situations where the autofocus is useful.  Not every picture has
a foreground at 7p, infinity at the background and the camera 
is pointed at the foreground.

> I would no more buy a stereo camera with zooms, it makes it too hard to
> choose the film shift for the window, and you must be permanently
> careful to avoid anything in the field, closer than a VARIABLE distance,
> depending on the focal distance you choose.

I am not sure I can follow this sentence, but I was very
pleasantly surprised when I tried the zoom lenses in the
RBT X4. 

> Do not buy a 76 mm base RBT camera if you are currently using 1-5/8x4"
> slide mounts, there is none for 8 perf slides.

How about the RBT 33 and 31.5 mm and the 
Spicer 31.5mm?  You lose a bit of the film area but gain
flexibility in setting the stereo window and fine-tuning the
composition.  A lot of people use 7p mounts (widely available
in many types of mounts) even with full-frame stereo cameras.

George Themelis