Re: [photo-3d] Not buying a computer

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

Well Mike, you made the BIG mistake to compare the
Stereo Realist camera with an old computer in a stereo
photography list!!!  You could have not picked a worse
combination to make your (otherwise valid) point.

Conventional photographic optics (e.g. fixed focal length
lenses) and optical instruments is an area that has not
changed much in 50 years.  A good microscope or a
telescope or a stereoscope from 50 years ago is still
a pretty darn good instrument today.  Some of the
achromatic lens viewers and Keystone stereoscopes
from the 1950s are still the best one can use today.  
I sold a Leica screw mount camera in ebay recently
and a few people wrote to tell me that if I try this
camera I might not want to sell it!

But since there was not much of a personal computer
technology 50 years ago, let's talk 20 years ago.  I know
many people who would rather use a 20 year old
camera (my Minolta X-700 is still a pretty darn good
camera, even without autofocus) or drive a 20 year old
car, but I don't think I know anyone who would rather
use a 20 year old computer!!!  My $2500 Zenith 8086
with its 640K RAM, 5 1/4 floppy discs and the extra 
$500 10MB hard drive is collecting dust in my 
basement.  I have kept it for sentimental reasons.  Do 
you see any practical use for it???

Anyway, the argument goes both ways... Some people
look at a Realist and cannot imagine that this 55 year
old camera can take decent pictures.  A few years ago
I tried to buy a "state of the art" P&S camera but kept 
returning them because I was comparing them optically 
to the Stereo Realist (I was using slide film and taking
stereo pairs.)  So, other than the fancy automations and 
zoom lenses, where is the progress?  But not everything
old has a use today.  Computers is the best example.
My Zenith is a big ugly box.  Even aesthetically it is
a failure.

George