Re: [photo-3d] Re: 7p stereo cameras

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

Chuck writes:

>I bought a FED to try the Euro Format that I was hearing so much 
>about, you know, how "wider is better".

So what did you conclude about that?

>Even on ebay, I couldn't find a 7 perf for less than the FED BOY.  

There are three "European" 7p format cameras:
Iloca Original, Belplasca (both German) and Busch Verascope
(French).  Iloca later switched to 5p.  The "original"
model is questionable mechanically and hard to find.
Both the Belplasca and the Verascope are rather rare
and go for quite a bit of money.

>Are you saying that the Realist is as good as a S1 
>in manual mode?  Which Realist?

Any Realist.  Even a Realist 3.5 can take spectacular
stereo pictures.  It is unfair to compare the 7-element
Hexar lens with the 3-element Realist 3.5 lens but 
in many situations and for many people there is little
difference between the two.

>> let's not forget the 7p modification
>> of the Realist.  
>
>I have seen one. The problem here is that Realist didn't design their 
>lenses for that wide a field and to get acceptable edge performance 
>you need to use the best F2.8 lenses they sold or better yet, replace 
>them with non-Realist lenses. 

I don't agree with this statement.  First, I don't think
there are "best f2.8" lenses.  I have tried all variations
of the Realist 2.8s and nothing jumps outs as being better
than the rest.  Second, the 2.8 is a 4-element lens and
performs are well as the Belplasca and Verascope lenses.
Even though the camera was not intended to cover 7p, the
lens is good enough to do it, even at wide apertures.

George