Re: [photo-3d] Re: Manual Fed

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

>In the last two years I have bought 13 stereo cameras (mostly off 
>ebay) of the 1950 vintage; 

Aha!  This answers my question "who buys the Realists from
ebay?" and settles the argument of users vs. collectors! :)

>Of the 13 cameras, 12 of them had problems [...]
>Of the 13, one Realist which was sold as a "likely not working" 
>camera did not have any noticable problems.

To contrast this with my experience, I got into stereo with
a Stereo Realist that I picked in a garage sale in July of
1988.  Within the next few years I got a couple more Realists.
Every one of them worked well as-is.  

Through the years I ran into a few minor problems here and 
there but nothing serious.  In the process I learned how to 
recondition these cameras.

The past two years I must have sold about 50 reconditioned
Realists for prices ranging from $100 to $175.  Maybe these 
prices are a bit higher than what you can get them from ebay 
but it is a peace of mind for those worried about buying a 
lemon.

So, to summarize my experience/recommendations:

1. Chances are that the 1950s Realist is working well as-is.
2. Most people can learn how to recondition a Realist.
3. Those who do not want to do #2 and are afraid they will
   get the exception of #1 there are always reconditioned
   Realists for reasonable prices and warranty.

George Themelis