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

[Brian Reynolds <reynolds@xxxxxxxxx>]

Chuck Holzner wrote:
> --- In photo-3d@xxxxxxxxxxx, "Dr. George A. Themelis" <drt-3d@xxxx> 
> wrote:
> 
> > >P.S. - Didn't you run a survey some time back?  Weren't there
> > >       a pretty good number of light leaks as I vaguely recall?
> > 
> > Yes, 50%.  Still in the realm of "Working well"......... :)
> > (in the dark at least!)
> > 

50% is pretty bad.  Of course that is 50% after about 50 years, but
other cameras of that age that I've used haven't been that bad.  If
the problem is something like deteriorating foam in the light traps
that's not so bad, but if it is inherent in the design I'd consider it
to be as bad as similar problems with the Lubitels and Sputniks (which
are younger than the Realist and do not use foam in the light traps (a
design flaw)).

> Some people might say that the Realist was "Manufactured Broke".  
> After all, it doesn't cock the shutter on film advance, once you get 
> the shutter cocked you can't (shouldn't) change shutter speed.  If 
> your finger slips off the shutter cock before latching the shutters 
> fire.  Most of them have no double exposure prevention. (Oh, I forgot 
> the red dot.) If you hold it like a regular camera the range finder 
> doesn't work, the list goes on and on.....
> I would expect that after mastering these "features" a light leak in 
> half of them would be considered trivial.
> 

To be fair to the Realist most cameras of that time period do not
automatically cock the shutter or have double exposure prevention.
You were expected to pay attention to what you were doing.

I don't think I've ever had a camera were I was told you shouldn't
change shutter speeds after cocking.  And I've never seen a good
technical explanation (including drawings of the various mechanisms)
for why you shouldn't change shutter speeds for cameras were peole are
warned not to.  I used to have a copy of "Camera Technology: The Dark
Side of the Lens" (it is a book on camera mechanisms) and I don't
recall anything described in it that would lead me to think that some
shutter designs do not allow speed changes after cocking.  Can anyone
point me to a more technical explanation for this?

-- 
Brian Reynolds                  | "Dee Dee!  Don't touch that button!"
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http://www.panix.com/~reynolds  |    -- Dexter and Dee Dee
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