[photo-3d] Re: Manufactured broke

[Michael Watters <michael.watters@xxxxxxxxx>]

I find it interesting that people are using the fact that 
the Realist was manufactured for some 25 years ESSENTIALLY 
unchanged as evidence it was somehow perfect (or nearly so) 
from the beginning.  Certainly when the camera was FIRST 
manufactured it was a reasonably up-to-date machine with 
features that were quite comperable to other cameras of its 
day.  The problem from my point of view was that the 
manufacturers never updated the damned thing.  By the time 
the Realist finally died (a well deserved) death, it was an 
extremely outdated and backward design.  We're on the cusp 
of the instamatic age, cameras are getting sleeker, much 
more refined, more automatic.  The Realist remained a 
dinosaur.  Quite likely the company COULD have survived by 
selling cameras to nobody but stereo nuts if they'd have 
released a seriously updated camera every few years.  
That's what's keeping SLRs going lately...

Heck!  What we all wouldn't give for a stereo camera 
nowadays that only used 25 year-old technology instead of 
50 year old technology...  :)

Mike


BTW:  The Realist 45 hardly counts as the Realist company 
trying to update things.  It was just a re-labeled Illoca.
Nice camera though.  My easy favorite of the american 
format stereo cameras.  The only thing it lacks that the 
Realist 3.5 has is a T setting on the shutter.  Handy for 
doing ultra-long exposures for star trails and the like. 

-----------------------------------------
Dr. Michael Watters
Email: Michael.Watters@xxxxxxxxx
Valparaiso University