Re: [photo-3d] MF vs. 35mm stereo

[Paul Talbot <list_post@xxxxxxxxx>]

Project3D@xxxxxxx wrote:
> 
> I've just returned from a trip to Tunisia. I took my Realist 2.8
> and my Rolleidoskop.
> 
> The weather was pretty good and I was shooting 100 ASA in
> each camera. I shot 13 fims in the Realist and 6 films in the
> Rolleidoscop. I had plenty more stock with me, so why the
> discrepancy?

I'd suggest one reason is that you don't have as much experience
with your relatively recently acquired Rolleidoscop as you do with
your old friend the Realist.  When I started in MF, I did so with
a pair of Richoflex TLRs on a home-made bar.  (Equipment cost to
get started was much less than with a Realist.)  But I'm famously
un-handy, so my bar wasn't very good, and the alignment hassles kept
me from going far into MF 3D.  After using the rig on a trip to Bryce,
I went about a year without touching MF 3D again.  Then I borrowed a
tuned-up Sputnik, shot a few rolls in the Canadian Rockies, and after
seeing the results decided to purchase my own Sputnik.  After finally
building a SaturnSlide viewer, I was able to appreciate even more the
advantages of MF 3D, and was drawn more and more deeply into it.

I found my shooting tendencies followed a progression: starting
from just dabbling lightly in MF 3D, then increasing the number of
120 rolls per trip when I got my Sputnik.  My shooting balance
shifted gradually over time.  Eventually I got to the point that
I would shoot an equivalent number of rolls of 120 and 35mm.  On
my last significant shooting trip, I used 2.5x as many rolls of 120
as 35mm (probably would have been more if Mother Nature had been
more cooperative).  That still leaves me shooting more exposures with
the Realist than with the MF stereo camera.  I'll never give up my
Realist, and for a variety of reasons my image output count will
probably always favor 35mm, but I now think of MF 3D as a primary
objective, not just as a format to supplement the Realist in
select circumstances.

So getting back to your Realist and Rolleidoscop, Bob...it would
not at all surprise me to find you reporting two years from now
that your Rolleidoscop is getting a much heavier workout than it
did in Tunisia!

Paul Talbot