Re: [photo-3d] Re: Medium Format Viewer

[Paul Talbot <list_post@xxxxxxxxx>]

Don Lopp wrote:

> Brian Lewis said that "the costof the currentSaturn Slide is based primarily
> on the cost of the lenses it uses " lens cost  approx $ 90 or less , Viewer
> $400 plus - I have been told.

The "standard" version of the SaturnSlide uses lenses that retail for
$134.40 (plus shipping!), and the kit (sans light) is $215--only $80.60
over the value of the lenses.  Considering what you get, I can't imagine
how it could be considered anything other than a great value.

Furthermore, I believe Brian's comment was meant to highlight the fact
that you can pay as little as $140 for the kit by choosing a lower-cost
(smaller) lens option.

Peter Abrahams wrote:

> Taking the Saturn viewer as an example,
> it is advertised as using 40mm lenses, with centers 66 mm apart.  

There have been various incarnations of the viewer; since summer of
1999 it has used 46mm diameter lenses.  That's about the maximum
practical size--any larger and there's no room for the average nose.

> This means that my IPD of 56mm would place my pupils about 5mm off axis.

Peter, I'm in the same boat as you, but those of us with narrowly
spaced eyes are ill-served by interocular adjustment in stereo
viwers.  Setting the lenses too close together results in loss of
ability to comfortably fuse the images.  Distortions from off-axis
viewing are a moot point if I don't see a 3D image when looking
into a 3D viewer!

>    I've also found that a standard Realist mounting with ~62 mm chip
> spacing means that those with smaller interpupillary distances have
> problems, though mostly or only when using the viewer in a way for which it
> was not designed: full frame instead of Realist size chips.

Hmm, maybe we're not in the same boat after all.  Do you wear glasses?
At ~56mm eye spacing and wearing glasses, the only way to get close
to seeing 100% of each chip of a normal 5P mounted slide in a Red
Button is with the lenses set to their minimum spacing.  That then
requires so much divergence and loss of complete fusing so as to
ruin the 3D viewing experience.  So instead I set the adjustment to
a medium setting; then all I ever get to do is to look at *portions*
of Realist slides in 3D.  :-(

Paul Talbot

 

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