The bastardized Realist. The Olden Special.

Robert Tolputt wrote:

My Realist is the most awkward camera I have ever used - I can never get used to looking through the viewfinder at the bottom of the camera. The wide lens separation does give excellent depth. Just a pity that slide film is now so expensive.

I used the F 3.5 Realist for years. And later on I bought the Olden Special. True, it was a sweep up the factory model. Yet, it had pretty good lenses of four elements which I appreciated and could tell the difference. The optical finder was dinky by any standards, since it used a mirror array to get the finder into the cyclopean center in between lenses. I found bracing against head to be comfortable and good to steady the beast...I did.

Going back to film just to shoot stereo is a non starter. I got hold of the Fuji W 3 but have not used it much. Why I have no reasonable way to watch the digital pairs. No current model TV available at any price...notwithstanding there are enthusiasts. Not enough it seems. Maybe next year, fingers crossed. Not interested in messing with projection systems, bah humbug. Just when passive polaroid OLED was getting it right, poof the market decided to shift away....I think some folks just do not have the gift to see in depth very well. Would take a study. Or, the hatred of wearing glasses is too gauche...who knows.

Digitizing to print parallel pair (crossed is abhorrent) on line is only a simulacrum of the beauty of viewing compared to the Realist and Wollensak viewer. Which served me well enough when I shot film...

As to movies in 3-D, ( they solved that technology). here on Oahu there are fewer and fewer showings or even No Showings in 3-D of a film released in that format...

Sounds like we stereoscopists have once more become a breed apart. Does not bother me.