Vol. 15 No. 2                                                                                                                     February 2004

Published by Atlanta Stereographic Association © 1990,2004

 

Refocus That Please - by Bill Moll

This month’s program will be the PSA Traveling show.  This is the one which circulates to numerous clubs, each of which judges the images and the winners are based on the composite results.  Three lucky judges at the February meeting will add the ASA judging to the results.

We would also like to pick slides for the ISU club folio.  This is not for a competition.  Each club contributes ten slides to a program which goes to 3D clubs around the world.  We need to have ten different people contribute, so bring a couple slides to pick from – we don’t want to have ten similar images.  Since this goes around the world, we will have to make dupes.  It is difficult to say when the slides will return.

After the PSA show and slide selection, Steve Hughes will do a revised version of his slide mounting demonstration from the 3DFest.

Since this is a full schedule, will have to start on time this month! The meeting is the 2nd Friday of this month – February 13.  Vince Macek will provide the refreshments. We will meet at the Congregational Church @ 2676 Clairmont Road (about 1 1/2 blocks south of I-85) This is the Church up the winding road, through the woods.  If you have any questions, call Bill @ 706-859-7726.

January’s competition results were:

Slides

First                 Mill at Stone Mountain                       Bert Arps

Second             Lower Canyon                                  Larry Moor

Third                Cucumber Falls                                 Vince Macek

HM                  Golden Rod in the Smokies                Bert Arps

HM                  Deb and the Blowfish                         Al Hess

HM                  Middleton Place                                Bill Moll

HM                  A Bridge in Maine                             Vince Macek

Cards

First                 Ken Kistner                                       Cypress Knees

Second             Twilight at Lake Moeraki                   Steve Hughes

HM                  NC Stream                                        Ed Ganger

HM                  Hands                                               Steve Hughes

Show-and-tell:

Mike Griffith displayed about half of the rare Meadville, PA, flood stereocard set.  Interestingly, the date on them differed from the date listed for the flood in the literature.

Steve Hughes showed off three Johnson stereoviews which he had made from Mike’s CDVs.  Many of the old 2D photos were made with multi-lens cameras, since the printing out process from negatives was quite slow in those days.  If you get the right ones, you can make a stereocard.  Of the three pairs which Mike had, one was a great 3D pair, one was an upper right and lower left pair, so the 3D was a bit off, and the other was really two different shots, apparently from the same sitting.  This was a good merger of collecting and modern digital repair and card making.

Ted Baskin setup a medium format viewing table.  Ted is very good with Sputnik camera tuning (the Sputnik has been referred to as a camera kit).  Ted’s slides show how well it does when it is tuned.

Ed Ganger, a new old member, brought in some of his cards that he had made since his last meeting and a couple NYC cards that he had mounted for Cynthia Morton Chapman.

Some cardboard slide mount options were discussed briefly and samples provided by Rocky Mountain Memories were handed out.  The distribution was based on participation in club programs.  The educational extras for the programs this year were based on what we could come up with rapidly.  We need new programs for next year.  If you have something which you would like to share with the club, please let me know.  Ones which come to mind are tuning Sputnik cameras, twinning cameras and testing shutter speeds.

There were 21 people at the January meeting.  The past several years have been depressed years for the economy and most hobby activities (the 400 at the Charleston convention was the lowest attendance in at least nine years).  It appears that both the economy and activities may be on a rebound.  There are lots of 3D people out there – we just have to make contact with them.  Already, the new members have added a lot to the club.

New members from the January meeting are:

Ed Ganger

Roy J. Floyd

Al and Debbie Hess

 

Next month:

The competition in March will be a theme competition.  After some discussion, the club decided to make “Georgia” the theme.  The images can be people, scenery, buildings, events, etc depicting Georgia.  This will also provide a good start on a proposed new club slide program.  The last club program was many years ago.  Having the theme beGeorgia” opens up the possibility of getting showings around the state to promote 3D in general and the ASA in particular.

 

Refreshments:

February          Vince Macek

March              Dave Horton

April                 Bert Arps

May                 Les Heyward

September        Dodo Griffith

Depolarizing film:

Charles Piper tells us in “The Technical Page” that Strain-free glass and acetate-based film are okay, but Estar (polyester) based films and many clear plastic materials depolarize.  That still pretty well summarizes the situation.

To be more specific, Kodak Technical Pan 2415, Kodak Ektachrome Professional Infrared EIR Color Slide Film ISO 100/200, Kodak Aerographic Direct Duplicating Film 2422 and Kodak Professional B/W Duplicating Film SO-132 depolarize.  "Instant"Polaroid 35mm film and most B&W slide films do.  Agfa Scala does not depolarize, but requires non-E6 developing.

Seattle Film Works, Dale Labs, RGB and B&W Bulk Plus-X Film are movie film based (Estar) and depolarize.

 

RBT slide mount update:

There is good (non)breaking news on the RBT mounts.  To recap the situation, folklore has it that the original RBT mounts were beige and black and had pin breakage when separated.  RBT changed to the white and black and eliminated pin breakage.  The white was also very good for reducing the heat on a slide chip during projection, but was referred to as the ghastly/ghostly white when viewed in a hand viewer.  So RBT went back top beige and had a pin breakage problem again, but were in denial, despite the reports from the field.

Now the ASA enters the fray.  I separate my mounts frequently and had a breakage problem with the beige mounts.  I discussed this with Steve Hughes, who mounts it right the first time and hadn’t noticed the problem.  He verified the pin problem when he tried to separate some mount halves.  He then translated this to some dimensional measurements which sort of indicated a problem and then to some pressure tests which left no doubt that there was a quantitative basis for the breakage.

Steve sent this data to Jon Golden, the primary RBT distributor in the US.  Jon used the data to move RBT from denial to fixing the problem (Bob Aldridge knew about the data when I had dinner with him in London).  The new beige and black mounts are due in on February 23.  I have no idea of how to tell the beige mounts apart, except that the old ones will break pins when separated.

 

Proposed 2005 Southern Regional meeting/3DFest:

Based on discussions at the 3DFest in October, I would like the ASA to sponsor a NSA regional meeting and 3DFest in February 2005.  The date was chosen because it doesn’t conflict with anything – 3D, football, March Madness, good weather, etc.  We would have to avoid Super Bowl Sunday and Valentines Day, so means February 19-20 or 27-28.  What events we would have would depend upon the volunteers to do things and the space available.  The objective would be to promote 3D in Georgia, have a good NSA meeting and put a small amount of money in the club coffers for future events.  Deciding how and what to charge for will be a challenge.

Events might include (additions to the 3DFest are in italics):

3D card, slide, anaglyph, lenticular and equipment displays

Stereo Theater

How-to demonstrations

PSA Stereo Exhibition

Trade show

We need to discuss this in the social hour in February and make a decision by March/April if we want to do it.