Now that I am getting comfortable with my Spud and REALLY enjoy the
slides I take, I am starting to wonder when to use my Spud and when to
use the Realist. Do any of you old pro's have comments or suggestions?

I'd love to carry both all the time but that's impractical. I also
look at the amount of film required and the setup time. With the Spud
I tend to really compose more carefully than with the Realist. The
downside to the MF presently is the time spend mounting (and
remounting the ones I don't do right the first time) and the lack of
an illuminated viewer. (Perhaps the Chinese mounting jig can be
modified to act as one.)

I'm currently leaning toward useing the Spud as my Artsy-Fartsy camera
and the realist as a general snap-shot rig.

Your thoughts and experiences are welcome.

Zemmy!!

Zemmy!! wrote:

> I am starting to wonder when to use my Spud and when to
> use the Realist.

Here's what I've found:

I use my Burldo for almost all my "snapshots".
It gives me a low-cost/frame, automatic exposure
(with and without flash), light weight and nice
7p images.

I used my Sputnik for almost everything else.
When I got my Rolleidoscop it largely replaced
the Sputnik in that role. Now that I have my
TL120, I expect it to replace the 'scop.

My TDV Vivid that saw so much use for a couple
of years hasn't been out of the drawer for at
least a year. I use a lot fewer rolls of film
than I did when the Vivid was my primary camera,
but I generate a much larger percentage of "keepers".

> The downside to the MF presently is the
> time spend mounting

Agreed. That was an aspect that was really
bugging me and the reason I finally built
myself a mounting-jig. The combination of a
functional mounting-jig and a "window screen"
has made my MF mounting fairly quick and satisfying.
http://stereo.thurstons.us/mounting_jig.htm

I can only suggest that practice and refined
tools will increase your satisfaction at
this step.

> and the lack of an illuminated viewer.

Agreed. I use a Saturn viewer with my home-
built illuminator (though a commercial
illuminator kit is also available). I also
added an illuminator to an arm-mounted MFPV
for use at my desk. Being able to see my
images well illuminated makes a huge difference
in my satisfaction.

> (Perhaps the Chinese mounting jig can
> be modified to act as one.)

My Chinese mounting jig has a kick-ass LED panel
in it. The minute I saw that I was thinking
about incorporating it into a hand-held viewer.
My quick and dirty check indicates that the LED
panel has to be about an inch away from the
diffuser to prevent hot-spots. I haven't gotten
farther than that in the project :(

I did ask 3D World about their plans for an
illuminated viewer. They indicated that they
appreciated the need for the product but didn't
see a big enough market for it to justify the
development and production costs. IMHO, anything
that interferes with delivery of TL120-1 cameras
to North America should be avoided :)
--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska
http://stereo.thurstons.us