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Subject: A few more details on my wide-angle experiment
Date: 2012-01-21 01:18:33
From: John Thurston

I've put a few pictures and words at:
http://stereo.thurstons.us/content/
Specifically, there are pictures of the cardboard and plywood prototype
as well as the printed viewer shell. I have more to write, but knowing
my schedule, I thought I'd get this out there now.
--
John Thurston
Juneau, Alaska

Subject: Re: A few more details on my wide-angle experiment
Date: 2012-01-21 11:54:50
From: Bill G

John, nice work.... I really admire your tenacity.... in this field, it's by far the most
important ingredient to any forward progress... :-)
I am glad all the optics threads did not reduce your desire to produce WA viewer(s).... as
the adage suggests, when there is a will, there is a way!

Your statement about no single viewer making everyone happy is sort of true..... specially
if you consider the $ factor, as with enough investment, you can produce a viewer that
will make nearly everyone happy, but they would not be happy about the price....so its a
loosing battle, mainly due to ridiculously low production volume....

I am curious.... do you think this will be a 1-off product, or are these something you
would like to make in the future to keep the art-form alive?

What HFOV are you desiring to achieve? (this is by the far the most costly performance
characteristic to pursue).

Bill

On 1/20/2012 11:18 PM, John Thurston wrote:
>
> I've put a few pictures and words at:
> http://stereo.thurstons.us/content/
> Specifically, there are pictures of the cardboard and plywood prototype
> as well as the printed viewer shell. I have more to write, but knowing
> my schedule, I thought I'd get this out there now.
> --
> John Thurston
> Juneau, Alaska
>
>

Subject: Re: A few more details on my wide-angle experiment
Date: 2012-01-21 13:13:33
From: John Thurston

On 1/21/2012 8:54 AM, Bill G wrote:
- snip -
> I am curious.... do you think this will be a 1-off product, or are these something you
> would like to make in the future to keep the art-form alive?

At this point, it is a half-off in that I've only built the front half
of the viewer. There is no provision for holding a slide, focusing, or
illumination. It's more of a stereo loupe than a viewer.

Working from the Saturn Viewer concept, I have already designed a
nesting steal-the-light box to go behind what I have built so far. If
I'm going to build only one of these viewers, I'll probably go ahead
with this idea as I consider it "good enough" for now. It doesn't mean
that I wouldn't later build something else, but something simple will
help me maintain momentum.

If there is interest from others in the concept, I would try to gauge
the importance of different features before proceeding. If someone's
must-have features could be incorporated easily, I would try to do so.

> What HFOV are you desiring to achieve? (this is by the far the most costly performance
> characteristic to pursue).

lol. "Desiring to achieve" makes it sound like I have a plan!
I'll take as wide as I can manage to hack together without losing
interest or a fortune in the whole thing. As you alluded earlier in your
message, this is (at least for me) a question of art. It isn't ortho. It
isn't precise. It isn't science. I'm in it for the beauty more than the
numbers.
--
John Thurston
Juneau, Alaska

Subject: Re: A few more details on my wide-angle experiment
Date: 2012-01-21 19:33:22
From: Timo

Thank you for posting your progress. I will be looking for objectives
(garage sale binoculars) and will try them out with some of my surplus
achromat "eyepieces". Your wooden lens rig looks almost identical to
my simple lens rig that I built for slide mounting (both MF and 35mm).

Timo

On 21-Jan-12, at 2:13 PM, John Thurston wrote:

> On 1/21/2012 8:54 AM, Bill G wrote:
> - snip -
>> I am curious.... do you think this will be a 1-off product, or are
>> these something you
>> would like to make in the future to keep the art-form alive?
>
> At this point, it is a half-off in that I've only built the front half
> of the viewer. There is no provision for holding a slide, focusing, or
> illumination. It's more of a stereo loupe than a viewer.
>
> Working from the Saturn Viewer concept, I have already designed a
> nesting steal-the-light box to go behind what I have built so far. If
> I'm going to build only one of these viewers, I'll probably go ahead
> with this idea as I consider it "good enough" for now. It doesn't mean
> that I wouldn't later build something else, but something simple will
> help me maintain momentum.
>
> If there is interest from others in the concept, I would try to gauge
> the importance of different features before proceeding. If someone's
> must-have features could be incorporated easily, I would try to do so.
>
>> What HFOV are you desiring to achieve? (this is by the far the most
>> costly performance
>> characteristic to pursue).
>
> lol. "Desiring to achieve" makes it sound like I have a plan!
> I'll take as wide as I can manage to hack together without losing
> interest or a fortune in the whole thing. As you alluded earlier in
> your
> message, this is (at least for me) a question of art. It isn't
> ortho. It
> isn't precise. It isn't science. I'm in it for the beauty more than
> the
> numbers.
> --
> John Thurston
> Juneau, Alaska
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

Subject: Re: A few more details on my wide-angle experiment
Date: 2012-01-27 15:09:39
From: lattie_smart

Could the lens unit be retro-fitted to a Saturn viewer lens box, or fitted to a new sliding box that would fit the Saturn body?

--- In MF3D-group@yahoogroups.com, John Thurston wrote:
>
> On 1/21/2012 8:54 AM, Bill G wrote:
> - snip -
> > I am curious.... do you think this will be a 1-off product, or are these something you
> > would like to make in the future to keep the art-form alive?
>
> At this point, it is a half-off in that I've only built the front half
> of the viewer. There is no provision for holding a slide, focusing, or
> illumination. It's more of a stereo loupe than a viewer.
>
> Working from the Saturn Viewer concept, I have already designed a
> nesting steal-the-light box to go behind what I have built so far. If
> I'm going to build only one of these viewers, I'll probably go ahead
> with this idea as I consider it "good enough" for now. It doesn't mean
> that I wouldn't later build something else, but something simple will
> help me maintain momentum.
>
> If there is interest from others in the concept, I would try to gauge
> the importance of different features before proceeding. If someone's
> must-have features could be incorporated easily, I would try to do so.
>
> > What HFOV are you desiring to achieve? (this is by the far the most costly performance
> > characteristic to pursue).
>
> lol. "Desiring to achieve" makes it sound like I have a plan!
> I'll take as wide as I can manage to hack together without losing
> interest or a fortune in the whole thing. As you alluded earlier in your
> message, this is (at least for me) a question of art. It isn't ortho. It
> isn't precise. It isn't science. I'm in it for the beauty more than the
> numbers.
> --
> John Thurston
> Juneau, Alaska
>

Subject: Re: A few more details on my wide-angle experiment
Date: 2012-01-27 15:27:55
From: John Thurston

lattie_smart wrote:

> Could the lens unit be retro-fitted to a Saturn viewer lens box, or fitted to a new sliding box that would fit the Saturn body?

This was my first thought and why I started down the Saturn
Viewer/Sliding-box design. I wanted to just build a new
front-end for my existing Saturn back-end.

But the focus distance of the new front places the lenses
well inside the box of the back end. I haven't actually
tried it with the front-end I had built, but in my pre-build
tests, the fronts of the lenses were inside the rear box :(
--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska
http://stereo.thurstons.us

Subject: Re: A few more details on my wide-angle experiment
Date: 2012-01-29 13:21:46
From: lattie_smart

Well, it is probably an unspoken wish here that there will eventually be enough of the viewer prototypes between all you experimenters that...a spare (& heavily insured)one could be circulated once among interested MF-3D members, or added in one of the folio packages....(we can still dream, can't we?) :-)

If they're as nice as everyone says, and the cost of producing could be kept in the $300-$500 range, I'd be interested in one of my own ...some day. :-) (or keep saving-up for a Combi)

--- In MF3D-group@yahoogroups.com, John Thurston wrote:
>
> lattie_smart wrote:
> > Could the lens unit be retro-fitted to a Saturn viewer lens box, or fitted to a new sliding box that would fit the Saturn body?
>
> This was my first thought and why I started down the Saturn
> Viewer/Sliding-box design. I wanted to just build a new
> front-end for my existing Saturn back-end.
>
> But the focus distance of the new front places the lenses
> well inside the box of the back end. I haven't actually
> tried it with the front-end I had built, but in my pre-build
> tests, the fronts of the lenses were inside the rear box :(
> --
> John Thurston
> Juneau Alaska
> http://stereo.thurstons.us
>