For those of you in the Pacific Northwest (which is, ironically, both
south and east of me), get yourself to this month's meeting of the Puget
Sound Stereo Camera Club. My Heydascope is in the mail to Bob Venezia,
and if the fog lifts, will be heading to Seattle for the meeting :)

Enjoy!

--
John Thurston
Juneau, Alaska

Last week John Thurston generously shipped his new Heydascope to Seattle to be here in time for the monthly meeting of the Puget Sound Stereo Camera Club. I had a chance to look over the viewer beforehand and I'll share my thoughts in a separate email. I do think there are some tweaks that could be made to make the viewer better. But having said that, it is a beautiful thing and, save for a viewer made by Don Lopp and held together with duct tape(!), it is probably the best MF viewer I've seen.

My plan was to use my iphone to try recording video of the reactions. That turned out to be a little awkward so I didn't record as many comments as I would have liked. The ones I did record were typical. The most common reaction was, "Wow."

Club members got to handle the viewer during a break and after the meeting. It's quite noisy in the room so I added captions for the significant comments.

I have to admit that it comes out looking like an infomercial! That's too bad because these are the real reactions of club members.

http://youtu.be/A6CEYvqSugE

Many thanks to John Thurston for graciously sharing his viewer. Many club members asked me to thank him.

best regards,
Bob Venezia
Seattle, Washington

On Feb 1, 2014, at 8:22 AM, John Thurston wrote:

> For those of you in the Pacific Northwest (which is, ironically, both
> south and east of me), get yourself to this month's meeting of the Puget
> Sound Stereo Camera Club. My Heydascope is in the mail to Bob Venezia,
> and if the fog lifts, will be heading to Seattle for the meeting :)
>
> Enjoy!
>
> --
> John Thurston
> Juneau, Alaska

Here are my thoughts on the Heydascope:

PROs

1. The Heydascope has the best illumination I've seen in a powered viewer. The illumination is bright and even.
2. The HOOD! (makes a huge difference in eliminating reflections and enhancing the brightness, and is large enough to fit over glasses)
3. Nice large, sharp lenses
4. Slide channel is large enough to accommodate 3D world slides (can't do that with my Regal Viewer).
5. Lots of range for focus
6. Substantial feel
7. Lovely

CONs
1. On John's viewer there seems to be too much play in the focus, and the focus adjustment lever is loose in its channel. Also, I noticed that some people would point the viewer down while viewing (instead of horizontal). With the looseness of the focus and the effect of gravity on the lens assembly, it would move enough to get out of focus.
2. Cardboard slides are somewhat loose in the slide channel and need to be centered in the channel to prevent light from
leaking around the sides. I think there should be an easy fix to this with a small amount of baffling on the sides.
3. Focusing while holding down the light switch is not optimal -- my wife Mandy found it too frustrating. The placement of the light switch may be just right for some but possibly not for all.
4. I hadn't noticed this problem when viewing slides but when there is no slide I perceive color fringing (yellow) on the edges of the frame.
5. As John has already pointed out, it lacks the HeydaScope label
6. It is not as immersive as the Lopp-o-Scope (but then what is???) :^)

ON THE FENCE
The momentary light switch has its advantages in saving battery life. Mandy probably would have preferred an on switch so she didn't have to keep the momentary switch pressed while adjusting the focus.

Conclusion:
This is a wonderful viewer that with a few more tweaks will be phenomenal.

These are my opinions. :^)

Bob Venezia
Seattle, Washington

Hi Bob,

Thank you for your honest review and for the short video showing some appreciative viewer viewers!

I have noted every CON and will address them all in future viewers. The loose focus controller has already been improved to make focusing much more tidy and tight. I will add an on-off switch in back that overrides the momentary switch. The slide channel will be altered to center ALL slides, 3DW and cardboard. Color fringing without a slide in it cannot be avoided. I have no noticed it myself. No one can compete with Don Lopp's viewer and I won't even try. He deserves to go on record as having created the most immersive 3D viewer ever. Nameplate: I HAD designed a Heydascope label for it, but I didn't like the way it detracted from the viewer, so I'm trying to come up with a new one.

All new orders will have the improvements listed, and I can upgrade the viewers already sold if owners request this.

Thank you all for your interest.

Kind regards,

Larry


---- Bob Venezia <bob@chairboy.com> wrote:

> Here are my thoughts on the Heydascope:
>
> PROs
>
> 1. The Heydascope has the best illumination I've seen in a powered viewer. The illumination is bright and even.
> 2. The HOOD! (makes a huge difference in eliminating reflections and enhancing the brightness, and is large enough to fit over glasses)
> 3. Nice large, sharp lenses
> 4. Slide channel is large enough to accommodate 3D world slides (can't do that with my Regal Viewer).
> 5. Lots of range for focus
> 6. Substantial feel
> 7. Lovely
>
> CONs
> 1. On John's viewer there seems to be too much play in the focus, and the focus adjustment lever is loose in its channel. Also, I noticed that some people would point the viewer down while viewing (instead of horizontal). With the looseness of the focus and the effect of gravity on the lens assembly, it would move enough to get out of focus.
> 2. Cardboard slides are somewhat loose in the slide channel and need to be centered in the channel to prevent light from
> leaking around the sides. I think there should be an easy fix to this with a small amount of baffling on the sides.
> 3. Focusing while holding down the light switch is not optimal -- my wife Mandy found it too frustrating. The placement of the light switch may be just right for some but possibly not for all.
> 4. I hadn't noticed this problem when viewing slides but when there is no slide I perceive color fringing (yellow) on the edges of the frame.
> 5. As John has already pointed out, it lacks the HeydaScope label
> 6. It is not as immersive as the Lopp-o-Scope (but then what is???) :^)
>
> ON THE FENCE
> The momentary light switch has its advantages in saving battery life. Mandy probably would have preferred an on switch so she didn't have to keep the momentary switch pressed while adjusting the focus.
>
> Conclusion:
> This is a wonderful viewer that with a few more tweaks will be phenomenal.
>
> These are my opinions. :^)
>
> Bob Venezia
> Seattle, Washington