Rangefinder Magazine
November 2001/Departments

Problems and Solutions

Please accompany your questions with a self-addressed stamped envelope if you wish an immediate reply. Alternatively, you can e-mail me at: bhurter@rfpublishing.com.

From: Paul Smith
diffangle@aol.com
I happened to notice in your response to Bob Davis regarding Wyman Engraving the 617 area code is for Boston, MA not Auburn, ME. Auburn, ME would be 207 area code, I believe. But, there is also an Auburn, MA, whose area code would be 508. Hope this helps.

Thanks for passing this along.

From: Jim Hayes, JMJ Services
jamjhayes@home.com
Do you know of a lab that puts photos (from slides or prints) onto ceramic tiles? I have a customer who wants me to do flower pictures from her garden and have them printed or transferred to tiles for her kitchen.

Here are two companies that print images onto ceramic plates. They might be able to help you.
• Artistic Photo Plate Creations, c/o Engler’s Designer Images, 919 Moores Lane, New Castle, DE 19720-2040; (302) 426-9000, fax (302) 427-2470.
• Photo Concepts of Mississippi, Inc., P.O. Drawer 339, Grenada, MS 38901; (601) 226-1602 or (800) 531-2872.

From: Mike Canter
Vice President, Potomac Society of Stereo Photographers, Washington DC
I am taking the liberty of sending this information to you both: Stewart, for your immediate need; and Bill, for your files for future reference. I am not quite sure of why you are looking for mounts (did you need to remount some old slides, or are you going to make your own?). Depending on your motives, this may be more information than you bargained for, but as I am fond of saying, better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Stereoscopy is alive and well, and experiencing quite a renaissance. While not (yet) back to the level of market penetration experienced during the 1950s (when well over a quarter million stereo cameras were sold, and even the President of the U.S. was an enthusiastic practitioner), today’s consumers probably have a larger choice of more advanced stereo products than at any time in the history of the medium. Stereo slide mounts are currently available in paperboard and in plastic.

PicMount (Carson City, NV) offers traditional heat-seal mounts in the “Realist” format only, and only in boxes of 1250. Rocky Mountain Memories (www.rmm3d.com) offers a new line of mounts in heat-seal, self- stick, and slip-in, as well as being the U.S. importer/distributor of the highly acclaimed Spicer mounts from Australia, available in eight different versions to accommodate different camera formats and/or special cropping needs. RMM also offers mounts for medium format stereo slides in 6x4.5cm (in both portrait and landscape orientations) and 6x6cm.

RBT in Germany make plastic mounts (both glassless or with anti-Newton glass) in five different formats. Their U.S. importer/distributor is 3D Concepts (http://www.stereoscopy.com/3d-concepts/). RBT mounts utilize a unique movable pin bar to firmly hold the film chips by the spocket holes while allowing controlled vertical and horizontal adjustments for proper alignment.

In addition to the sources listed above, there is also a small but active community of specialty retailers that serve the stereo market. Perhaps the best known of these is Reel-3D (http://www.stereoscopy.com/reel3d/) in Culver City CA. You should also visit the web sites of Berezin Stereo Products (http://www.berezin.com/3d/) and Dalia Miller’s site (http://www.3dstereo.com).

If you have any interest in stereoscopy there is a tremendous amount of information available on the internet, including a considerable number of discussion groups. I would especially recommend to you the Photo-3D mailing list (at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/photo-3d). Stewart, I see from your e-mail address that you are in (or around) Los Angeles, the home of one of the best known (and very active) stereo photo clubs, the Stereo Club of Southern California (http://home.earthlink.net/~campfire/). I invite you to attend a meeting and experience in person the magic of three dimensional imaging. Bill, I see that Rangefinder’s offices are in Santa Monica. If you, too, are nearby I encourage you to attend. If you are not in LA, a quick visit to (http://www.frii.com/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/~jkbl/cgi-ps) could put you in touch with a nearby club.

Should you have any further questions about stereoscopy I will be glad to offer my assistance.