{"id":135,"date":"2008-10-27T22:13:36","date_gmt":"2008-10-28T07:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stereo.thurstons.us\/content\/?page_id=135"},"modified":"2009-02-24T17:40:22","modified_gmt":"2009-02-25T02:40:22","slug":"3d-world-viewer-mod","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stereo.thurstons.us\/content\/?page_id=135","title":{"rendered":"3D World Viewer Mod"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I really like the focusing, illuminated from 3D World<\/a>.\u00a0 It is a tremendous value since it sells for less than $100 (as of October 2008).\u00a0 I am, however, always looking for improvements and I found myself wondering why my viewing experience felt less “encumbered” when using my Saturn Viewer.\u00a0 It was difficult to peg down the difference, but viewing through the Saturn Viewer seemed more pleasant.\u00a0 Was it due to the larger diameter lenses of the Saturn Viewer or something else?<\/p>\n

Noticing A Problem<\/h2>\n

I then went back and tried viewing the same images in my 3D World fixed focus viewer.\u00a0 There I think I identified the difference.\u00a0 With both the 3D-World fixed-focus viewer and in the Saturn Viewer, there was nothing much between the lens and the slide.\u00a0 The 3D World focusing viewer included two baffles restricting the view.\u00a0 By design, these baffles were out of the path of the image. They did not vignette or clip any part of the image.\u00a0 They were, however, visible and I suspected they were distracting my eye and drawing my attention away from the image.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The viewer focuses using a rack and pinion to move a square carrier fore and aft.\u00a0 The lens cones are mounted on that carrier (and independently slide left and right to provide interocular adjustment). The apertures behind the lens cones are rectangular and easily visible in the flanking photographs.\u00a0 To test my hypothesis, all I had to do is open these apertures a bit and reinstall the lens cones.<\/p>\n

Removing the lens cones from the carrier was actually more difficult than wielding the dremel tool used to enlarge the openings.\u00a0 With the cones removed, I found a RotoZip blade was just right for the bulk of the work.\u00a0 When that was done, I switched to a small sanding drum to dress the edges more neatly.\u00a0 The viewer on which I was trying this is one of the original batch which has a high-gloss carrier in it.\u00a0 While the viewer was apart, I took the opportunity to paint the inside of the carrier with some Krylon Ultra-flat<\/a> black paint.\u00a0 I then reinstalled the lens cones and put the carrier back in the viewer shell.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Did It Work?<\/h2>\n

When I dropped a slide in the modified viewer, I noticed a couple of things.\u00a0 Removing the close-in mask did reduce eye-distraction.\u00a0 My eyes spent more time on the image and less time darting in to check on this “thing” close to my eyeball.\u00a0 This was good, but in fixing one deficiency, I had created another.<\/p>\n

One function of the rectangular apertures which I hadn’t appreciated was their contribution to the occlusion of the “other eye’s” image.\u00a0 With the rectangular apertures and the short septum provided on the mount-carrier (not present in the above image), the left eye was unable to see right image and the right eye was unable to see the left’s image.\u00a0 In my newly modified viewer, both images were easily visible to both eyes.\u00a0 This pretty much negated any benefit I had achieved as there were even more optical distractions available.<\/p>\n

The Patch for the Mod<\/h2>\n

Fortunately, it was relatively easy to correct this problem.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>With a little bit of styrene and a sharp pair of scissors, I created an extension for the viewer’s short septum.\u00a0 It was easily shaped to clear the nose indentation and the focusing rod, and a dab of glue held it in place.\u00a0 Because photographing ultra-flat black is so difficult, I left it white for the photograph.\u00a0 I then applied more of my flat black to the mount-carrier and new septum before reassembling the viewer.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/h2>\n

The results of all this are an increase in my satisfaction with the viewer.\u00a0 With the wider apertures, my eyes spend less time checking that little bit of\u00a0 close-in visual noise.\u00a0 Yes, it’s a small improvement, but it is a small improvement I will make to my other 3D World focusing viewer the next time I have it apart.\u00a0 I’d suggest that a taller septum and larger lens apertures would be low cost improvements the manufacturer could incorporate in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I really like the focusing, illuminated from 3D World.\u00a0 It is a tremendous value since it sells for less than $100 (as of October 2008).\u00a0 I am, however, always looking for improvements and I found myself wondering why my viewing experience felt less “encumbered” when using my Saturn Viewer.\u00a0 It was difficult to peg down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":25,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stereo.thurstons.us\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stereo.thurstons.us\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stereo.thurstons.us\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stereo.thurstons.us\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stereo.thurstons.us\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stereo.thurstons.us\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179,"href":"https:\/\/stereo.thurstons.us\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/135\/revisions\/179"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stereo.thurstons.us\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stereo.thurstons.us\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}