Black & White Slides

I finally used the TMAX Direct positive kit to make slides from TMAX 100 film. It worked great! I developed for high contrast, exposing the film at 100 and adding 17g of sodium sulfate.

Another Colorist II

Well, with spring break approaching, I need to pull the motor ut of our '78 VW Bus and overhaul it. I can only really handle one project at a time so I decided to call Jess Powell (well-known stereo camera repair person) and ask him if he had any spare shutter units lying around. He didn't, but he had a Colorist II he had overhauled and fixed the take-up spool on. Well, I couldn't resist so I bought it. In the meantime...

I discovered that the slow speed mechanism on the second Colorist II I purchased was not functioning properly (probably why the guy dumped a bunch of oil in it and mucked up the shutter blades and then sold the camera as fully functional except for the oil on the blades- dishonest) I am in the process of swapping out the slow speed mechanisms and getting one functional shutter unit, but then again, this will be on hold for a while while I work on the bus.

Rangefinder

Last night I adjusted the vertical alignment of the rangefinder. This is rather easy to do. Once you remove the top plate, find the viewfinder. On the top of the viewfinder window there is a pair of screws, one on either side of the viewfinder window. There is a corresponding pair of screws on the front of the viewfinder window, one to the right and one to the left of the window. Loosen the front ones a 1/4 of a turn and loosen/tighten the top ones to raise or the rangefinder. Retighten the front pair of screws to hold the alignment.

Precision Screwdrivers

These are the best precision scewdrivers I know of...

Craig Camera Manual

I purchased a TDC repair manual for the Colorist I,II, Vivid and Projector from Craig Camera. There doesn't appear to be any information on adjusting the rangefinder in it and there is not a schematic of the Colorist II, only the Colorsit I. Other than that, it is a very high quality reprint.

Another Colorist

Well, I lucked out. Someone on Ebay decided to remove the front plate on their Colorist II and lubricate the shutter mechanism. The Velio shutter is designed to run dry. Anyway, they mucked up the shutter blades with oil so I got their camera for $45! Now I have a replacement shutter mechanism for my Colorist, or I might just fix the new one if it looks better.

Rings

The aperture and shutter speed rings on the face plate have been rather stubborn. It took quite a while to get them properly lubricated. I used Sil-glyde, a silicon grease, part part # 765-1351 from NAPA. This grease is unaffected by temperature and will never solidify.

It Finally Arrived!

The Colorist finally arrived. Very nice. The leatherette was barely stuck on. I reapplied it using contact cement. You only get one chance with contact cement. The apertures were very sticky so I disassembled the shutters for cleaning. They had a good soak in Zippo lighter fluid. NOTE: on the "dummy shutter" (the shutter without the timer in it) the connecting bar between the two aperture mechanisms is press-fit into the blade drive ring. It is attached with a screw to the shutter with the "guts" in it. While I was disassembling, the coupling came apart(it's not supposed to come apart). No big deal, I'll just remove the blade drive ring and put it back together with a punch. This worked great. Unfortunately, one of the screws that holds in the blade drive ring- the head snapped right off. The shutter blades slide on these screw heads. AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I have to buy another Colorist for another shutter mechanism. :( VERY frustrating. Here is a good shutter site. And another about the Vero, a very close cousin to the Vario.

An Excellent Stereo Site

This site is in German, but VERY good. Use Google translator if you don't read german.

The Stereo Window

Here is a very nice PDF describing the stereo window. It is relevant in picture composition and slide mounting.

Colorist Repair

I stumbled upon this BLOG entry. All I want to know is, where's part II????

Self-Timers and Cable Releases

It turns out the Colorist has a tapered-thread cable release socket so the following is moot.

I have had a very hard time finding a straight-thread cable release. I stumbled upon this odd Kopil mechanical self-timer on Ebay so I decided to give it a try. I say odd because it is unlike any of the other Kopil, Alpex, Autoknips or others I have seen. I got my father-in-law a self-timer for his Realist, but it is a tapered-thread model.

Filters

I have not seen filters available for the Colorist. As the colorist does not have lens caps like the Realist, filters would help protect the lenses. The lens outer diameter is 28.36mm and this is not in accord with any of the standard Series filters. The closest is the Series V at 30.2mm. It might be feasible to shim the Series V filters to work.

Focus Daniel-son

The focusing method of stereo cameras will make a difference in the quality of your pictures. High quality cameras, like large format, move the entire lens when focusing. Moving the film plane accomplishes the same thing. The early Mamiya 6 medium format camera focused in this manner. Lower quality cameras move the front element of the lens (see lens diagrams in previous post). If the lens elements stay aligned and are not twisted by focusing, better image quality results. The Colorist focuses the front lens elements.

TDC History

Here is a very nice german site detailing the history of the Bodensee factory that assembled the Stereo Colorist I and II. If you don't read German, just use Google translator. Colorist I development began in 1952 and Colorist II development in 1954. Between May 1954 and June 1956 the Bodensee works provided approximately 20,000 stereo cameras to Cinefot, who supplied these cameras to Bell & Howell aka Three Dimension Corporation (TDC). 13,000 were Colorist I's and the remaining 7,000 Colorist II's. There was originally planned to be a Colorist III in two versions (right) but stereo photography didn't exactly take off in America- the new trend was color photography- and Bell & Howell got out of the stereo market. By 1960, remaining Colorist I's were being sold for as little as $19.95

One innovation of the Colorist was its use of a machined aluminum top plate instead of chromed stamped brass. At one point the Bodensee factory tried to sell the Colorist to the German public as the Bodan Stereo, but Cinefot put a quick stop to this as the cameras were to be built exclusively for them.

The Colorist I and II are basically the same. The II added a coupled rangefinder. The II's original list price was $125 but had dropped to $79.50 by 1958.

Cooke Triplet

The lenses on the Stereo Colorist are f/3.5 Cooke Triplets. These are 3 element in 3 group lenses. Here is a link to some information from Cooke Optics. Crown glass is in blue, flint glass is in green. The Cooke Triplets were used on these Realist format cameras...

• Realist 3.5 (White)


• Stereo Colorist 3.5 (Trinar)


• Stereo Vivid 3.5 (Tridar)


• Revere 33 3.5 (Wollensak)


• Kodak Stereo 3.5 (Anaston)


• Iloca Stereo II 3.5 (Llitar)


• Iloca Stereo Rapid 3.5 (Cassar)


• Wirgin Edixa 3.5 (Cassar)

Realist Format cameras with 4 element in 3 group Tessar lenses...

• Realist 2.8 (White)


• Wollensak Stereo 2.7 (Wollensak)


• Iloca Stereo Rapid 2.8 (Cassarit)

A Nice Stereo Site

http://www.stereoeye.jp/index_e.html I learned how to view stereos cross-eyed!

Kodak

Kodak may get rid of its film business...
Here's the story

B&W Slides

My decision to finally get a stereo camera was brought on by several factors...

• We now have two incomes so we a can afford a few luxuries.
• My father-in-law is into stereo photography and has a Realist and a projector
• I discovered it's possible to make B&W slides with TMax 100 Film and the Kodak Direct Positive film developing kit. Reversal processing is a lot like processing motion picture film. Note: this kit cannot be shipped via standard shipping. You can't mail order it from B&H or buy it over Ebay. Call Kodak and they will tell you where the nearest photo shop is that can order it for you.
• I already have a nice shoe-mounted light meter.

Stereo Colorist

My father-in-law has gotten me interested in stereo photography so I purchased my Stereo Colorist II off Ebay for $175. I can't wait for it to arrive. Differences between the Colorist and the Colorist II

• Addition of a split-image rangefinder
• Frame counter is slightly different
• Slightly heavier (717g vs. 660g)

Nice features

• Shutter cocks with film transport (unlike Realist)
• Split-image rangefinder integrated with viewfinder (Revere/Wollensak and Realist have separate rangefinder window- who wants to look through two windows when you can do everything in one?)
• Hotshoe compatible with electronic flash (TDC Vivid has a non-stanard flash terminal)

Owner's Manual link is here. Another link here.

A very nice document on the history of TDC and their stereo products is here. I was going to get a TDC Vivid, but I read about some flare issues here and image overlap problems here and the film transport seems unnecessarily complex.

I already own a Voigtlander VCII Meter which mounts right in the hotshoe so who needs the Vivid's Expo Sure calculator?