What can one say about a 3D meeting that includes an assortment of free beverages from Labatt's. It was a stupendous occasion hosted by J Mutch, Matt Neima and Alex Cabrita in London, Ontario at the Labbatt Brewing Company. Things got off to a great start with a slide show. Actually things did stall a bit after we found that we couldn't turn off some of the overhead lights. It was mentioned by Bob Wilson that care should be taken when choosing a location to project slides; you should have complete control of the environment. Matt shared some views of Killarney & sail boats in Paris as well as a view from the top of Mont Blanc that took 9 hours to climb. Alex shared a gorgeous thru-the-window view of a flower. Stan White had a view of his miniature of the Wright Brothers plane at Kittyhawk. Dave Delouchery shared some 2 week old views of "pumpkin people" in Nova Scotia as well as his first chainsaw sculpture. Sam asked if I had a hockey mask to go with the chainsaw. Pina Vinci had views of cactus at the Allen Gardens in Toronto.

We than moved on to a special demonstration of the Pentax 430 RS by Anthony Chodas from Camera Canada in London which features a 3D "Cha Cha" mode. The camera comes with a plastic viewer and is available in either 3.0 or 4.0 MegaPixel quality. The camera features Pentax optics & body with Casio electronics. Casio has marketed their own version of the camera in Europe that does not promote the 3D ability but instead offers a self portrait feature that allows you to be in the same photo as your spouse by using the left and right frame exposure feature. It was then asked if the camera could remove your ex but it was joked that that feature was only offered at www.getridofyourspouse.com Steve Horan mentioned that Hewlett Packard has a patent for a "Point & Shoot" stereo digital camera. The group then posed for a 3D photo which was distributed to members after the meeting.

Cheryl from Labatt's then took us on a tour of the Brewing Plant. John Labbatt came from Ireland in 1847 and the company has been brewing for more than 150 years. Back then they made 1000 bottles of beer per day, now they bottle a 1000 per minute. It takes 6 hours to do one brew and they do 8 to 9 per day. It takes 21 days from brewing to final packaging. Each bottle is reused 15 to 20 times before it is crushed with a 95% return rate. With 260 quality checks it takes only 2:40 minutes from filling to packaging. They can fill 400,000 bottles in 3.5 hours.

Bob Wilson started the meeting with our usual round of introductions. Three friends of Matt Neima's, Rick Baillargeon, Kevin McColeman and Angela O'Conner were joining us for the first time at his invitation. J Mutch is crazed about hardware and collects camera's in general as well as stereo. Matt said that J infected him with the passion for Stereo and he is now working with medium format 3D. Alex Cabrita said that after J infected Matt, Matt then infected him. Matt also picked up a Realist camera for Alex at NSA Buffalo. Stan White says that he has drifted away from 3D and now dabbles in digital, panoramic and infrared. Sam Schlifer says it's now his task to bring Stan back into the 3D fold. Pina Vinci says that she doesn't collect anything that she won't use. Seems like good advice for a uncluttered house. She has been taken sports pictures with her realist. Patrick Whelan says that he once created 3D video with an Atari ST Computer. He now uses a Loreo camera he got from from Matt and dabbles in 3D video and collects Holography. Steve Horan who's regular interest is viewmaster is now foccussed on digital stereo photography. David Delouchery is currently developing a commercial 3D Video entertaiment module for corporate customers and has also become interested in early flat and 3D photography. Josh Kaell says that he used to take 3D pictures before his camera broke. John Saddy of London has a renowned auction for stereoviews and collects views of his hometown and owns a Pentax 3D attachment. Peter Sinclair is interested, as many know, in lenticular and Stereojet imaging. Jack Schoon says that Peter got him into Stereo. Felix Russo is the editor of a educational newsletter called Photo Ed. He says that they are doing a issue focussing on stereo and you can send him submissions to felix@photoed.ca Madolyn Tait said that she met her husband Don at a camera club and Don says that he used a stereo attachment in 1950's and then switched to side by side format.

Bob shared a view that he mounted on a card which depicted a Canada Post mailbox with a photocopied image of a stereoscope pasted on it's face. He also passed around the latest edition of John Waldsmith's Stereoviews book which includes a updated pricelist. Don showed us his side be side camera rig as well as a viewing device that he built to view stereo chips. Felix gave out a few copies of his newsletter which is a one year old national publication on photographic techniques and education such as pinhole and alternative photographic methods. He says that the last two issues sold out. Dave showed off some party goods which included plates, napkins, and a tablecloth which were printed with anaglyphic images of dinosaurs. He also showed a new softcase holder for viewmaster reels and mentioned that the General Motors website www.gm.com features a viewmaster like presentation to market their latest line of vehicles. He also showed a Warner Bros. plastic Zoetrope and a German book on early animated optical toys and apologized that they were not stereo items of interest. Steve brought a 3D book of Insects that employs a fold out mirror to aid in depth perception. He also shared a fascinating book on Hitler's Empire from 1933 to 1945 which includes many views, a fold out viewer and storybook. Patrick mentioned that he had about 20 images of his little girl taken with his Loreo at the display tables. Stan passed around his book of poetry which he claims to have done everything short of cutting down the actual trees to get it published. He included a stereo image on the back cover in case there were any nuts who, like himself once bought everything that had anything to do with stereo. Matt showed off his homemade medium format viewer. He says that he bought the achromatic lenses for $18 at www.surplusshed.com J shared a stereo puck camera made in 1925 by Thorton Picard that has the ability to swing different lenses into place. It takes 120 film. Sam had a device that cuts Realist chips.

Yet again the bar has been raised for an action packed meeting. Thanks to Matt, J, Alex and their London Crew!

The next meeting is Sunday, April 27th in Toronto at Steve Horan's.