For almost two years

STEREO REALIST Pre-Production Brochure
Andrew and Dalia Miller

	For almost two years, the David White Company advertised the Stereo Realist camera before the first camera rolled off the assembly line. Magazine advertisements began appearing in major national, mass circulation magazines, beginning in November of 1945 (see INSIDE 3D Magazine, Hollywood and the Realist, Summer1999). Yet the camera wasn't in production until August of 1947, due to many problems that were "to be solved" and production delays. But the ad campaign in the magazines did not waiver, month after month, issue after issue.
The print magazine medium was not the only marketing campaign that was in full swing. The White Company was hard at work in Direct Mail advertising too. We recently uncovered a Mail Advertising Piece. It consists of an 11 inch by 25 inch tri-fold three color brochure plus 3 stapled, mimeographed pages, all mailed in a brown envelope featuring some Stereo Realist advertising on the envelope. Mailed from Milwaukee, carrying a 1-1/2 cent stamp, this brochure and information sheet was mailed out during those pre-production days to a gentleman in the Province of Quebec.


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On the brochure cover, a hand pulls back the red curtain, beginning to reveal a rendering of the black and silver camera, as a large scrolled banner exclaims, "It's Here! The First American-Made Precision-Built, True Third Dimensional Camera."

Inside, covering two pages a similar curtain is pulled back by the same hand exposing the Stereo Realist and the Stereo Realist Slide Viewer in a larger, more detailed rendering, (this rendering was also used in many of the full page magazine ads.)

Another scroll proclaims "...An Exciting Practical Reality", while seven numbered paragraphs expound on the revolutionary features of the camera.

1. Advanced - Fine Camera Construction
2. Specially Designed Matched Lenses
3. The Stereo Realist Shutter
4. New Built-in Flash Synchronizer
5. New Centered View - Finder
6. Wide Base Split - Field Range Finder
7. Uses Standard Film

The back two pages feature line drawing outlines of the Stereo Realist in Front/Top and Back/Top perspectives and the Realist Slide Viewer, both having 25 line-pointed features. Also on the back, in a Price and Marketing Data section, the brochure states that the Stereo-Realist Camera and Viewers together with accessories will be sold through authorized retail camera stores only. Retail List Price - Camera: $150.00; Viewer: $25.00 (both subject to OPA approval). A hand rubber-stamp on the back page updates the camera to $162.50, including tax, while the viewer was reduced to $19.75.

Interestingly, in a final paragraph entitled, A Word About the Manufacturer, the brochure states, "A pioneer manufacturer of Precision instruments such as transits, levels, and similar surveying equipment... a principal supplier to the United States government of Sextants, Astrolabes, Theodolites, etc.... the David White Company is well equipped, both in resources and experience, to produce fine photographic equipment."

The 3 page mimeographed information sheets included with the brochure, entitled, Detailed Description of the Stereo Realist, describes the General Construction, The Lenses, The Shutter, The Range Finder, The View Finder, Flash Synchronizer, Film, Mounting, Mounting Service, Camera Size and Weight, The Viewer, and The Projector.

STRIKING DIFFERENCES
As one looks closely at the magazine ads and this brochure both released before production, one is struck by a few oddities on the camera and the viewer that do not match what was to be the final production version of the camera and viewer.

Below, we show close-ups of these features in the brochure, and compare them side-by-side with images of an extremely early production camera and viewer, produced in the first days of production.

The most striking difference one notices first is the wafered wind and rewind knob on the pre-production camera rendering. Even the focusing knob on the viewer is a wafered knob with shadowing suggesting that it was going to be a metal knob. The production knobs turned out to be knurled aluminum knobs on the camera and a knurled plastic knob on the viewer. In both cases, obviously a change to a more easily and less costly knob to produce than the wafered version. Ron Zakowski, Realist authority and master technician, who worked at the White Company through the Stereo Realist production period, says that it was natural for the White Company to anticipate to make the wafered knobs out of extruded aluminum, the other instruments the company made used wafered knobs made from extruded brass. And the decision to go to knurled knobs on the camera was definitely a cost cutting step, in fact, the White Company soon after, changed from wafered brass knobs to knurled brass knobs on their other instruments.

One might notice that the A (advance)...R (rewind) engraving on the top plate is not as you likely have on your Stereo Realist. There are no arrows, and there isn't even an engraved A!, just a dot. But that is exactly what the very first Stereo Realist had engraved on the top plate. The A and the arrows were soon added.

A bit more subtle, but still noticeable is the shinny casing around the rangefinder windows in the pre-production rendering, when all production Stereo Realists had the casing around the rangefinder windows painted black like most of the body excluding top and front plates.

A much closer look at the viewer in the pre-production rendering shows not only the inter-ocular lever looking slightly different than the production version, but it shows a significant difference in the components of the bakelite viewer shell. In the pre-production rendering, the eye cup front is less contoured, especially at the bottom outer edges. Plus, most significantly, any show of side bakelite reinforcement is missing from the rendering, suggesting a totally different component construction.

Back to the camera, the most subtle difference and yet most interesting difference lies on the Shutter Speed Setting Ring. At first glance we see that the T, B, 1, 2, 5, and 10 were not engraved anywhere near that large, and were in fact the same size as the high speed numbers. That difference aside, notice that the pre-production rendering shows that the f3.5 Stereo Realist was originally thought to be a 1/200 of a second top speed. And the 200 is engraved right in the rendering. But as we all know, no production f3.5 Stereo Realist had a 200 speed. From the first, they were produced with a top speed of 1/150th of a second. And not until the f2.8 Stereo Realists were produced did a Stereo Realist have a top speed of 1/200th of a second. Very interesting!

We can see that in probably every case, the differences between the pre-production rendering and the production cameras and viewers were at least understandable from an easier, lower production cost standpoint. And one might argue that producing a 1/150th top speed was more cost effective. But was it really? The White Company certainly planned for 1/200, as even described in the Detailed Description of the Stereo Realist under The Shutter. Was that the real reason for the last minute switch. Or was there another compelling reason?