David White, Stereo Realist (type 1041) for 29 stereo pairs from a 36 exposure 135 or 35mm film. Over the years a small number of cameras have been designed by individuals whose motivation was a lack of suitable equipment for their particular niche interest. Notable examples are F.H Sanderson's Architectural camera "The Sanderson", manufactured by Holmes Bros' and later Houghtons, Oscar Barnack's 35mm camera made by Leitz and becoming the famous Leica, the clockwork powered "Robot" made by Berning but designed by watchmaker Heinz Kilfitt and the subject of this page designed by Seton Rochwite, the camera taken on by the David White company. Stereo photography had been very popular at the end of the nineteenth century and into the beginning of the twentieth, largely by acquiring stereo cards and associated viewers, rather than owning a stereo camera. Enthusiasm waned post World War One and was largely extinct by the great depression of 1929. This came about as people moved towards taking their own snapshots on a growing array of affordable mass cameras, but stereo cameras were limiting and also used twice the film for half the images*. Despite having no previous photographic manufacturing experience, the David White company not only decided to take the plunge and make Rochwite's design, they employed him to finalise the design and the accessories in 1943, releasing the products in 1947. Their faith bore fruit though and stereo photography enjoyed a renaissance directly as a result of this camera up into the late 1960s, before subsiding once more. The construction of the Stereo Realist follows entirely conventional practice for the era, being mostly die cast metal components screwed together. The black parts being enamelled and finished with a fine natural leather. The bright parts are electro satin chrome plate over copper intermediate onto cast components. The controls are a mixture of cast metal (likely Zamac) or turned aluminium. The finish is generally good with crisp tight radii as there are no pressed components externally. By the time this 1952 example was made, David White were making the lenses too whereas the earliest examples had lenses from outside suppliers. Products designed by strong minded individuals often have a unique, quirky or ground breaking elements. The Stereo Realist may not be blessed with the latter but it does have unique and quirky. The stereo base (distance between rangefinder optics) is massive, putting a 1930s Zeiss Contax to shame, in theory making for very fine focus adjustment. These are the two windows you see either side near the base of the camera. The positioning of these near the bottom is definitely quirky albeit dictated by the layout. The rangefinder is not the superimposition kind but two halves and is easiest to use in views with obvious verticals, neither is the rangefinder combined with the viewfinder. The viewfinder has a separate and larger window viewing between the two taking lenses, on the centre line which is the best place for it. Focus is achieved via a milled wheel moving the entire focal plane back and forth via a screwjack itself coupled to the rangefinder. The unique feature is the method of linking the apertures, this being achieved with a tensioned and anchored metal strap running around the lens barrels, giving commendably slack free transmission. The lenses are protected with a "Bakelite" thermosetting plastic cover that doubles as a partial lens shade when open. Despite using 35mm film it doesn't give what we would call full frame images, instead it produces images 25mm high by 24mm wide, well this particular example does, but its one of the few components that is not well finished. The opening in the focal plane is far from straight varying from 23.4 to 24mm. The camera is fitted with a wired accessory shoe to trip a flashbulb. Although not universally applied, sometimes they are dated inside, someone pencilled the initials GW and 11/52 inside the lens board of this camera when it appeared on his or her bench back in 1952. Being relatively robust and distinctive Stereo Realists still find a ready market for good examples in 2020s. Having said that, this was not a good example, being a battered and cheap donkey we rescued in July 2024, but it functions correctly now, the focus is set up and the lenses were pretty clean anyway. It's suffered from some ham fisted attention in the past and there are currently a few stripped screws to resolve. Stereo Realists are available in a number of variants, the f3.5 lenses fitted to this one identify it as the most commonly found, but there was a version with f2.8 lenses too as well as a handful of exotic versions.

*The Rietzchel Stereo Kosmo Clack was was a camera that attempted to partially address this.

View other rangefinder cameras in this collection.

For more detailed Stereo Realist reading I suggest a visit to this website.