Shen Hao 4x5 "official" fresnel

[Luca Merlo]

I own a Shen Hao 4x5 and find the groundglass a bit dark. I was wondering to buy the Fresnel offered by Badger for this camera. Has anybody ever tried it ? Is it better to go for a brightscreen instead ?

[Dean Tomasula]

Luca, a better idea would be to get a ground glass from Satin Snow. They're inexpensive and will give you about 1 stop more light.

[Tim Hettinger]

Luca,
I use the "official" fresnel on mine. It is definately more evenly illuminated, but the image is all mushy and hard to focus. I've been meaning to try something else, but haven't had the chance. The fresnel on my other 4x5 doesn't have this problem. Try the Satin Snow maybe and let us know how it works.

[Josh Z.]

For my Shen-Hao, I have a Satin Snow which was a minor improvement (well worth it though). But I did get a substantial improvement by making (er cutting) my own fresnel out of one made for page reading from Walgreens for $8. There is a nice improvement with my Nikkor-W 210mm, and a very very helpful improvement with the 90mm f/8. It does add noticable lines when trying to focus, but with a 4x loupe I don't have any problem. The one built into my Horseman 45L is a bit nicer, but for $8 I can't complain.

[Luca Merlo]

Thank you very much to all o0f you. I will try first with Satin and then I will see the results .....

[terry_5379]

I brought a satin snow for my 8x10 shen hao found it disapointing, for my 4x5 shen hao i replaced standard screen with ebony screen from robert white, very easy to view and focus.

[Scott Davis]

I have a KB Canham gg and fresnel for my Shen Hao, and it is quite a bit brighter than the factory original. It is also a perfect fit, and reasonably priced.