Need help about ground glass and protective glass (cambo 4x5)

[shOo]

Hi, I accidentally dropped my camera's back on the ground and it seems like the glass was damaged. I've only noticed now, that it has a clear glass over the ground glass. Do all view cameras use that clear glass? I've never seen it before. Can I use the camera without it?

And if that clear glass is a must, is it just simple glass or some special glass only made for lf cameras? Cause if it's simple, I could just go to the nearest frame shop and ask them to cut the same peace of glass. The ground glass doesn't look like it's damaged, it's only that protective glass.

Sorry for my english, it's not my first language. If it's hard to understand what I mean, I can take a picture of that part of the camera.


Thanks

[Jim C.]

The only glass on my cambo setup is the frosted ground glass used for focusing,
is there a fresnel screen installed ?
You may have been using the fresnel as your ground glass and the previous owner
installed a clear glass screen to protect the fresnel.

[IanG]

The clear protective glass on my Cambo (well more exactly on my Super Graphic at the moment) is actually the Fresnel screen which is helps significantly with screen brightness.

Ian

[shOo]

Thanks, no it's not a fresnel screen. It's a simple frosted ground glass, and a clear glass on top of it. So as I understand, it's safe to just remove it, and don't bother putting a new one on top of the ground glass?

[Ari]

Wista uses the same set-up: a ground glass/fresnel combo, and on top of that goes a clear glass, sometimes gridded.
You can certainly use it without the clear glass, but it adds a measure of protection to the expensive ground glass/fresnel.

[Pawlowski6132]

All you need is a piece of ground glass.

[shOo]

I've just took the glass of, it's strange. It looks like the ground glass is clean, and that clear glass(that I thought was only for protection) is glued to the ground glass and has all the guides painted on it.