Horseman 6x loupe

I'm looking at puchasing a horseman 6x loupe in order to enable myself to do my veiwing as well as critical focusing behind a bellows hood. I was wondering if any one has ued this same set up? If so, how did it function?

Are you referring to the 6x long loupe? If so I have one and I like it because it has a little more magnification than a 4x loupe and it's just the right length to sit on the ground glass and have my face a lot farther away - this works for me because I have a folding ground glass hood on my Toyo 4x5 Field which allows me to have it open for general viewing w/o having to close the hood and swing it out of the way when I want to use the loupe - the long version is long enough to stick inside the hood and still be able to put my eye to it. I can also use it to view transparencies (although with a limited field of view). It also has a nice focusing adjustment. I no longer use my 4x Toyo loupe. Hope this helps.

If you are referring to the long loupe the answer is yes. I use it and it is my favorite of three loupes (Silvestri 6x tilting, Horseman long 6x and Schneider 4x). Superb image quality, nice size (albeit a bit heavy), very well made, simple to use with the flip-out hood. I also generally use it when using a darkcloth in the field although not so much in the studio.



If price is a consideration then this is not the answer as it will cost you somewhere in the range of $100 or more but if you want qaulity and ease of use this is it. The Toyo, while much cheaper doesn't approach the Horseman in optical quality and performance. Jim at MidWest can always geet this for you new and sometimes has them used.

In art school an enthusiastic instructor convinced us all to shell out huge money for a Schneider 12x loupe. Told us we couldn’t possibly achieve critical focus without one.

After struggling with that thing for months I decided it wasn’t absolutely necessary to be able to examine the molecular structure of the ground glass to focus the camera. So I switched to a 4-power unit. My favorite was the Schneider.

But now in my golden years, I’m looking to reduce the amount of junk I tote around when making pictures. With younger knees I used to carry enough extra stuff to look like a garage sale going somewhere.

Now I have discovered that with a good Fresnel (like Beattie) on the ground glass, it practically “pops” in and out focus with no gray, fuzzy areas. I am able to monitor this perfectly with a $30 pair of strong half glasses from my local super market. And they fold up and clip to my shirt pocket. Great for the restaurant wine list, apres photography.

Just a thought...

I just got the Toyo loupe and it works great with my Wista and the groundglass hood. It is almost 4" long and is good enough to focus on my Maxwell screen. I have never used the other loupes that have been mentioned, but this one only cost a little over $40. Use the money you will save for film. Good light!