Alternatives to focusing cloth?
I have the Toyo VX125 and use the balloon focusing hood. It works great, is lightweight and compact, is far more effective at blocking out light than the standard focusing hood, and is quicker and less cumbersome than a darkcloth. I use the fresnal/groundglass combination that came with the camera - nice bright even illumination across the entire groundglass. The only criticism of the balloon focusing hood is its cost, but you may be able to get a good price from either Robert White (www.robertwhite.co.uk) or Badger Graphics (www.badgergraphic.com).
Alternatives to focusing cloth?
Anyone heard of the 'Wood Hood'? It isn't an owl specy , but a kind of cloth sle eve that holds on the camera on one end, and behind the ears of the photographer on the other end. Emil Salek uses o ne and likes it. Maybe he'd let us know where he got it.
Alternatives to focusing cloth?
try to avoid getting any type of focusing hood. all you need is more crap to carry! do what you can with the focusing cloth and good luck.
Alternatives to focusing cloth?
I have been playing with some surgeon's loupes. These look like spectacles, but contain a magnifying lens and shallow-angle prism combination which allows you to focus on close objects while retaining binocular vision. They only occupy a part of the visual field, so you can see past them without taking them off. Their power is about 4x-5x.
With these I have no need to have my hands inside the darkcloth, so I can live with a very simple tube of material. They also eliminate wobbly hand syndrome because the brain naturally adapts to your head movements and ignores them.
For high-magnification I also have a more powerful pair which look like something out of the film Brasil: two half inch diameter chromed telephoto lenses suspended in front of your eyeballs. They work, but a small high quality conventional loupe is much easier to carry around.
I inherited these, so I'm not sure where you could buy or try a pair, but medical supply firms will be listed in the yellow pages.
Alternatives to focusing cloth?
You're whining about using a focusing cloth? Get a black piece of cotton cloth (it breathes), sew a piece of white cotton cloth to one side to reflect heat. If you want use a collapsible focusing hood like on a Linhof Technicka or a Horseman 45A, buy a Horseman focusing loupe that's made to use with the collapsible hood (they're extra long and extend past the hood).
Use the focusing cloth. It's light weight, doesn't take up much room, and can be folded or stuffed into a case with no detriment to its functionality.
Hot weather conditions??? I photograph in the Southwest US most of the time. It's a pleasure to get out of the sun under the focusing cloth with the white reflecting the heat. Humidity? I've photographed in the US mid-west on near 100 degree days with 95+ humidity. Concentrate on the photo not how uncomfortable you might be - it can't be that bad...