Loupe

OK - maybe I'm loopy - but I have a problem using my loupe.

Everytime I get under the cloth and place my nice Schneider loupe on the ground glass - it fogs up! Suddenly everything is very blurry. I've tried not breathing (which solves the male thing - you know - can't do two things at once and I gotta breath - now I can adjust knobs AND view the screen - for a short period!). It kinder works but clearly for an inadequate time frame!

I wipe it and stuff and then as soon as I'm under, it fogs again.

Is it just that I work in a humid place (not particulary high - south east Queensland Australia - it's not like the tropics yet)? - and do others in similar lattitudes have these problems. Is the Schneider not the best GG tool? What have people done if they have found this one?

regards

Work faster and do your major work without the loupe, saving the loupe only for fine tuning the focus. You can always wave your loupe around outside the darkcloth to clear it. I doubt a new loupe is going to act any differently.

A couple of ideas:
<ol><li>Treat the glass with an anti-fogging agent, like Rain-X Anti-Fog (see http://www.rainx.com/frame_auto_new.htm or regular window cleaner with such an additive.</li>
<li>What kind of dark cloth do you have? I find that the tube-type cloths ventilate less well than the horse-blanket kind, and in the right conditions (usually cold here in the northern US) I have to duck in and out of my BTZS cloth a lot to keep things mostly clear.</li>
</ol>

Try this

only use the darkcloth when you need to view the whole groundglass ( say when composing picture ) and when you can move your head back further from the groundglass

When you need to focus critically, use just the loupe on the groundglass and concentrate on the area in the loupe only ( i assume your loupe is for viewing groundglass/slides which do not let light in from the sides )

You can block some side light by cupping your hand around the base of the loupe ...

The key to using the view camera is getting familiar to watching the ground glass when stopping down the lens. Rather takes away the need to get to hyped up about a f8 versus a f12 lens but I digress. After all, it is all about what is happening on the ground glass from a visual and sharpness perspective. Do it enough and you will not even need the loup.

Try it and you may be surprised at the results. When things go awry, improvise. If you found you did not need the loup to make sharp photographs when your loup fogged up, you have a plan B that could be your plan A.

Cheers!

Pentax Clear Vue lens cleaner. It has an anti fog agent and it works.

BTW, a bar of glycerin soap works as well. Dampen (not wet) a soft cloth and rub it over the offending surfaces then rub dry and clear with another clean soft cloth.

Any soap will work, but glycerin soap is generally free of extra stuff that may streak.

Steve

Keep the loupe in your shirt pocket. That is, keep it warm. The reason moisture is condensing out on the optics is because they are cold, relative to the air under the dark cloth (your respiration heats that air, and increases the available moisture, both).

I only use the dark cloth to compose, your loupe should let minimal light in so I fine focus without the cloth.

OK! great advice - thanks!