4x5 loupe

[John DeFazio]

I have read an article re: making a home made loupe that has fantastic results, but I do not understand if I'm to use one lens or if two are needed. If anyone is familiar with such a home made loupe, please update me on its constuction. Thank you, John D. jdefazio6076@gmail.com

[Leigh]

At a minimum I would use an achromat (cemented doublet).
A single lens (like a magnifying glass) would yield pretty poor performance.

- Leigh

[Bob Salomon]

Do you mean a loupe to see the entire gg at one time or part of the gg? If the entire gg it will not be strong enough to see critical detail. If part of the gg why waste the time and money? There are lots of very high quality 4, 5, 6 and 7x loupes available. And many are fully coated, if not multi coated and some are aspheric.

[Drew Bedo]

There aught to be a lot of film-SLR lenses available for pennies on the pound. An f/2 50mm should be well corrected enough to use as a loup.

But, why build a loup?

I have at times used an "Optivisor" jeweler's head set. For more mag put on reading glases under the heqd set.


Years ago, I talked my optomitrist into perscribing a set of high magnification "reading" glasses. Don't remember the mag factor, but the working distance was ~4 inches. Worked well and corrected for my vision too.

[Former Member 27732]

What Drew said....
I use a single pair of x6 readers, freeing up both hands to do all the camera tweaking stuff, while I'm watching the GG. Couldn't be easier.
/Frank

[Dan Dozer]

What Drew said....
I use a single pair of x6 readers, freeing up both hands to do all the camera tweaking stuff, while I'm watching the GG. Couldn't be easier.
/Frank

I do this too. I got a pair of clip on/flip ups that I use on my regular glasses. Only issue is that they don't work with bi-focals (lenses in the two pairs don't line up) so I use my distance viewing lenses for camera work.

[Leigh]

I have at times used an "Optivisor" jeweler's head set. For more mag put on reading glases under the heqd set.

The Opti-Visor is an excellent product. The lenses are interchangeable without tools, available up to 10x IIRC.

- Leigh

[Racer X 69]

But, why build a loup?

I have at times used an "Optivisor" jeweler's head set. For more mag put on reading glases under the heqd set.

This is an excellent idea. Thanks Drew!

[StoneNYC]

I've discovered I need a loupe too, mostly at night time when focusing for long exposures in very little light (sometimes absent of moonlight).

Now I have very good night vision and I have been able to see the ground glass and an image very faint, but enough to tell when I put it from in focus to out of focus, but not PERFECT focus simply because I have bad close vision now. So what loupe would not lower the light throughput since its already so faint... I've seen some 6x and 8x sell on ebay from china for $75 is this good enough? Or should I get something more brand named?

It's a light transmission issue, I don't want the image even dimmer than it is if possible.

I feel like a home made or 50mm reversed would introduce light loss.

Or am I wrong?

[AtlantaTerry]

I buy cheap reading glasses from the dollar store in my view camera kit.

Made in China they are ... USD $1.