Corrent orientation of fresnel screen

[Roger Rouch]

I recently took off my Tachihara ground glass and fresnel to dry out after an outing in the snow and moisture between them. It could be my imagination, but focusing now looks slightly odd. I wanted to verify that I've mounted the fresnel correctly. I have the grooved side towards the ground glass and the frosted side towards the front of the camera. Right?

[Jon Shiu]

Hi, in the tachihara the ground glass and fresnel are one piece of glass (or plastic?). The grooved side goes towards the back and frosted (ground) side towards the front of the camera. A protective grid goes on the back.

[Gem Singer]

Hi Roger,

The frosted side goes toward the front of the camera (the lens). The thin cover glass with the grid lines goes on the back, with the surface containing the grid lines facing forward. The grooved Fresnel is sandwiched between the frosted ground glass (actually plastic) and the thin cover glass, with the grooves facing forward. The plastic Fresnel and the plastic frosted ground glass are fused together and usually don't separate. You probably got moisture between the smooth back surface of the Fresnel and the inked surface of the cover glass. Geeze this is difficult to describe in words!

[Roger Rouch]

Thank you both very much. I think even though my question confused the ground glass with the thin glass with the grid lines, I know what you are saying and that I've mounted them correctly.

As a slight side note, I've purchased a ground glass from Satinglass that looked interesting. If I used this, I would keep the thin glass with the grid lines as is and replace the Fresnel with the new Satinglass ground glass (with the frosted sied forward)? Would this have any improvement in focusing by eliminating the groves of the Fresnel that sometimes I seem to see as a little interference when I focus with my 5X loupe. I guess I can try it and find out, but maybe someone else has done this. I would, I suppose, loose the brightening capabilities of the Fresnel.

[John Cook]

Just for general information on the subject, Beattie Intenscreen website has a dandy 2-page pdf file on installation of these products, complete with diagrams:


http://www.intenscreen.com/pdf/INSTALLATION_GUIDE_FORVIEW_CAMERAS.pdf