Kodak Master View 8X10 & 5X7 GG WAS Made HOW?

[Tin Can]

Examining these 2 GG it's obvious they are not Ground Glass nor Etched Glass.

They seem to be a coating or emulsion, applied very accurately with Silk Screen? It stands above the glass.

The coating is delicate, with fine, clear glass format shapes, delineated. It can be scratched off. Somebody, not I, did that to the 5X7 on an edge. Annoying but inconsequential. Perhaps another curious person.

They are also the most translucent 'GG' I have seen. Way more translucent that a Satin Snow, Linhof, Horseman, Steve Hopf Ground Glass and anything else I have examined. I do notice Steve Hopf now offers 'Ultra Fine' but I have not seen one. Also better than my own fine grind GG.

Light transmission is much higher, but not formally tested, thus unproven. I hold them up to a 10 ft away bare light bulb and the bulb shape is clearly seen. None of the above listed do that. Even without backlighting I can see the lens inside the folded camera.

I assume there is no way to clean this coating and these 'GG' don't need it. The flat outside glass side is normal and cleanable.

Anybody know the history and how they were made?

Any other GG made this way?

[Jac@stafford.net]

Randy, I once received a ground glass that was actually window glass coated with hair spray.
Might you have the same?
.

[Tin Can]

Randy, I once received a ground glass that was actually window glass coated with hair spray.
Might you have the same?
.

This is factory finished and very well done.

[Mark Sampson]

For many years I used, and then owned, an 8x10 Kodak Master camera. I liked its groundglass with those proportion lines on it, although I didn't find it notably superior in brightness to anything else. Never thought to wonder how it was made, either. I will say, from working there for so long, that the Kodak optics people were capable of some pretty spectacular and innovative work... certainly in the 1950s when those cameras were in production. Sorry not to be more help, but the camera (and its original GG) went to a forum member about five years back.

[Jim Noel]

Randy, I don't know what it is, but would sure like to have its' brother.

[Tin Can]

For many years I used, and then owned, an 8x10 Kodak Master camera. I liked its groundglass with those proportion lines on it, although I didn't find it notably superior in brightness to anything else. Never thought to wonder how it was made, either. I will say, from working there for so long, that the Kodak optics people were capable of some pretty spectacular and innovative work... certainly in the 1950s when those cameras were in production. Sorry not to be more help, but the camera (and its original GG) went to a forum member about five years back.

The KMV is a superb design and execution. A big company with top notch R&D can produce some unique solutions. The KMV has them.

I only wonder where all the lens boards went...

No problem!

[Tin Can]

Years ago when I was making parts for these cameras I looked for ways to duplicate the original ground glass. I found a company that makes a spray for applying to glass that is actually ground glass in a liquid medium. I never got around to testing it, but I have the sample quart they sent me somewhere buried in my house.

I just tried to photograph it. I need a microscope.

I see no grain or ground up glass. It is very precisely applied.

Here's a cell phone snap of the clear glass lines.

KMV GG by moe.randy, on Flickr

[Patrick13]

There also used to be lightly applied treatments of shellac or wax on a ground glass base which made the central view brighter at the expense of off-axis.
To me this looks like a masked glass with misted coating sprayed on, then the mask pulled away. The coating could be finely ground glass, anything translucent really.

[Tin Can]

Maybe somebody will have more detail.

I love the clear lines vs black grids.

[Alan Gales]

I love the clear lines vs black grids.

Yeah, I don't own a Kodak Master but the ground glass sure looks nice! I wish I had one for my Wehman.