To hood or not to hood

**Steve Feldman** · 31-Oct-2005, 10:46

I have a great old Burke & James 4x5 / 5x7 wood view. I’m very pleased with the performance of this 55 year old beastie. Except for the hood on the 4x5 gg. The hood is in great condition but won’t stay open on its own. I still need a dark cloth plus getting a loop, my hand and my eye inside gets kinda crowded. Also, when the camera is folded up, the folded hood is too thick to permit the hook latch to hold the camera together.

So I’m thinking of removing the hood.

Any experience or opinions out there with this?

Thanks in advance.

**robc** · 31-Oct-2005, 11:36

I would have thought that there must be a way to fix the hood.

A reflex viewer?

Another way is to make a dark cloth funnel/cone one end which is big enough to fit over the camera back and is elasticated. The other end fits over your loupe in the same way. This allows you to move the loupe around the whole of the GG whilst keeping other light off the back. Its small, cheap and light weight.

Linhof sell them for their cameras but making your own should be simple.

**Oren Grad** · 31-Oct-2005, 11:40

I used to have a 5x7 B&J, but on mine the hood wouldn't stay closed. In any case, like most other built-in hoods on view cameras, it just got in the way, and I took it off and used a BTZS hood instead.