In Praise of the Maxwell Screen

[Brian Ellis]

"Just curious what the price is for a 4x5 screen?"

I believe my 4x5 screen purchased about ten months ago was around $250.

[Peter Collins]

Gulp, gag, splutter, Mr. Ellis! $250!! I will up and go to my basement, but not to the darkroom. Instead I will master the art of making copies of $100 bills....

[bglick]

I tried one for my VX125, but the factory fresnel was equally as good, or better. Of course you can't tell Bill Maxwell this, or he will explain why you are wrong? But he does offer refunds, which he did on time...

[Bernard Languillier]

Another vote for Maxwell sceens! :-)

I have been using one on my Ebony 45SU for some time, with assymetrical tilt and roll film back markings on, and it is a joy to use!

My lens set-up goes from Schneider 58 mm to Nikon 300 f9, and it covers the whole range.

It is still a bit dark with the 58 mm when shooting in EV7-8 conditions (like I did this past weekend), but is is definitely usable and I believe that no other screen would do better.

I find them to be significantly better than the original Ebony screen with Fresnel. I'll show it to the Ebony guys next time I meet up with them in Tokyo.

Highly Recommended as far as I am concerned.

Regards,
Bernard

[Brian Sims]

This is the first time I've seen such a strong consensus on a product recommendation. Usually there is a raging battle over competing brands (perhaps that is partially due to a certain argumentative characteristic of the "dominant demographic" of this group). Whatever the cause, I would like to propose a new use for this group forum: Anytime there is this kind of consensus on a product, one of us members offers to negotiate a group purchase discount. For example, if we can deliver a list of 20-30 orders we would get a 15-20% discount. A number of details would have to be worked out for this to work for us and for the vendors. I am not suggesting something a formal as a buying club--just a process of delivering a bunch of customers to a vendor in exchange for a good deal. What do you think?

[Matt Clara]

www.mattclara.com/maxwell

unfortunately, he changes his prices often enough I couldn't keep up with him, so I simply removed prices from the listing. My observations have been, for 35mm, his screens are brighter, but so smooth that focusing on fine detail can be difficult; for medium-format, I was amazed at the difference just having my RB67 screen enhanced, and my Rollei 6008i screen is a real beauty, too, though not a lot better than the screen that came with the Rollei; for large-format I see a difference, but I'm not blown away by it. Then again, I am a large-format newbie, and hate how difficult it is to compose and focus on _any_ screen.

[John Brownlow]

I ordered a pair of screens from Bill in Novemeber... one for my SL66 and one for the Master Technika... found him very affable and easy to deal with and much less verbose than I had been led to believe. The screens took a bit longer to arrive than he indicated... 2-3 weeks turned into 2 months but then again there was the Xmas holiday in between. Anyhoo, I was just going to pick up the phone and hurry them along when they arrived in the mail, exquisitely packed and presented.

I fit them both easily. The 4x5 one came with extra hardware to fit it to the Linhof back, very nicely thought out.

As to the screens, both times I finally looked through them I literally exclaimed out loud 'holy shit!' because they are *so* bright... I'd say a good 2 to 2.5 stops improvement. They are very, very easy to focus with.

The only issue I have at all is with the fresnel on the 4x5 one which leads to a slight doubling of the image at the edges when I am using a 90mm lens. I know he has a 'wideangle' fresnel available for the 4x5 so I expect the 90 is on the cusp for this screen. It is not at all problematic in terms of using the screen though.

They are expensive but probably the most significant upgrade I have ever made to a camera. Highly recommended.

[Torsten]

Hi, I still have a basic question: do you speak about the groundglas itself or do you speak about the Fresnel? Which one delivers the big improvement?

Torsten

[Sal Santamaura]

Hi, I still have a basic question: do you speak about the groundglas itself or do you speak about the Fresnel? Which one delivers the big improvement?

Torsten

4x5 Maxwell screens discussed in this thread, as well as Bill's 5x7 screen, are acrylic combination devices with a frosted surface facing the lens and fresnel rings facing the photographer's eyes. There's a cover glass between the screen and photographer, either plain or with markings on it.

For 8x10, Bill doesn't feel acrylic can stay flat enough without support, so he sells only a fresnel. One can either place it between an actual sheet of ground glass and the photographer's eyes or between the lens and the ground glass. In the latter case, one must mill out the camera back to maintain proper focus registration. Advantage of the former configuration is that no camera modification is necessary, save bending a few clips. However, the (smooth) acrylic surface is then exposed to damage from loupes and other impact/scratching.

On axis, using a Pentax digital spot meter, I've measure a brightness difference of 1/3 stop between the 4x5 Maxwell screen (Hi Lux 4.7) and a combination of 8x10 Satin Snow glass + Maxwell Fresnel 10.5. The smaller screen was brighter.

[Torsten]

Hi , very interesting to read your posting!

Bill explained me that there is also a special ground glas treated with the HiLux procedure. He also told me, that this gg enhances by a coefficient 10 the transparency, but does not facilitate the viewing (it becomes more angle dependent if I understood him well). What would in your opinion be the best solution?

I have a Canham with it's traditional groundglas.

cheers

Torsten