Silvestri Tilting Loupe

[Mattg]

I need some advice from people who have used this loupe.

1. What is the base made from, is it likely to scratch my cover glass?

2. How large is the base, will I be able to get into the corners of a 6x9 screen with it?

Any other comments from people who have used one would be appreciated.

Thanks, Matt.

[Capocheny]

Matt,

I sold my Sylvestri loupe back a short while ago... didn't like it because I always found it too small for my hands.

The base will scratch your ground glass over a bit of time but this is easily resolved by attaching a small piece of felt to the bottom. Easy to do with the self-sticking type that you can find at an office supply shop.

I used my loupe on a 4x5 so I can't answer your question with respects to 6x9. The base is maybe about 3/4" long by 1/2" wide. Not overly huge.

Eventually, I settled on one of the Horseman loupes and love it!

Of course, with most of this type of accessory... YMMV.

Cheers

[Mattg]

Eventually, I settled on one of the Horseman loupes and love it!

Of course, with most of this type of accessory... YMMV.

Cheers

How does your Horseman loupe go when it needs to be tilted due to large shifts? Can you tell me which model it is.

Thanks again, Matt.

[Arthur Nichols]

I have a Silvestri tilting Loupe and I removed it from the base. I focus it by moving it in and out from the ground glass. It never touches it. I did not like the base, it seemd to flop around a lot, and even when I put it into the corners, the lopue was still focused on a point inside of the corner. By holding the loupe in the air I can see right out to the corner.

[Frank Petronio]

So wouldn't you be able to do this with anything you remove the base from? Like a $10 linen tester?

[Leonard Evens]

I used a variety of magnifiers with my Horseman 980 6 x 9 camera. conceptually I approached the problem from the perspective of using a 6 x 6 TLR camera with the focusing magnifier over its gg. This is perhaps more appropriate than thinking of it as a scaled down 4 x 5.

The Horseman has a focusing hood, and I fitted a large field magnifier of about 3 to 4 times power to a aluminum sheet which fit just over the hood. With that, extraneous light was blocked, I was at the right distance, and I could see the entire frame. I also had a 10 X magnifier which I hand held a small distance away from the gg with the hood up. I think that loupes designed for 4 x 5 cameras won't work too well with the smaller screen. Using a fresnel screen helps because of a brighter image on the edges and corners.

You can't expect to see as much fine detail with a 6 x 9 screen, and it is harder to use focus spread methods because of the typically smaller movements involved. But in some 30 years of use, only rarely did I find that I had not focused properly.

[Ron Marshall]

I found that I rarely tilted mine so I removed the base by unscrewing it. There is an supplied tube that screws on in place of the tilting-base. I am happy with it, but have not tried any other loupes, and have only used it on 4x5 and 5x7.

[Kevin Crisp]

I am in total agreement with Ron. I use the round tube, it has not left marks on the ground glass that won't wipe off. It is a sharp, bright loupe. From camera to camera I do need to refocus it as the exact distance to the ground glass varies. My only other loupe (other than the $5 Edmunds plastic ones, which do focus and get the job done, though the image is not sharp edge to edge) is the fixed Toyo one which works great and is inexpensive as long as the fixed distance (it does not focus) works with your eyes. As I needed reading glasses I found the Toyo wouldn't work without holding it off the ground glass and I sold that one.

[Capocheny]

How does your Horseman loupe go when it needs to be tilted due to large shifts? Can you tell me which model it is.

Thanks again, Matt.

Hi Matt,

It's the Horseman 7x... sort of looks like the Toyo version but is a bit longer.

I just tilt the loupe at an angle and have found it worked for me. Now that I'm shooting 8x10... it's even easier to use.

As some of the other fellows have said... you can remove the base if you don't like it. I still found the loupe too small for my tastes. But, again, everyone is different in what they like and don't like. It's all very individualistic when it comes to accessories like this.

Kind of like a dark cloth - some people like them long and wide, weighted, non-weighted, this fabric or that fabric, light, etc...

Cheers

[Mattg]

Yes I use the Toyo loupe now but would like more magnification, espeially for night work, otherwise I'm happy with it. Ideally I'd like one that gets very close to the glass and has a mag ratio of 7x. I'll keep looking but won't discount the silvestri if I can get it at a good price.