ARCA viewing belows

[Mattg]

I think these will be a good solution for me on a 6x9 F-line. I plan to use them without the binocular viewer and just use my normal loupe.

Is it easy to hold them at the rear if you don't use the eye cup or magnifier?

Does anyone have a picture of the rear of the bellows?

Any other general comments?

Thanks very much, Matt.

[Atul Mohidekar]

I think these will be a good solution for me on a 6x9 F-line. I plan to use them without the binocular viewer and just use my normal loupe.

Any other general comments?

Hi Matt,

Any particular reason you don't want to use the binocular viewer? I'm just curious.


// Atul

[Mattg]

Hi Atul,
5 reasons that might help other users give comments too:

1. Reflex viewer is too bulky.

2. Bellows will allow viewing even with large shifts.

3. Bellows (without magnifier) is half the price of the reflex viewer.

4. I will leave it attached in transit to provide some protection to the ground glass.

5. I will use a loupe for focus anyway, no need to remove the bellows to focus.

Regards, Matt.

P.S. I also like the abstracted, upside-down and back-to-front image for composition.

[evan clarke]

You still need to loupe it after focusing with the viewer. It IS really bulky and I just don't use mine anymore...EC

[Walter Calahan]

I have one, but don't use it much. Helpful when weather conditions or unusual situations aren't good for a traditional dark cloth. As others have said, you still need a loupe.

[Mattg]

Thanks Walter,
as you can see one of the reasons I want the bellows is so I can use a loupe, I don't think the view with the reflex viewer is good enough for me to focus.

Can you answer my original question; How easy is it to hold the rear of the bellows? Is there a frame there? How will it go protecting the ground glass if I leave it on during transport?

Thanks again, Matt.

[Mattg]

Sorry Atul,
I think I misread your post. The reasons not to use the binocular viewer on the viewing bellows are again, cost, bulk and insufficient magnification for focussing. Are they any different in magnification than the set fitted to the reflex finder?

Thanks, Matt.

[Atul Mohidekar]

Hi Matt,

I'm not sure I undestand your question.

The bino viewer is equivalent to about 3x loupe. It is light but quite bulky. Recently I have been using a waist pouch to carry the bino viewer instead of putting it in the backpack. This saves a lot of space in the backpack. Sometimes I just use a 4x loupe directly on the ground glass, for critical focusing, without a dark cloth. I have also tried 6x loupe, but that just maginfies too much grain of the GG. The bino viewer does free up both hands while viewing and focusing.


// Atul

[Mattg]

Is it easy to hold them at the rear if you don't use the eye cup or magnifier?

Does anyone have a picture of the rear of the bellows?

Can anyone help me with either of these two questions I asked in the first post? Please.