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Thread: fresnel lens

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Sep 2001
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    15

    fresnel lens

    I recently purchased a Zone VI 4x5 and it has no fresnel, what do I need and whe re should I get it? j zarick cinn ohio

  2. #2
    Robert A. Zeichner's Avatar
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    Feb 1999
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    Southfield, Michigan
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    1,129

    fresnel lens

    I would recommend spending your money on a good focusing cloth and a quality 4x or 6x loupe. While a Fresnel screen will brighten the overall image on the ground glass, it many times will not do so evenly. The concentric line pattern can often be confusing to some and interfere with accurate focusing as well. If you feel compelled to buy a Fresnel anyway, get an after market type that fits between the gg and your eyes. that way you won't run into gg/film plane alignment problems and you can also remove the screen if you decide you don't like it! Or, you can visit some of the threads on this forum that discuss other types of quality ground glass screens that others have used and investigate those. Boss and Maxwell screens come to mind, but again, others have posted specific comments on these. Good luck.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Apr 2000
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    166

    fresnel lens

    Another vote for no fresnal. Just had a student take a view camera workshop this past week, and I found the fresnal screen in his camera just as annoying as I remember them. A well made hood-style focusing cloth and a plain ground glass is the way to

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Sep 1999
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    449

    fresnel lens

    You guys may have Superman vision, but I can't see to use a GG without a Fresnel screen. The best solution is to install one of the "bright screens" incorporating a Fresnel, such as Beattie, Maxwell, or Linhof's Super Screen which is sold cheap by midwest Photo (check the archives for their addresses). The other option, nearly as good and quite inexpensive, is to buy a Fresnel at an art supply story (or Barnes & Noble) and cut it to fit your 4x5 GG. As far as I am concerned using a GG without a Fresnel is medieval, akin to wearing a photographic hair shirt.

  5. #5

    fresnel lens

    Try the camera without a fresnel for a while. You may come to like a plain gg better. I used to think I needed a fresnel. After I worked without one for a month, I came to like the plain glass better. Now, I avoid cameras with permanetly installed fresnels. I hate fresnels.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Dec 1999
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    Forest Grove, Ore.
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    4,675

    fresnel lens

    If you decide to try a fresnel, mount it so that the ground glass is between the fresnel lens and the camera lens.

    There are exceptions, where the camera is designed to place the fresnel between the ground glass and the camera lens, but I'm pretty sure that this isn't the case with the Zone VI.

  7. #7

    fresnel lens

    I use Beatties on all my cameras and like them alot. They have gotten me out of jams in low light shooting MANY times. Highly recommend them. Cheers

  8. #8
    Octogenarian
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    Re: fresnel lens

    You realize that you are responding to a thread that is 11 years old?

    Check the date.

  9. #9
    8x10, 5x7, 4x5, et al Leigh's Avatar
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    Re: fresnel lens

    Quote Originally Posted by Gem Singer View Post
    You realize that you are responding to a thread that is 11 years old?
    Interesting conundrum...

    We admonish newbies to "check the archives" for relevant posts.

    Yet when they find one and respond to it, we chastise them for doing so.

    And if they start a new thread on that subject, they're chastised for bring up something that's in the archives.

    So what exactly are they supposed to do?

    - Leigh
    If you believe you can, or you believe you can't... you're right.

  10. #10
    Octogenarian
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    Sep 2003
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    Re: fresnel lens

    Leigh,

    I wasn't chastising the poster.

    I was merely making him aware that he was responding to an eleven year old thread.

    So cool it already!

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