Surgical Loupes

[George Stewart]

Has anyone has ever used a pair of surgical loupes to focus a view camera? I have often found that holding a loupe with one hand and making adjustments with the other to be difficult. Some times I find myself using poor technique - foregoing the loupe in exchange for just one more stop. Although very expensive, this device might be the ticket. It appears that a pair would perform like super bifocals - a slight tilt of the head and one would go from full screen view to (for example) a 25mm spot at 4x from a distance 8 or more inches. Thoughts/suggestions?

[Jeffrey Sipress]

I rarely use a loupe for focusing on the GG. I use an Optivisor, which keeps both hands free to work the camera. And, it allows me to keep both eyes open, to deter fatigue. Now I can't imagine trying to work all the movements and focusing mechanisms with one hand. Often, however, I must concentrate on just one eyes vision, as fresnels usually darken half the glass image at close range. My Optivisor lensplate is a #10, which nearly equals a 4x loupe. Yes, it is a bit larger to carry than a loupe, but well worth it.

http://xtronics.com/optivisor.htm

[Eric Woodbury]

I have a pair of high strength drug story reading glasses that I use. Works fairly well. I thought about getting a jeweler's loupe with one of those flip down magnifiers that attaches to your glasses. Anybody tried that? A loupe on the glass has never worked for me. I see the grain and not the image. Especially with wide angle off axis images.

[Richard Wasserman]

I use a flip down magnifier that clips on my glasses and like it MUCH better than a hand held loupe. I like having both hands free and it is easy to look at the groundglass from various angles which helps focusing with wide angle lenses. It magnifies 3.7 times and is very easy to use.

[Steve Clark]

Recently, I found at a hobby shop, a magnifier that clips on to the brim of a hat. Not sure right now, but it may be called a "Hatvisor". They come in different diopter strengths and are quite adjustable and comfortable to work with. Seems to me it was about $18.00 USD.

[paulr]

Jock Sturgess has custom trifocals ... regular old man glasses, plus an 8x loupe at the very bottom for focussing in a hurry.

[Alec Jones]

For those with glasses, I too recommend the flip-down loupe which attaches to the frame.

Here's a good source: http://www.behrloupes.com/

[jonathan smith]

I'm having a separate pair of eyeglasses made for this - stronger than reading glasses.

[Bruce Watson]

I've been wearing glasses for 40 years or more, and therefore have a pretty good understanding of what's available. I got my optometrist to prescribe glasses (that correct my astigmatism) that give me about 2x magnification and let me focus in the 5-7 inches range (this is considerably stronger than the strongest available "drugstore" reading glasses). Using these, I can see the entire 5x4 ground glass, but not much more. Excellent for composition and rough focus.

Then, I got a 3x clip-on jeweler's loupe. This I can flip in and out of my field of vision. Since magnifications add, I get about 5x from the pair, which is excellent for fine focus, even with my 80mm SS-XL.

It all works hands free, and the weight is small as well. So... this works for me. YMMV.

[Ben Crane]

I have a pair of custom made surgical loupes that I use for my day job (yes, I'm a surgeon). I have used them for spotting prints, but I find that they are not very useful for focusing the ground glass. Mine are designed for a working distance of about 18 inches which for me is too far from the ground glass, even though it is the perfect distance for doing most fine work by hand. If you tried to use them at 8 inches for the ground glass everything is out of focus. Each pair is custom made so I suppose you could ask them to make them focus at 8 inches if preferred. I also would find it a hassel to get them out of their protective case and put them on each time I wanted to set up a shot. I would not feel comfortable wearing them all the time because I feel they would interfere with visualizing compositions in addition to being fairly heavy and unfashionable. The cost of surgical loupes is also very high compared with a lot of other more reasonable options suggested here. The lower end 2.5x models cost about $1,500, with costs increasing to the $5,000 range for more magnification depending on the size of the field.