do you use a loupe when focusing?

[John Kasaian]

Hugh,

I like using a loupe for "fine" focusing. Some time ago I did a loupe/no loupe comparison with 8x10, and IMHO there is no comparison. BTW I'm near-sighted, but with my big nose getting up close and personal with the gg is anatomically rediculous!------Cheers!

[neil poulsen]

For a long time, I used a cheap magnifier and thought I was doing OK. Then I purchased a good Rodenstock 4x aspheric loop, and it was night and day. Things focus so much better. They almost snap into place, when compared to my cheap magnifier.

Perhaps if one has excellent eyesight, one can get along without a loupe. But my experience is that, when I focus without a loupe, and then check the focus with the loupe, I'm usually way off.

[Andrew O'Neill]

When I focus the image on the gg by eye it always looks nice and sharp....until I move in close with a loupe! A loupe is absolutely necessary if your goal is sharp negatives with clear detail.

[Ole Tjugen]

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.

If I shoot 4x5 or smaller (9x12cm) I nearly always do, on 5x7" I sometimes don't bother if I intend the negative for contact printing. If I intend to shot wide open I do, if I stop down to f:64 I don't see the need for critical focus. If I hand-hold (9x12, sometimes 5x7") I don't, as I will probably add enough shake that it won't matter.

[Andre Noble]

I forget to bring a loupe a good 15% of the time, and always miss it.

[Philippe Gauthier]

Jon Shiu: If you are near sighted and are focusing without your glasses, you are indeed using a loupe. near sightedness allows you to focus your eye much closer to the object than someone with normal vision, which results in an effective higher magnification. I'm very myopic (-10 dioptry) and I often remove my glasses when I want to look to 35 mm slides and I don't have a loupe handy.

On the other hand, I always focus with a loupe on the ground glass, as I feel that the results are more convincing, more precise. As another user said, things seem to snap into focus. I wish I was using a better loupe, however.

[Jan Pietrzak]

Hugh,

Dan, is on the right track. I have lost more loupes than can think of. About 3 years ago a friend was reading a book and had these flip up magnafier lenses on. She does alot of birding and has no time to change glasses. She told me that she got them at a sporting goods store, in the fly fishing section.

Dan this is the best part they clip onto your glasses, flip up and down when needed or not. They come in +1.0 to +4.0 correction and cost only $10.00 bucks. I have several pair of them in places like the darkroom, camera cases, flatfile work table for spotting. These are the best things I ever bought and used. For me they work better than a loupe.

Jan

[lee\c]

with my eyes, it is essential for good focus. I use the Toyo 4x loupe.

leec

[Michael E. Gordon]

I'm young (I'm told) and have perfect eyesight. I use a loupe - always. I cannot imagine NOT using one. We shoot 4x5 or larger because we tend to be perfectionists and sticklers for quality. How can one not loupe the glass to ensure perfect sharpness (where ddesired) before firing the shutter?

Perhaps it is choice of subject matter, but there is now way I can envision not louping my work before exposing.

[Colin Carron]

My eyes are now middle aged and they also suffer from macular degeneration - nothing too serious as yet but it certainly takes the edge off fine vision. I always use a 50mm standard lens off a old Practika as a loupe and would not get very close to a decent focus without it. - Colin