Trouble using loupe

[nimo956]

I just started getting into LF photography and am still learning how to use all of the equipment. I got a Fuji 4x Loupe and I can't for the life of me figure out how to use it. I can adjust the eyepiece every which way, but everything just looks blurry. For example, if I focus my 4x5 camera on a book, I can see through the ground glass that the words are pretty much in focus, but when I go to check through the loupe everything is blurry. Could the loupe be broken or is it something I'm doing wrong? Thanks.

[Nathan Potter]

You need to be sure that the loupe itself is focused on the lapped (ground) side of the viewing screen. Better loupes are focusable so check the Fuji 4X for variable focus.

If the loupe is properly focused you'll see the grains of ground glass in sharp relief through the loupe. The idea is to make your eye see the GG grains and the image from the lens both in sharp focus simultaneously.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Jon Shiu]

I'm not familiar with that loupe, but you might try reversing the loupe and holding it away from the glass a bit.

Jon

[sully75]

Yeah most loops are made to focus on the plane of the end of the barrel of the loupe.

Annoyingly, for a loupe to focus on the surface of the ground glass, it would need to be shorter. So...unless you can shorten the body, you can't use it in that direction.

You can get by this by flipping the loupe over so that the eye side goes towards the glass. Hold it loosely in the air and you can find the proper focus point. Pretty annoying but it works. If you have a gridded GG, you can find the proper distance by focusing on a grid line. Then adjust your focus.

Or just buy the right kind of loupe (haven't done this yet). Or go to Target and buy some cheap reading glasses. They work too. Or one of those flip up magnifying glasses, like machinists use.

[nimo956]

Yeah most loops are made to focus on the plane of the end of the barrel of the loupe.

Annoyingly, for a loupe to focus on the surface of the ground glass, it would need to be shorter. So...unless you can shorten the body, you can't use it in that direction.

You can get by this by flipping the loupe over so that the eye side goes towards the glass. Hold it loosely in the air and you can find the proper focus point. Pretty annoying but it works. If you have a gridded GG, you can find the proper distance by focusing on a grid line. Then adjust your focus.

Or just buy the right kind of loupe (haven't done this yet). Or go to Target and buy some cheap reading glasses. They work too. Or one of those flip up magnifying glasses, like machinists use.

Thank you, turning it around makes it work beautifully. The tricky part is just finding the proper distance away from the ground glass.

[sully75]

Yeah it's annoying. I've thought about putting it in a tube of some sort to get it to the right distance and then taping it but currently I'm still floating it in the air.