Slide loupe as focusing loupe?

[Padu Merloti]

I've been reading a few posts here about which focusing loupe to buy and I got confused.

I learned that horseman, toyo and wista are some of the best focusing aids around, but I also found some people saying that regular negative loupes work good as a focusing aid. Is that so? I had the impression that a focusing loupe had an offset for the focus point in order to account for the glass thickness.

I know you get what you pay for, but I guess my question is if using a cheap (around $20 bucks) loupe is better than no loupe at all?

[naturephoto1]

Some may argue, in part due to the size/dimensions, but I have found the square based Horizon 4X Loupe (allows viewing GG corners) to make a very fine GG Loupe and have compared it against other Loupes over at APUG. Do a search at APUG for the testing. Use the Black Skirt instead of the clear for the GG. The optics are very good, though it is about $43 from B&H Photo:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=Search&A=details&Q=&sku=22291&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

[Ed Richards]

Richard,

This looks like a good device - is there enough adjustment to get it to focus on the image behind the gg and still have a little room to adjust for old tired eyes?

[Padu Merloti]

would this be similar?
Peak 8x Loupe from BH for $29.95 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=987&A=details&Q=&sku=40713&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation)

[Scott --]

My kids lost my loupe. My four year old daughter likes to wear it as a necklace. Until I find, or replace, it, I'm using an inverted 55/1.8 Super Tak to check focus. YMMV, FWIW, yada yada. :p

[naturephoto1]

Hi Ed and Padu,

There is plenty of adjustment on the Horizon to adjust for +/- focus and your eyes at the film plane on a lightbox or the GG. Bogen Imaging used to distribute the Horizon Loupes. My friends there indicated that the Loupe which is made in Russia is supposed to be made from optics made by Zeiss Jena. Based on sharpness and performance of my Loupe I would not doubt it. I found that the Loupe on the GG because of its field of View and Sharpness appeared to be better and performed better than my older Rodenstock 4X Loupe and my Fuji Professional 4X Loupe. It seemed to be very close to the performance of my very expensive 5X Leica Loupe.

I suspect that the optics and performance of the Horizon will be far better than the 8X Loupe that you have referenced. That particular Loupe from my understanding is not that sharp.

I also found that as much as 6X or 7X was about the maximum comfortable limit of magnification that I found with my Linhof Technikardan 45S with the original GG or the Satin Snow replacement with or without the Linhof Fresnel (beyond picks up too much GG grain) with a variety of lenses including my Rodenstock f6.8 90mm Grandagon N MC, Rodenstock f5.6 Apo Sironar S, my Rodenstock f9.0 Apo Ronar 240mm MC, and my Rodenstock f9.0 Apo Ronar 300mm MC.

The 4X Horizon Loupe appears to be a very very good comprimise for magnification, light transmission, field of view, and extreme sharpness across the GG.

Rich

[Dave Parker]

I use a finger print loupe that I bought at a police garage sale, good glass, highly corrected and I paid $10 bucks for it, they no longer required it because they had changed to a digital finger printing system, was made by Rodenstock and it about the best I have ever looked through.

Dave

[Brian Ellis]

I don't think you need anything special in a loupe that's used only for fine focusing on a ground glass. Some people use 50mm lenses from their 35mm cameras as loupes, some use reading glasses bought at a drugstore, some use a plain magnifying glass, others use all sorts of different things. The expensive loupes (e.g. $50 and up) are loupes mostly designed for viewing slides on a light box. Since color accuracy, among other things, is important for that use those loupes tend to be expensive. But I think that when using a loupe on the viewing screen of a LF camera all you're doing is magnifying what you see without a loupe. You shouldn't need a finely made optical instrument to do that.

I like the square loupes just because they make it easy to use along the edges of the screen and in the corners (if you don't have cut-out corners). I don't exactly understand what you mean by "I had the impression that a focusing loupe had an offset for the focus point in order to account for the glass thickness." I think that all the loupe does is magnify that which you can already see on the screen, so I don't know offhand why the loupe would need to offset anything to account for the glass thickness. But then I'm far from being a loupe expert.

[Dave Parker]

The image is formed on the ground side of the screen, thickness of glass makes no difference at all in fine focus, if you have 1 inch thick piece of glass, as long as the ground side of the glass in in the right position, you should be able to fine focus with just about any magnifying glass, as long as the ground glass you are using, at least transmits a clear image to focus on.

Dave

[Amund BLix Aaeng]

would this be similar?
Peak 8x Loupe from BH for $29.95 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=987&A=details&Q=&sku=40713&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation)

I use the 4x versjon, works great.

[Glenn Thoreson]

I use anything that will magnify. Old lens elements, linen tester, anything. I don't see that it makes any difference what it is.

[Anupam]

I use a 50mm reversed enlarger lens. I cut out the base of a kodak 35mm canister and taped it to the lens so I have a shaded tunnel between the GG and the lens. Works great even without the darkcloth in most situations. I much prefer this to the couple of commercially available loupes I have used.

-Anupam

[gregstidham]

The 4x Peak loupe works fine for me also.

Has anyone used the Ebony loupe? It looks kind of nice and I was thinking of getting one.

[Alan Davenport]

I don't think it makes any difference what the provenance of a loupe is. If it can be focused on the groundglass image, it will work.

[Rakesh Malik]

The 4x Peak loupe works fine for me also.

Has anyone used the Ebony loupe? It looks kind of nice and I was thinking of getting one.

I just got one, for that reason. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I probably will this weekend. I got a little tired of all the smudges my Toyo loupe was leaving on my groundglass, so I decided to try out the Ebony finally. I'll let you know how it goes afterwards.

[David Crossley]

Rodenstock 4x slide loupe works reasonably well. Extremely sharp, yet unwieldy and fogged up easily on colder days (stubby), so i never felt confident it would hold up well long term.

Picked up both a Toyo and a Silvestri tilting loupe. Bought the Toyo used (for a song), and for my method of field work i find it's rugged mix of simplicity and precision perfect.


David Crossley/Crossley Photography....

[Rakesh Malik]

I had a chance to try out the Ebony loupe this weekend... and I was pleasantly surprised. It took some getting used to, since you have to focus it, but by resting my hand on the frame of the camera near the part of the GG I was looking at, I was able to keep it stable. Its field of view is big, so it's easy to see into the corners, and it's also easy to change your angle of view for maximum brightness.

Though I've only tried it for one shot so far, and I'm not quite ready to retire the Toyo loupe yet, so far I'm liking the Ebony.

[Padu Merloti]

just bought a 4x peak loupe. tested only on a lightbox and I liked it. let's see how it goes on the GG.

the things I liked: square skirt, additional black skirt, mounting poles for a lanyard

didn't like: plastic skirt may scratch GG, I'll see what I can do about it.

[naturephoto1]

Hi Padu,

The plastic skirt of the focusing loupe should not be able to sctatch a glass GG. If the GG is plastic or it is placed on a Fresnel lens, that is another question.

Rich

[Rob_5419]

In the massive rush to off-load vintage plate camera gear, years ago I found a 4 inch Dallmeyer anastigmat enlarging lens. I've been using the lens as a lupe - works very well off the focussing screen hovering by about 2 centimetres. It cost around £0.50 and offers as flat a magnifying field as a modern day Schneider lupe costing 1600% more.

The beauty of this £0.50 lupe is that the rear element of the Dallmeyer (around 5 coins thick) unscrews and can be used to give higher magnification - around x5 when travelling this is the easiest lupe to carry for size and weight. One advantage of using a skirtless lupe is that the groundglass screen is not scratched by the plastic skirt.

[Matus Kalisky]

would this be similar?
Peak 8x Loupe from BH for $29.95 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=987&A=details&Q=&sku=40713&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation)

I have the peak 8x and do not like it too much. It is far from being sharp up to the corners. It is very low and also pretty dark (probably because it is 8x) I am considering to get a different loupe, so I also find this thread interesting. I am looking for ~ 4 - 6x with higher eye relief. I have tryed the Rondenstock 4x and at leas on the light table it is perfectly sharp and bright.

Matus.