Ground glass and fresnel sources

[Brian Wallen]

Suggested sources for ground glass focusing panel for a Graphic 23. Bright but not obscenely expensive. Fresnel lenses of the same quality.

[IanG]

Recently I've begun making my own ground glass screens, it's far simpler than you'd assume, plenty of advice available online. I needed 5 screens from 9x12cmm to 10x8 so buying commercially made screens was going to be expensive.

I bought a fresnel from Globalmatters but I DON'T recommend dealing with them after my experiences last year.

Ian

[Steve Hamley]

Steve Hopf for the GG, he's "photofixation" on eBay. Great GG and great to do business with.

hopfsteve@gmail.com

Cheers, Steve

[Ken Lee]

Steve Hopf for the GG, he's "photofixation" on eBay. Great GG and great to do business with.

hopfsteve@gmail.com

Ditto

[John Schneider]

http://www.armourproducts.com/cat--Armour+Etch--Armour+Etch.html

WARNING: It's dangerous, expensive, requires some skill, and produces a bright uneven frosted surface on glass. Not recommended for everyone. Read the instructions on the product thoroughly before using..

Call me a sissy, but I'd really like to see the MSDS before using this -- sounds like there's hydrofluoric acid involved.

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

Regarding Fresnel lenses, Edmund optics has quite a large assortment on catalogue, but they are relatively expensive (well it depends what you call "expensive" !)
http://www.edmundoptics.com/onlinecatalog/displayproduct.cfm?productid=2040

I have found an A4-size Fresnel lens, f.l. = 310mm, for a few euros (4.90 !) here,
http://www.astromedia.de/shop/fresnellinsen.php
IMHO it would be a good Fresnel for a 8x10" camera but I'm not ready yet to "step-up" above 4x5" !!
Too bad that Astro Media, Germany does not have an A6 (105x148mm) Fresnel lens of 150 mm f.l. for 4x5" @ 2.99 euro !:D

post scriptum : the rule of thumb to choose your Fresnel lens is : surface covering your format and same focal length as the diagonal of your format, F/1 is something standard for a Fresnel lens@ 4.90 euro ;)
However they have a 100mm f.l. Fresnel with a diameter (durchmesser) of 108mm : the perfect match for a 6x9 camera, price is 2.30 euro !

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

As far as ground glasses are concerned, Geert van den Broek in Belgium seems to have temporarily (I hope : not forever) stoppped marketing his ground glasses.
http://www.sheetfilm.be/
Too bad since the assortement was large and the prices very affordable, in the 20-30 euro range for a 4x5 (quoting from memory), people on the French MF/LF group who managed to get one of Geert's GG's were happy.

[David Karp]

I also recommend Steve Hopf.

[photosailor]

Steve Hopf is the man. His prices are reasonable and he'll clip the corners, apply a grid, whatever you need. He also responds to email almost instantly.