Replacing Ebony Cover glass

[chacabuco]

Is it possible to replace the glass that protects the fresnel on an Ebony sv45 with a cut piece of plexi or generic glass? Is there anything unique about the ebony protective glass besides the price?

Rob

[Jeffrey Sipress]

I doubt it is special in any way. Mine is nicely smoothed around the edges. Maybe a piece of TrueView glass, but it must be the correct thickness.

[Drew Wiley]

I got rid of the whole business and put in Satin Snow glass without the fresnel. It
works so much better without it. One of the few things I seriously dislike about the Ebony is their standard groundglass setup. A Sinar groundglass will almost fit too; you just need to polish about 1/16" off the width.

[chacabuco]

Thanks for the replies.

Drew, what is it specifically that you don't like about the ebony fresnel/glass setup? When you replaced it with the satin snow ground glass, did you just add some shims to the back?

[BradS]

I have to agree...the focusing screen is the one thing I do not like about the Ebony.

I replaced the stock Ebony glass & plastic sandwich with a Satin Snow too. No need to shim....at least on the Ebony I have, the original glass is just plain, clear glass and so the plastic thingy is both fresnel and ground glass.

[Jack Dahlgren]

Thanks for the replies.

Drew, what is it specifically that you don't like about the ebony fresnel/glass setup? When you replaced it with the satin snow ground glass, did you just add some shims to the back?

Yes, what is it you don't like about it?

[Drew Wiley]

Rob - no shims. I just find it much easier to do critical focusing upon the glass itself
without the fresnel, even with a wide-angle lens in place. I believe Satin Snow is
no longer available, but a search on this forum should yield alternate solutions. My
biggest problem with the original sandwich of fresnel and glass was that it was prone to condensation between the elements. There are answers to this as well,
which involve replacing it with a sealed system. If you choose plastic for the back
piece as well, just remember that ordinary acrylic isn't really dimensionally stable - it bows a little with temp and humidity changes. You can get a scratch-resistant variety, but it's expensive and slightly difficult to find.

[Brian Ellis]

Thanks for the replies.

Drew, what is it specifically that you don't like about the ebony fresnel/glass setup? When you replaced it with the satin snow ground glass, did you just add some shims to the back?

I owned two Ebony cameras and agree with Drew that the viewing screen was not one of their strong points. The specific problem was that the Fresnel was coarse and so not as easy to focus as other Fresnels I've used such as the Maxwell screen I used on other cameras (at a significant cost) or even the Fresnel screen on my Tachiharas. I've used a lot of different viewing screens, ranging from the BosScreen (unfortunately no longer available) to Maxwell to Beattie to Fresnels that were OE on several different cameras to plain ground glass. The Ebony screen was probably the worst of the bunch, followed by the plain ground glass on a Linhof Technikardan. Maxwell was the best and BosScreen was the second-best. I never used Satin Snow though everyone who uses them seems to like them. All of this is IMHO of course.

[Keith Pitman]

Rob,

Check this: http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/ZN1031/

You should make sure that this glass or any other is the correct dimension, including thickness.

[Sideshow Bob]

Keith,

Why would thickness matter? The focus is on the etched side of the glass which is towards the lens.

Gale

[Keith Pitman]

Keith,

Why would thickness matter? The focus is on the etched side of the glass which is towards the lens.

Gale

The cover glass still needs to fit into the depth of the space, preferably with the original screws. Usually the cover glass is quite thin; a piece of "single strength" glass could extend beyond the back of the viewing frame.

[Steve Hamley]

There's plenty of room for the cover glass. Remember the Ebony wide angle fresnel is a supplemental fresnel that goes on top of the existing fresnel. So there's room for two fresnels and a cover glass in the frame.

Cheers, Steve