broken ground glass: tape repair while waiting for a new one?

[E S]

Hi all,

I just discovered (naturally, at the start of a 4-day weekend that I had intended to use for photography!) that I have broken the ground glass for my CC400 4x5 camera. It broke into three main pieces with a couple chips out of one end where the pressure was applied while it was in storage.

I am about to order two replacements, so that I'll have a spare, but it may take a while for them to hit my mailbox.

In the meantime, if I use that "invisible" scotch tape to hold the pieces together, will it still work? Or will the focusing plane be totally off? Yes, I do plan to put the camera together and look through it, maybe even use a sheet of film to test it, but I thought I'd see what the experts had to say first.

Thanks to all!

Elizabeth
who is finally developing the film from November's trip to Scotland...

[Mark Sawyer]

If it flexes off the film plane, you have a problem. You might try Super-Glue and tape to see if it's more rigid.

A piece of 4x5 normal glass sprayed with glass frosting (all from the hardware store) will make a decent enough gg to get by on til the new one comes in.

[Ari]

You can get by with the Scotch tape.
I have my 8x10 glass taped up that way for now.
To tape it, rest it on a hard flat surface, and use tape on both sides; that way you'll minimize any film plane problems.
It won't be pretty, but it's better than not having one.

[engl]

The tape itself can actually be used as the "ground" (diffusing) part of a ground glass. You can read some more about it in this thread:
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=72613

If you can get a piece of standard clear glass cut locally, you could cover one side of it with Magic Tape and use as a ground glass while you are waiting for your replacements. Just make sure to put the side with the tape inside the camera, towards the lens.

[bsimison]

I've used a piece of scrap acrylic that I use to frame photographs. It's easy to score and trim to the proper size. Just rough it up a bit with some fine-grit sandpaper and it works just fine as a temporary GG. I always carry one of these in the top lid of my lighting gear Pelican case as a backup.