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Mark_3632
14-Jan-2004, 15:03
I know someone here mentioned a square loupe in a recent (less than two months) post. I can't find it. Are there square loupes? I have a devil of a time getting into the corners of my Galvin with my round one. I bet a square one would be quite useful on all my GG focusing cameras.

tim atherton
14-Jan-2004, 15:17
not quite a square loupe (square ish), but the silvestri tilting loupe lets you see into the corners and works very well. Also peak makes a square ones (I use one for slides). Gandolfi/Corfield also makes/sells a square one (I think Bromwell sells it).

Tony Galt
14-Jan-2004, 15:22
I don't know about square loupes, but I too have a Silvestri loupe which has a hinged base, one side of which comes to a right angled point. This allows it to fit tightly into corners. It also tilts so that the lens intersects the rays of light hitting the corners of the ground glass directly and the view is brighter. Other designs seem inadequate to me now that I use the Silvestri,

Tom Westbrook
14-Jan-2004, 15:30
Peak has a square 4x loupe. See this page (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=40719&is=REG).

I use one for looking at 6x7 negatives, but haven't used it as a focussing loupe. I supose it would work OK, but is sort of large--about 2 inches (5cm ) square at the base.

Ron Bose
14-Jan-2004, 15:32
I have the Corfield one and love it for GG focussing. It's not too good on a light table, where the Rodenstock beats it hands down. But it just seems to work well on a GG. It's basically a rubber version of a Mamiya RB67 chimney finder. It's slightly flexible, being made of rubber, so no worries about it hitting the GG too hard.

Capocheny
14-Jan-2004, 17:09
Try a linen tester... these are used mostly by the graphic arts industry for stripping negatives and they fold up into a relatively compact, square, unit.

I would think that any good graphic arts store would have them in stock.

Steve Baggett
14-Jan-2004, 18:30
With regard to the "linen tester" type loupe, you can get one here (http://www.wisner.com/Page18.html) for $24.00.

John Hennessy
14-Jan-2004, 19:43
I have the square Peak 4x loupe. I have tried others and always come back to it. You can see into corners but more important to me is that it can be used reversed in which case the focal point is about 20-30mm from the eye piece. Many loupes don't work turned around. That is important to me for two reasons: with too much shift or rise, especailly with a short lens, looking squarely at the gg corner shows a very dim image. But if you reverse the loupe you can look way off axis in the direction of the lens and the image is much brighter. Second, I sometimes need to the magnify the focus scale on my camera because in dim light it is hard to see. If the loupe could not be reversed the focus knobs etc would be in the way.

It will scratch glasses though so I glued an O-ring on the eye piece years ago.

Jeffrey Goggin
15-Jan-2004, 05:42
FYI, the Toyo 3.6X loupe will also work reversed and I use it that way perhaps half of the time. That said, it isn't the best performing loupe I've ever seen through, but for the money, I have no complaints...

Jeffrey Goggin
15-Jan-2004, 05:48
BTW, when I was shooting with a Galvin several years ago, I used a Toyo monocular viewer as a focusing loupe. The magnification was only 1.5X, but it covered the whole ground-glass, which made it possible to compose with it as well, not to mention skip using a dark cloth.

The particular one I used was designed for the sliding back that you often see for auction on eBay. I simply took the metal mounting plate off of the bottom and held it in place over the Galvin's ground-glass, but with some effort, you could adapt it so that it's held in place more permanently. I know Jim Galvin has modified several cameras to accomodate various monocular viewers, so you might check with him about this, too.

Sal Santamaura
15-Jan-2004, 10:18
Jim Galvin died about ten days ago.

Emmanuel BIGLER
15-Jan-2004, 12:23
I am using a square 4x loupe covering a 6x6cm field, it is a Russian-made "Horizon". Excellent quality at an affordable price. There is an helical mount for fine adjustment of the image. Can serve to examine 6x6 images as well. I use it on the small ground glass of my Arca Swiss 6x9. Otherwise, Schneider 6x6 loupes are square... and expensive.

Mark Muse
17-Jan-2004, 07:49
Mark - I have an Ebony 6 x 9 and use the Silvestri 6x (the one that comes with a hinged base). I bought it because of the same problem of seeing into the corners. But what I ended up doing is removing the hinged base from the loupe. I am quite happy with it this way.

The hinged base is too bulky to really get into the corners, tilted or not, whereas the loupe barrel with the diagonal cutaway will view the corners with ease. It is also easy to use square to the GG, or to tilt for wide angle lenses this way. The barrel itself is round but it is a relatively small diameter. The end of the barrel away from the user is half cutaway at approximately 45º to the GG, and half square to the GG.

If this is not clear let me know.

As far as "linen testers", some are good glass but most are garbage. I have used many over the years but not for this particular application. I am afraid I can't help you with brands or models.

Mark_3632
17-Jan-2004, 12:56
Sal

Too Bad. I had read he was sick. I had contacted him a lot about my camera and he was always very helpful, prompt, and polite.