do reflex hoods work well?

[VictoriaPerelet]

I use reflex hoods on Sinar and Arca. Both are very helpfull when used with wide angle lenses and center filters (i use 72mm xl and CF a lot).

Sinar has knob and Internal mechanism to adjust mirror angle, Arca has gear and knob to do the same. Changing mirror angle lets me see image on whole GG compensating falloff. When working with people (not so much time) I do rough focusing and tilts with hood on and then remove hood and do final focusing using loupe.

Sinar unit is big and bulky, Arca unit is pretty compact. Also, Arca mirror fixed to hood while Sinar mirror moves - that makes mirror more prone to breakage, I broke few.

I used rigid Linhof mono viewer with TK, no comparisin with above 2, one of main reasons why I gave up on TK. Also using bellows and binocular viewer is not as convinient as 2 above - you have to keep proper bellows extension to have GG in focus, which occupies at least one hand.

[AtlantaTerry]

I have a reflex viewer for my Cambo cameras. It works great for horizontals but is a pain in the butt for verticals because I had to stand to the side of the camera. Then since one is looking into a mirror to view a groundglass that has an upside down image it gets very confuzzling where left / right / up / down are concerned.

[Ken Lee]

Rose, October 2014
Sinar P, 135mm Tessar
4x5 TMY, D-23

Thanks for the inspiration to take my Sinar reflex viewer off the shelf and use it again. I'm hooked !

[stradibarrius]

very nice

[Peter De Smidt]

That's a lovely photo, Ken.

[Bruce Barlow]

i use a cheap ($3) black t-shirt from Walmart. Size XXXL. The neck circles the back of the 4x5, and I use the other end like a dark cloth. It works fine, is lighter, more compact, and cooler. My sister sewed up the sleeves, and I ran a shoelace and a lace-lock around the hem at the bottom.

I reverse it for 8x10, lace-locking it around the camera, and poking my head in the neck. It stays on my face.

I don't use a loupe, but that would be a good reason not to sew the armholes, which, unused, don't cause light problems.

If you're picky, splurge and double-up to 2 shirts, black on the inside and white on the outside.

I'm a staunch believer in keeping the image upside-down, and wish I had a way to do that with my DSLR. I 'll contend that most folks make better-composed, more thoughtful images when the image is composed upside-down.

[pierre506]

Added Polaroid MP-4 reflex viewer onto Cambo WIDE.

[Dan Fromm]

I have a reflex viewer for my Cambo cameras. It works great for horizontals but is a pain in the butt for verticals because I had to stand to the side of the camera. Then since one is looking into a mirror to view a groundglass that has an upside down image it gets very confuzzling where left / right / up / down are concerned.

Is your viewer monocular or binocular? I ask because my monocular viewer rotates.