Ground glass info needed for Zone VI 4x5

**d.s.** · 18-Jan-2016, 21:29

Hi, I recently bought a used zone VI, (made in Newfane, Vt. model), serial # 4627 with bail opener back, and noticed that the ground glass is not glass but is a one piece plastic that is fogged on the lens side and has Fresnel groves on the rear side. The fresnel side has a few scratches on it. The screws that hold the GG to the frame have white plastic disks-like washers to hold the GG tight to the frame and have a rabbit / lip on them that seems like they should hold the GG in that lip but when used in that manner, the GG is loose. When I received the camera the white plastic disk/washers were installed with the lip/rabbit side facing away from the GG.
It seems that the fresnel side should have a piece of glass over it to prevent scratches, and the white plastic washers should then be flipped over so the lip/rabbit would hold the glass and fresnel/GG combination in place.

I was hoping some Zone VI owners of the Newfane, Vt. cameras, could look at theirs and tell me if there is suppose to be a piece of glass behind the fresnel groved side, (film side), of the GG to prevent scratching the fresnel with the loupe. And if it is supposed to have a glass over the rear of the fresnel, what is it's thickness and where can I get one.

Thanks in advance, Dee

**RichardRitter** · 19-Jan-2016, 06:14

The frosted side goes to the lens, this is the focusing side of the fresnel lens. The ridge side is the Fresnel lens and faces out. there should be a sheet of clear glass or plastic over the lens. The white washers if your are using one sheet of material in the ground glass frame the relief area faces out, using two sheet of material ,Fresnel lens and cover sheet the relief area go to the lens.

Thinness of the cover sheet is 0.062 (1/16) I have clear plastic cover plates in stock.