Recommendation for good and cheap loupe

[PRJ]

I use parts of old lenses for loupes. The front sections of an 80-200 or thereabouts is great for contact sheets. The rear end of the same or of a telephoto like a 135 works well for looking at the ground glass. I "made" those loupes long ago from broken lenses when good loupes were really expensive. These days I'd probably just buy something simple like the Peak linked to above.

My eyes are pretty bad though, so all I have to do to focus on the ground glass is look over my glasses. My eyes naturally focus to about 5 or 6 inches. Kinda stinks to have bad eyes, but it is nice when shooting large format. Lemons/Lemonade I guess.

[JimboWalker]

I use a pair of 6x reading glasses I found on Amazon. I use them with my Pacemaker 4x5 with the hood open. No dark cloth. So far So good!

[Doremus Scudder]

Not for me, alas. They magnify, all right, but don't correct for astigmatism.

Dan,

Get yourself a pair of 4x flip-down magnifiers from Cabelas. They're made for fly-fisherman but work great for focusing as well. I use mine over my progressives. You'll have astigmatism corrections and magnification.

Best,

Doremus

[Bernice Loui]

The SUPER deluxe version of these would be Zeiss Surgical Loupe:

http://www.medicalexpo.com/prod/carl...59-670557.html


Bernice

Dan,

Get yourself a pair of 4x flip-down magnifiers from Cabelas. They're made for fly-fisherman but work great for focusing as well. I use mine over my progressives. You'll have astigmatism corrections and magnification.

Best,

Doremus

[Pere Casals]

Nikon 50mm f1.8 Series E

+1

A lightweight/cheap variant would be a used Componar-C 50mm enlarging lens. ($15 to $30)

For convenience, one may use a piece of plastic pipe attachment to trim the exact focus distance to the frosted surface.