I have this loupe (upper left in picture, made by Schneider): https://rolleiflex.us/products/frame...series-camerasOriginally Posted by neil poulsen
I was under the impression that it's perfect for focusing on a GG as well. No?
Yeah, a dark cloth is at the top of my list, right behind film :-p.
Well, I´d say yours it is not my "perfec" GG loupe for 4x5", but it´s just a loupe (and looks to be a good one), so it should work. Mine is somewhat similar
About the dark cloth, I have never had a "real" one. I just used a cut of fabric, thick but also lightweight, which I used to trim up to the perfect size. Years later, I noticed that I wanted a wider one, so I bought a different fabric, this one thinner, and larger. I also have a third one. So better to have different ones, I use them all. I hold them when needed with a couple small plastic hardware gripping tools.
I'm pretty heavily near sighted. I don't see close up as well with my glasses on, so I take them off to compose and focus under the dark cloth. I just use a cheap thread counter as a loupe, and it works great for me.
The difference maker for me is the darkcloth. Get a good, large darkcloth. Something you can wrap around your whole camera and head, and even block any light out that might be reflecting off the ground. Once you've blocked out all of the light except for the GG, it's easy to compose and focus. Plus, a large darkcloth works as a great shoulder pads for carrying your camera while still attached to your tripod over your shoulder. Doing that, I find large format cameras much easier to work with than rangefinders or SLR's.
I can't see for squat either. Glasses are fine for 35mm. For medium format looking down I really need to use reading glasses, which are just a weaker correction than my normal glasses. Your Optometrist can help you with those. For 4x5 I prefer to not use glasses at all when focusing. My eyes have a natural focus at about 8 inches or so. If I want to be real critical I have a loupe that is part of a 35mm lens and I just place that on the ground glass. It is really small but I can see the grain of the glass with it. I really don't use it much though.
Just a note from one who dearly needs a ground-glass loupe.
My cameras have a ground glass (GG) hood shroud to minimize reflection and the best loupe is a long one which reaches the GG without banging our forehead on the shroud.
Among the worst are short loupes. May I add, that the Silvestri 8X loupe with an attachment to facilitate corner
inspection cannot work with a GG hood. The Silvestry is a tiny little thing that is likely most appropriate to medium
format with no GG hood.
In the course of getting cataracts operated on and of having one Macula which is so so, I decided to invest in a monocle. they are available in all the usual diopter strengths and a number 4 is a good portable one eyed (mono) way to see a GG as well as the enlarger image and prints. Win, Win, Win
I had one of these given to me. Great for focusing.
https://shop.cnib.ca/ProductDetail/m...-size-magnfier
I really like a Pentax 5.5x Photo Lupe with an opaque skirt for ground glass viewing, although it's big.
“You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know
Just use a dark t-shirt for a dark cloth. Put it upside down over your neck so the wide bottom goes over the camera. Not very fashionable but works. It helps a lot. My eyesight is bad and the advice here works for me. I tend not to use a loupe just take my glasses off.
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