Loupes Again, What Works for You

[Mark Sampson]

I use a low-magnification focusing magnifier made by Ednalite (another extinct Rochester optical company). The eyepiece is almost an inch across, which makes seeing the image on the groundglass easy. It may only be 4x (?) but I've used it since my days as a portrait photographer, so 40 years; I must be used to it.
(I'm surprised that I haven't lost it somewhere in all that time, like I did the really good Schneider loupe that I used on the lightbox.)
Don't know what I'd replace it with, if I should lose it, but I'd find something

[Kiwi7475]

I use this one for 4x5:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...SABEgJglvD_BwE

It’s 10X, achromatic and pretty compact. It’s expen$ive but works very well.

[andrewch59]

Edmunds scientific for me too, 9x it was a lot cheaper than purpose made loupes on feebay. I think it is called a stand magnifier.

[EdSawyer]

a 50mm lens for a 35mm SLR can be very cheap and well built, and is about an 8-10x loupe, that's what I use.

[invisibleflash]

I got a bunch of cheap, old Agfa 8x loups from the 1970's and a $$ Peak 15X. There are lots of nice loups out there. And some real crappers.

[invisibleflash]

I use this one for 4x5:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...SABEgJglvD_BwE

It’s 10X, achromatic and pretty compact. It’s expen$ive but works very well.

Hard to go wrong with Peak, very nice Q loups for the most part.

[Doremus Scudder]

It would appear that just about anything that magnifies 5-8 or 10x can work and gets used for focusing on the ground glass. It's really just a matter of learning to use the tool you have. I use Peak and Nikon 8x and 10x loupes, but carry 5x aspheric collapsible magnifiers in the field for the most part. They don't rest on the ground glass, which makes me have to find focus every time, but they have the advantage of being able to be used at varying angles to the ground glass so I can see into the corners of the image, or find the bright spot when using extreme movements.

My current favorite is the one seen on the TV series "Sherlock." https://www.amazon.com/Folding-Pocke.../dp/B004KNS2BW

Best,

Doremus

[Leszek Vogt]

I've settled for Shneider 8X.

[Drew Wiley]

I have a plain folding low-power General pocket magnifier in leather sleeve in every one of my camera kits. It's not much good for ground glass viewing, but great for reading numbers on meters or shutter markings or maps, when I don't want to pull out a set of reading glasses. And you don't have to worry about it getting roughed up like an expensive magnifier.

[Peter De Smidt]

For me, I don't use high magnification loupes. My favorite is the 5.5x Pentax Lupe with an opaque skirt, but if I'm using my Sinar, then the 2x magnification in the binocular reflex viewer is plenty. A lot will depend on your vision, of course, along with the granularity of the ground glass. On my Intrepid, the screen is course enough that 4x is a bit too much.