ground glass gridlines

[speedtrials]

Hello,
I wish the ground glass on my crown graphic had grid lines. What are my options here? I'm wondering if I could attach some kind of overlay or draw some gridlines with a washable marker? I suppose I could replace the ground glass entirely with one that has gridlines but that's probably more money than I want to spend on this. The ground glass is fine otherwise, I just wish it had some gridlines to line up the horizon. Do you guys have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Nick

[Gene McCluney]

You can take your ground glass out and draw grid lines on it with a thin-point Sanford Sharpie marker. Draw on the side facing you..the shiny side, not the ground side. You can clean these lines off with most any solvent, if you make mistakes.

Be advised, if you take your ground glass out, many Crown Graphics had a fresnel screen behind the ground glass, and it needs to be replaced in the same orientation you took it out.

[David Karp]

You can do it with a sharp pencil. I like this method better. If you make a mistake, or decide you want to get rid of it, then you can wash the gridlines off with soap and water.

Or you can get a nice GG from Steve Hopf with some faint gridlines already added for a very reasonable price, and save the old one for a backup.

[jnantz]

the best way i have found to do this
is to make a grid on your computer
then print it out ... go to a xerox/copy shop
and copy it onto mylar or see through
plastic film .. it is cheep and easy and takes about 10seconds

[speedtrials]

Hey guys thanks for the ideas. I'd never heard of Steve Hopf but his ground glass is pretty reasonably priced. I'll try the other methods first though.

Cheers,
Nick

[Gene McCluney]

If you use a pencil, you will have to draw on the "ground" or rough side of the glass.

[drew.saunders]

the best way i have found to do this
is to make a grid on your computer
then print it out ... go to a xerox/copy shop
and copy it onto mylar or see through
plastic film .. it is cheep and easy and takes about 10seconds

You can even get a .pdf of the grid, any way you want it, from here: http://www.incompetech.com/graphpaper/

[bvstaples]

I put a Snow Screen in my Cambo 4x5 a while back, and it didn't have any grid. I put one on with a soft but very sharp #6 pencil. I drew on the ground side of the glass. I used the soft pencil because it gave a light line: it appears as a gray shadowy line rather than hard lines on the glass.

BVS