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Thread: folding hot shoe spirit level

  1. #21

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    Re: folding hot shoe spirit level

    Quote Originally Posted by Paul Ron View Post
    buy bulls eye levels from amazon, 6 for $5. self stick tape it to the camera.

    you can send me the $35 i saved you.
    Yikes! I way over paid. All I got was ONE three-way level for $5. I could kick myself. But at least I can use it when I have my 4x5 upside down on my tripod -- and I have a few times. It's hard to "get your bearings" under those circumstances -- without a level that you can see from every angle.

  2. #22
    Paul Ron's Avatar
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    Re: folding hot shoe spirit level


  3. #23
    Tim Meisburger's Avatar
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    Re: folding hot shoe spirit level

    My favorite by far is the folding level on my Ebony. If they sold those, I would buy one for every camera I own.

  4. #24

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    Re: folding hot shoe spirit level

    Quote Originally Posted by Paul Ron View Post
    buy bulls eye levels from amazon, 6 for $5. self stick tape it to the camera. you can send me the $35 i saved you.
    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Keller View Post
    You have to look straight down at a bulls eye level. Not very helpful when the camera is at eye level (or higher).
    I've installed bull's-eye levels on all my field cameras that came without levels. They work just great, especially if one takes a bit of time to level the camera and then install the level (double stick tape or glue) so that it reads level when the camera is level... you get the idea.

    As for reading it. I find the bull's-eye levels easy to read at eye level looking in from the sides. I look at the level from the back of the camera to level from side to side and then again from the side when leveling fore and aft. It's just as easy to read the levels this way as looking straight down on them (if not more so since I can adjust just one axis at a time without confusion).

    For architectural work, however, final leveling is always done with the grid on the ground glass; the camera might be level, but the rest of the world rarely is

    Best,

    Doremus

  5. #25

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    Re: folding hot shoe spirit level

    Quote Originally Posted by Tim Meisburger View Post
    My favorite by far is the folding level on my Ebony. If they sold those, I would buy one for every camera I own.
    Those have a folding mirror and are much more useful, if only there was a source for those …


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  6. #26

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    Re: folding hot shoe spirit level

    Doremus,

    Wouldn't a small T-type bubble level work better?

    I needed to replace a level on my Norma a couple years ago. I needed to put a couple holes in the small t-bubble level but it works fairly well.


    Quote Originally Posted by Doremus Scudder View Post
    I've installed bull's-eye levels on all my field cameras that came without levels. They work just great, especially if one takes a bit of time to level the camera and then install the level (double stick tape or glue) so that it reads level when the camera is level... you get the idea.

    As for reading it. I find the bull's-eye levels easy to read at eye level looking in from the sides. I look at the level from the back of the camera to level from side to side and then again from the side when leveling fore and aft. It's just as easy to read the levels this way as looking straight down on them (if not more so since I can adjust just one axis at a time without confusion).

    For architectural work, however, final leveling is always done with the grid on the ground glass; the camera might be level, but the rest of the world rarely is

    Best,

    Doremus

  7. #27
    Jac@stafford.net's Avatar
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    Re: folding hot shoe spirit level

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Salomon View Post
    More then two. Both of the Linhof Technoramas as well as Hasselblad Wides have visible levels in the finder. And Rollei had an add on level device that could be seen through the sports finder on the TLR.
    Thanks for that, Bob. For the rest of us, the early (I don't know about later, don't have one) Hasselblad SWC viewfinder has a 90° view from eye-level to the target level embedded into the body. Elegant, simple, expensive.

    So I wonder if an add-on circular bulls-eye level with a 90° mirror might be helpful. For a source of the mirror I would look to Edmunds and especially discarded old folding cameras.
    .

  8. #28

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    Re: folding hot shoe spirit level

    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Keller View Post
    Doremus,

    Wouldn't a small T-type bubble level work better?

    I needed to replace a level on my Norma a couple years ago. I needed to put a couple holes in the small t-bubble level but it works fairly well.
    A T-bubble level would work fine too, if you have room. Most of my cameras are don't have a lot of exposed surface area on the top, so I opted for the smaller bull's-eye level. Note that you need one that has transparent sides to look through in order to use them at eye level; similar to the ones illustrated here: https://www.leveldevelopments.com/pr...ircular-vials/

    More important is mounting the level(s) correctly. Since there is often play in the camera back, I set up a shot of a building that I know is level and plumb (e.g., a modern well-engineered structure) with my gridded ground glass and make sure all verticals are parallel. I then test fit the level and see what it might need in the way of shims, etc. to get it to read correctly with the camera thusly set up. Sometimes I'll use a double thickness of double-sided tape strategically placed to do the trick. Then it's mount the level and check again. Even with the level carefully mounted, I'll still trust my eye and the grid over the level reading.

    Best,

    Doremus

  9. #29
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: folding hot shoe spirit level

    Wysiwyg

  10. #30
    chassis's Avatar
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    Re: folding hot shoe spirit level

    Agree with Doremus re: architecture and using the ground glass. I also check with a torpedo level to confirm. I sometimes wonder about the square-ness of a sheet of film in the film holder, and the square-ness of the film holder in the spring back - not a big issue and solutions are readily found.

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