Any recomendation on loupes ?

manjo · Mar 17, 2006

I would like to know your opinion on what loupe and what magnification I should get for my 4x5 view camera ?

Jeremy · Mar 17, 2006

Manjo,

With 8x10 I use a 4x fuji loupe I bought used from somewhere and it works very well, but on the 3x4 and 4x5 with the Satin Snow glass I really like the plastic canon 8x loupe I have. It's not a high-quality loupe by any means (think one of those $5 jobbies from ebay), but I'm just making sure I've got the important things in focus and on the Satin Snow glass I'm not worried about enlarging the glass because it is so much clearer than say my OEM Shen-Hao ground glass

Jeremy · Mar 17, 2006

addendum:

This is just like the Fuji Loupe I have, but mine is all black.

And here is the cheapo Canon Loupe I use for 3x4 and 4x5.

jp80874 · Mar 17, 2006

I have used the Toyo View 3.6x for about three years and like it very much.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...s=&ci=987&ac=&Submit.x=9&Submit.y=7&Submit=Go

John Powers

Phillip P. Dimor · Mar 17, 2006

I use a cheap 8x generic loupe for gg focusing. It's probably overkill but I always have several floating around and they are cheap..

The nicest loupe i've ever used is/was the Pentax 5x Loupe. Adjustable focusing.. nice and bright, strain-free viewing. It's a NICE piece of equipment. I'm sure the other ones (schneider/rodenstock/peak) offer similar pieces of equipment with comparable quality.

Dave Parker · Mar 17, 2006

I have a rodenstock, but it does not get used as much as my police auction loupe, it is a 10X fingerprint loupe, they sold out a bunch of their lab gear real cheap and I think I paid $10 bucks for it, where is the rodenstock cost about $180, the fingerprint loupe is corrected for curvature and aberations, so is very good.

Dave

Flotsam · Mar 17, 2006

You have to be carefull about using too high a magnification because after awhile all you are seeing is the grain of the glass rather than the image. If you use a Satin Snow GG, you can probably get away with a 10x like Dave but I still like a 4X.

wildbill · Mar 17, 2006

I recently went from an iston 4x to a Peak 8x from Freestyle. It's square at the bottom so you can see the corners. $40 and a great improvement.

Dave Parker · Mar 17, 2006

Flotsam said:
You have to be carefull about using too high a magnification because after awhile all you are seeing is the grain of the glass rather than the image. If you use a Satin Snow GG, you can probably get away with a 10x like Dave but I still like a 4X.

Neal,

I was never able to use a 10x until I started using my glass, the standard screens were to course and were distracting to say the least, I am quite pleased with the combination now, I can actually take my glasses off and still focuse..

Dave

dphphoto · Mar 17, 2006

I use one of the Toyo loupes, but I also buy the cheap reading glasses at Walgreens. (It's Fred Picker's idea, actually.) With an 8X10 camera and those, you don't even need a loupe, though I'm paranoid about focus and use one anyway. Dean

Capocheny · Mar 17, 2006

Hi Manjo,

I've used a whole variety of loupes from Schneider to Sylvestri to Fuji to Kodak... I just bought my first Horseman 6x loupe with an adjustable diopter and I do believe it's going to be my all-time favorite. I like the fact that the Fuji and Horseman versions are a bit longer than the others.

Got it off e**y for a pretty reasonable price and it works GREAT!

Cheers

dphphoto · Mar 17, 2006

Capocheny said:
Hi Manjo,

I've used a whole variety of loupes from Schneider to Sylvestri to Fuji to Kodak... I just bought my first Horseman 6x loupe with an adjustable diopter and I do believe it's going to be my all-time favorite. I like the fact that the Fuji and Horseman versions are a bit longer than the others.

Got it off e**y for a pretty reasonable price and it works GREAT!

Cheers

You can say "eBay." Only my wife considers it a swear word. Dean

ccbob · Mar 17, 2006

I just picked up my first loupe, a Rodenstock 4x, which works great. I'm eagerly awaiting one of Dave's ground glasses to make it even better.

Curt · Mar 17, 2006

I use a 7x Nikon and have a 7x Peak also. Bifocals make it all the more fun, if you know what I mean.

Curt

ron mcelroy · Mar 17, 2006

Curt said:
Bifocals make it all the more fun, if you know what I mean.

Curt

Man I just got my first pair of bifocals today. Focusing a camera is going to be a problem.

Peter De Smidt · Mar 17, 2006

What magnification one should use definitely depends on the coarse of the groundglass and fresnel (if there is one of the latter.) With a normal screen, I prefer a 4x loupe. I have one of the Peak square ones and it's nice. I also have one of the expensive Rodenstock ones, but it's no better than the Peak. On a fine ground glass I use a Doktor Optik 8x loupe. The only downside is that this is a small loupe, which means that ones face (and breath) get very close to the screen. I also have a bunch of lenses, like a 50mm Schneider componon-s from a printing machine. This makes a very nice loupe. I do think that the expensive loupes meant for critical evaluation of chromes on a light table are overkill for checking focus on a view camera.

Capocheny · Mar 18, 2006

Hi dphPhoto...

LOL... thanks!

Being an e**y junkie... I need to ween myself off of the word first!

It's a very, very slow process!

Cheers

reggie · Mar 18, 2006

I have used a Peak 7x for 15+ years and I really love it. I use it on 4x5 all the way up to 12x20. It is solid and durable. Some people don't like these type of loupes and prefer jeweler magnifiers that clip onto eyeglasses. I bought one of these from Behr
but I cannot get it to securely clip onto the frame of my reading glasses - I am sorry I bought the Behr.

http://www.peakoptics.com/product_info.php/cPath/51/products_id/10

The above link is the one I use.

-R

Ole · Mar 18, 2006

I use a cheap plastic one when I feel I need one. Most of the time I just slip my glasses further down my nose and peer over them - I'm myopic.

Any recomendation on loupes ?

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