Chamonix Lens Panel Replacement - PRICEY!!

Just got off the phone with Bill Maxwell and ordered his standard screen. Due to the ultra-wide range of optics I'll be using... 38-450mm... this is his recommendation. He suggested I contact Bill Moretz to have the job done to perfection. So... I paid for the Maxwell screen and it's being shipped to Bill Moretz to be completely tweaked to exact specs with my camera which I'm shipping to Mr. Moretz tomorow. Total cost with screen and labor will be $400 +/- but it should be perfect so I don't have to worry about focus issues of ANY kind. It pisses me off to spend that much money to correct/improve a camera flaw but it's still cheaper than other options. Otherwise, the camera is absolutely awesome.

I wonder if the Tachihara fresnel/ground glass and glass cover could be fitted? It is excellent and would probably be around $100, assuming you install it yourself.

Jon

Hi Jon,

Thank you but $50-100+ of the cost is for labor to ensure everything is in perfect alignment and spacing. I no longer trust my mind for accuracy and my body is trashed. The Maxwell screen is the biggest expense other than the labor and have read the Maxwell is worth every penny.

I'm still pissed about the cost but it's not Bill Maxwell's or Bill Moretz' fault. It's the tweaking needed to make the Camonix 45N-1 a darned near perfect camera. The total cost is still cheaper than most other offerings given the capabilities of the camera even given the extra I had to pay for a front rail extension so I can shoot a Fuji 450-C.

Overall... I'm pissed but happy. Does that make any sense at all???

Sounds like you've got lots of cash lying around.
I just took the factory fresnel out and put a new one cut from a $8 page magnifier on top of the ground glass. Perfect and a little cheaper than yours.

Wildbill... you're very likely wiser than I. But I did allude to my half brain-dead condition.

And the costs hurt like hell, BTW.

Years ago I was dubious of the benefit of expensive wonder-solutions such as the Maxwell screen. I was using an old Calumet CC-400 monorail camera with the original ground glass at an outing where a friend had a camera equipped with a Maxwell screen. We were in a narrow canyon in west-central Indiana's Shades State Park (used to be called Shades of Death but for obvious reasons they changed the name some time back!) The canyon was in woods and way down in the bottom the light was very soft, very magical, very dark. I couldn't see a thing on my camera's ground glass. I must have spent 15 minutes under there with the lens wide open, heavy focusing cloth wrapped around my head, dark as night inside and still couldn't see anything. Finally ran out of air and pulled the cloth from over my head, gasping for breath. I looked next to me and Frank's calmly composing a shot, doesn't even have a focusing cloth! I can see the image on his ground glass from where I'm standing!

So I pushed him over a ledge and took his camera... no, no wait: I gave up evil a while ago. I ran, did not walk, home and bought a Satin Snow ground glass and it was like someone had turned on the lights in a dark room. My camera now has a Maxwell screen on it (alas, Satin Snow is no more,) and I wouldn't be happy without it. Just my $0.02.

Mike

Mike1234 said:

Overall... I'm pissed but happy. Does that make any sense at all???

Click to expand...

Yes........... but the UK meaning of pissed may be different to yours!



Steve.

wildbill said:

Sounds like you've got lots of cash lying around.
I just took the factory fresnel out and put a new one cut from a $8 page magnifier on top of the ground glass. Perfect and a little cheaper than yours.

Click to expand...

As you probably know all the worlds page magnifier, can you tell me if this fresnel screen is a common feature in page magnifiers? Could I buy any page magnifier and find a fresnel screen, or should I look for them? (I ask because they're much cheaper online, and I don't think they even know what a fresnel screen is in the shop)

Steve Smith said:

Yes........... but the UK meaning of pissed may be different to yours!

Click to expand...

Hey Steve... I'll think of my out-of-pocket expenses, become very perturbed, then get completely pissed to forget the perturbatory causation.

Mike,

You should have no regrets at all, even for cost. Look at what you have in the camera+screen, then see how it compares to the competition. My guess is your camera is going to be hard to beat for bang-for-the-buck, and you get to enjoy it as long as you want to.

So get what you want and never look back. Let us know how you like your new screen. And if you have some different power loupes at hand, I'd be interested if one power was better than others on the Maxwell.

Cheers, Steve

Hi Steve.... Yes, my thoughts precisely especially since it will be professionally tweaked. This is why I took this route. It still chaps/hurts my arse.

No regrets... just a sore arse.

I won't be using a loupe. I bought a pair of +6 reading glasses instead.