Focusing screen - grounding

[McErland]

Hey!

Thinking of buying a new focusing screen for my OM-2, since the old one is in terrible shape.
But reading about the different one on http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photograph...mpusom1n2/shared/accessory/screens/index1.htm
I was wondering what the fine-grounded vs a coarser grounding does on the brightness and the DOF.
I will mostly use a 24mm 2.5 and a 50 1.8, but thinking of buying a 1.2 so I want the one with more accurate focusing.
Anyone got any suggestion on which to choose?

Kind Regards!

 

[Peltigera]

The finer grinding is going to give you more detail and so, I suppose, help with seeing the DOF. I cannot see that either is going to effect brightness that much.

 

[MattKing]

A finer grind will increase the detail visible, but reduce the "pop" when an image goes into focus. It won't affect the apparent brightness or DOF.

 

[McErland]

The "POP" is more desirable than details. Thanks!

 

[pen s]

From personal expirence I perfer the 1-10 screens, plain matte with grid lines and a well corrected diopter. Although my eyes are not as good at 64 as they were at 24 when I started using OM bodies I can still nail focus about 90% of the time. (My goodness, that last sentence just made me realise I've been using the same system for 40 years!)

Questions to ask.

How is your vision?
Near sighted? Far sighted? Do you have any astigmatism? Being able to focus your eye on the screen is key.

I think, but cannot confirm, that the OM-1/2 eyepiece is set to -1 at rhe factory. Therefore the screen appears to be 1 meter away. So, if you can see clearly a printed page held at 1 meter, either with glasses or without, you should have no problem with any screen you select for your OM-2.

 

[jochen]

Hello,
i'd recommend to buy an original Olympus screen. A "modern" focussing screen consists of a resin matte screen and a fresnel lens beneath. If you use only a ground glas, the brightness of the image gets darker very fast towards the corners and the overall brightness is much less than with an original screen. This are experiences from the ground glas in my Rolleicord which I changed against a cut to fit RB 67 screen. It was nearly impossible to focus indoor or in the shadow with the old glas screen.

 

[Xmas]

Try and find someone local who has alternative screens so you can try before you buy.

some people can only use the split image some the micro prism some the ground glass spot... subjective thing can/could/be independent of eye sight.

 

[McErland]

My vision with glasses are insanely sharp actually.. However, without glasses, I am Far sighted. But I have never had any problem focusing. Instead I wan't a "pop" when trying to focus, and as bright as possible, just to make it easier during the fall and winter.
On the digital side I have a 5Dc with a matt screen installed, and I am able to focus it pretty easy, but it doesn't show enought shallow dof to make it perfect all the time. As I would like to buy a 50 or 55 1.2 and nail focus on portraits, I just want the best screen for this purpose.

My local camera dealer is amazing on used equipment, but mostly on Nikon, canon and Minolta. Barely if any OM-camera nor Zuiko lenses.
But they are pretty cheap on cheapbay, so I will try buying some.
Can anyone of you correct me if I'm wrong, but the "Standard" is the 1-13?