Satin snow screen and Hasselblad

Bonjour,
I read some posts about the Satin Snow screen and MF. I would like to know how some of you who have order a screen for an Hasselblad manage to set the screen on their cameras. I asked to Dave but he supplies only the nude screen. How do you set the screen and the iron frame ?
Many thanks to you
Best regards
NBicolas

I would ask the manufacturer. They really should provide basic instructions for that sort of thing.

I purchased one awhile back, and ended up taking the old screen out of the metal frame to reuse on the SS glass. However, I found that the SS glass was about one stop dimmer than the old groundglass which had a fresnel screen in it, and didn't use it. I believe I have read a comment here by Dave where he freely acknowleged that his screen isn't as bright as a fresnel in the center, but does have better overall brightness. My old eyes needed bright, so I bought an acute matte II from KEH.

One other thing: If you do change screens, MAKE SURE that the screen is right side up, that whatever frame you do or do not use puts the glass is at the right height, and that no grit has gotten beneath the glass to prevent it from seating properly. These things can result in the image looking in focus on the ground glass but being out of focus at the film plane. I learned from Barry Thornton's "Edge of Darkness" to construct a focusing target and photograph it from a very acute angle to make sure what I focused on was actually in focus.

I strongly recommend the Hasselblad branded focus screen--I prefer a split image screen myself and a modern Hassy Acute-Matte Split Image is top of the line--I have Maxwell screens on my RolleiFlex TLR's and swear by them and had Bill Maxwell make one for my 501 Hassy--Bill Maxwell makes a very good product but in this particular application I still prefer a Hassy screen (again split-image) and bought a modern Acute-Matte one with Grid (another plus in my opinion) and split-image for $60 off ebay (that was new in the box). I realize the urge to save money but when it comes to focussing on a GG--you generally get what you pay for so get the best screen the first time around---I think that's why the Satin Snow GG is so popular with View Cameras as it aids in focussing by having a much less coarse focus surface and apparently highly recommended BUT I think a product developed for your Hasselblad needs might be a better choice this time around. The Hasselblad (Acute-Matte) screens are bright and contrasty and ebay is bulging at the seams with Hassy gear so I'd start there !!

Good morning everybody,

First and foremost, we are a Large Format Screen company, yes we do some Medium Format screens upon request, but that is not our main focus, we have also done a few 35mm screens, in the LF area, we are a top seller for regular ground glass, I do not produce any enhanced screens, just true ground glass at a good price. The 35mm and Medium format SLR screens are a completely different market and hence there are a great number or really good enhanced screens available for them. If your looking for a normal ground glass screen, I can probably make it, there are a few out there that have specialized cuts and such to fit, but if your looking for an enhanced fresnel or brite screen, I am not the company to make it, I would suggest a Maxwell or some other simular product. Mounting a LF screen is a pretty straight forward process for most of the LF or sheet gear around, where is, the tolerances and such on 35mm and MF SLR and TLR cameras are alot tighter and extra care needs to be maintained to ensure correct focus plane settings. I will be happy to make a screen for anybody, but with the thousands of models on the market, do not know all the intracacies of each model, so if your unsure about how a screen mounts in your MF gear, I would suggest not purchasing one of my screens and advise you to go with a Maxwell or a Beattie type screen. If your looking for a true fine grained ground glass screen, then I should be able to help, but again, my screens may not always be the best choice, light transmission because more difficult the smaller the screen is, so for some applications the fresnels and brite screens are the best choice and well worth the money.

Thanks.

Dave Parker
Satin Snow Ground Glass

Morning Dave,

I can understand you being reluctant to provide advice for mounting your screens on every camera ever made, but .... Hasselblad is a fairly standard setup that really anyone selling gear for should know. If you cannot tell your customers how to mount your screens who can?

antielectrons said:

Morning Dave,

I can understand you being reluctant to provide advice for mounting your screens on every camera ever made, but .... Hasselblad is a fairly standard setup that really anyone selling gear for should know. If you cannot tell your customers how to mount your screens who can?

Click to expand...

I actually did provide the mounting instructions in a email reply to him, as he was emailing back and forth with me, but apparently he needed more information and posted here, MF SLR and TLR screens are not that big of seller for us, and it is not a product I even advertise, we have made exactly 10 of them in the two years I have been making screens, and on the other hand I have made over 7,000 LF screens, as I said, I don't advertise our product for Hasselblad, but have made a few for those who have requested..

Dave

I bought one of Dave's screens for my 'Blad last year and had no trouble installing it. I don't know if screen installation varies by the body model. It is not difficult. PM me here if you have questions. I use a 500 c/m.

Maxwell screens

I own a screen by Bill Maxwell for my Hasselblad 500CM. It's a very good solution and less expensive than an acute matte.

A word about Bill Maxwell: I ordered the screen as I was having difficulty focusing. I shopped for a long time before deciding on a 45 split with micro collar screen from Bill. It came. My first outing with it I still had out of focus images. Bill and I must have chatted on 4 or 5 occasions about the issues I was having, trying to pinpoint the cause, doing tests. Finally I sent my ENTIRE system to him for bench testing. System came back clean. Then I went to get my eyes checked and realized the problem was all me. Message to this story, Bill Maxwell will go to Herculean lengths to stand behind his product. When I buy a backup body I will surely buy another Maxwell.

For my 8x10 I am considering a SS, but that's another matter.
Neal

Bonjour,
Thank you very much for sharing and giving advices and experiences. I'm going to think and try....
Have a nice sunday
Nicolas

Satinsnow said:

I actually did provide the mounting instructions in a email reply to him, as he was emailing back and forth with me, but apparently he needed more information and posted here, MF SLR and TLR screens are not that big of seller for us, and it is not a product I even advertise, we have made exactly 10 of them in the two years I have been making screens, and on the other hand I have made over 7,000 LF screens, as I said, I don't advertise our product for Hasselblad, but have made a few for those who have requested..

Dave

Click to expand...

Well, according to the post above you did not supply him with any instructions.

I quote "I asked to Dave but he supplies only the nude screen. How do you set the screen and the iron frame ?"

I don't see how you can make a product for a camera if you do not know how it is installed, and if you do know how to install it then why not tell the guy... Am I missing something here?

antielectrons said:

Well, according to the post above you did not supply him with any instructions.

I quote "I asked to Dave but he supplies only the nude screen. How do you set the screen and the iron frame ?"

I don't see how you can make a product for a camera if you do not know how it is installed, and if you do know how to install it then why not tell the guy... Am I missing something here?

Click to expand...

Yes,

You are missing something, when he emailed me, I told him he would have to use his existing metal surround to mount the screen.

It is not a product I advertise or make claims about, if someone asks me to make them a piece of 56mm x 56mm glass(Size of a Hassy Screen) I will do it, as I shot Hassys for a good number of years, I am very familier with the way the screens are installed, as if it is any of your care, I wrote him when he emailed me, I told him he would have to remove the metal surround on the screen and place it on the screen I would make for him and tighten back into place.

I really don't understand, why you are busting my chops over a piece of glass I don't market, I don't list on my website and I don't care if I make?

If you are not comfortable with what I am telling you, then don't order a screen from me, he seemed like in his last message that he was quite satisfied with my answers as well as the answers that had been provided by other members.

As I have now said several times, I don't market Hasselblad screens, I don't advertise Hasselblad screens and they have been less that .014% of my business since we started making screens...I don't care if I make another Hasselblad screen again, if a customer asks me if I have made one, I will tell them yes, we have..

As far as making a screen, I can make any sized screen based on the measurments given to me, heck I have made screens for the digital video industy 80mm in diameter and could not give you a clue as to how they are using them, how they are installed and what they want them for, I have made several screens for the Aero Space lab of various weird sizes that they use to check the exhast on jet engines and take pictures of it, I couldn't tell you how they are mounted, couldn't tell how they are using them in their application other than they are taking IR pictures through them..

I produce Ground Glass, plain and simple, if your talking about LF glass for camera applications, then most of the time I can tell you how it mounts, if you want to order my glass for some other application other than LF cameras, with the amount of cameras that are on the market, I may not know how it goes together, in the history of cameras, just in the commercially viable products catagory, there have been over 24,000 seperate cameras, and I am not aware or even care about all of them.

Sorry my explinations have not met with what you want to hear

Dave

Hello
Dave, gave me all the informations I requested, no problem with him. He is very prompt and kindly answer me. No problem, I'm just investigating. This afternoon, in Paris, I made some photos with my "Blad" and it was a great pleasure...with the good screen I have...
Many thanks to all
Kind regards
Nicolas

... and they all lived happily ever after?

p.s. I'm about to scribe lines on my new SSGG and will install it later this afternoon, I hope. I'm happy... very happy! Thanks again Dave!