Snorkeling under the focusing cloth!

stevewillard · Oct 10, 2006

I recently was reading a thread at another forum about shooting with LF cameras in the winter. Someone jokingly suggested using a snorkel and nose pinch under the focusing cloth to prevent fogging the ground glass. Has anyone ever tried such a solution? If so can you comment on your experience?

bdial · Oct 10, 2006

Seems like a product like RainX antifog might be more practical.
At first blush it seems like a snorkel would get hung up on the dark cloth, but I suppose you could always cut it down so that it's only a few inches long. Enough to direct your breath away from the camera might be all that's needed. Condensation inside the snorkel could be a problem...

Bob F. · Oct 10, 2006

Use a length of plastic tube and don't breath out through your nose... I've not tried it however as I use a monocular viewer to compose and have taped my loupe with rubber tape (self-amalgamating tape) along the bottom so it does not allow any light around the sides when you put it on the ground glass.

Cheers, Bob.

Pinholemaster · Oct 10, 2006

LOL, I've only tried it when doing underwater photography with my 8x10 camera.

Why not full SCUBA gear?

Really, a little anti-fog on the gg, or Rain-X.

Don't believe everything you read.

David A. Goldfarb · Oct 10, 2006

As if I didn't look weird enough using a view camera with a darkcloth in this day and age. All I need now it a snorkel.

Ole · Oct 10, 2006

David A. Goldfarb said:
As if I didn't look weird enough using a view camera with a darkcloth in this day and age. All I need now it a snorkel.

I can just picture it - snowshoes, ski poles, tripod, snorkel - and a viewing hood strapped to the forehead?

DBP · Oct 10, 2006

Ole said:
I can just picture it - snowshoes, ski poles, tripod, snorkel - and a viewing hood strapped to the forehead?

Reminds me of a Far Side Cartoon entitled "How Nature says 'Don't touch' ".

Aggie · Oct 10, 2006

Ole said:
I can just picture it - snowshoes, ski poles, tripod, snorkel - and a viewing hood strapped to the forehead?

Where are the pictures of this? You're a photographer, it should be recorded for posterity.

John Kasaian · Oct 10, 2006

In the summer carry a bit of thick rubber hose to stick up the nose of my mule if she ever gets bit in the schnozola by a rattler (the nose swells up suffocating the poor critters) so I'll pack it along this winter with my 'dorff!

I love gear that lends itself to multi-tasking, don't you?

TheFlyingCamera · Oct 10, 2006

John Kasaian said:
In the summer carry a bit of thick rubber hose to stick up the nose of my mule if she ever gets bit in the schnozola by a rattler (the nose swells up suffocating the poor critters) so I'll pack it along this winter with my 'dorff!

I love gear that lends itself to multi-tasking, don't you?

Do you really want to be putting a hose in your mouth that goes up a mule's nose? How are you going to remember which end went up the nostril six months after the fact?

stevewillard · Oct 10, 2006

I know this sounds kind of foolish using a snorkel and yes ridiculous looking, but I have used anti-fogging materials in my goggles when on winter trips for extended periods in the back country and have had varying successes with it.

If the snorkel is a 100% solution then I will snorkel under the focusing cloth with little regard to onlookers, besides where I photograph is far less public than the beaches where people swim. In either case it is a foolish looking apparatus. Perhaps if more people snorkeled under the focusing cloth then people would come to expect it of those who choose to put there head under dark cloth in the midst of the digital age.

wildbill · Oct 10, 2006

I've used a plastic tube but it's not fun but it works, feels like emphyzema. I know that's spelled wrong. If you get a snorkel, get one with the valve at the bottom, that way you can purge the drool or rain out. I suppose you could also mount a windshield wiper to the camera and carry a 12 volt battery back to run it. Or attach it to the battery in your heated socks.

vinny

maxbloom · Oct 12, 2006

I think I may have a more practical and less silly-looking solution: Try a surgical mask.

Ole · Oct 12, 2006

wildbill said:
I've used a plastic tube but it's not fun but it works, feels like emphyzema. I know that's spelled wrong. If you get a snorkel, get one with the valve at the bottom, that way you can purge the drool or rain out.

Inhale through the nose, exhale through the snorkel. Opposite of underwater use. The point is to avoid condensation on the GG, under conditions where condensation = ice.

davidgalway · Oct 12, 2006

I have no problem with ground glass frosting over, I do however have to remember to hold my breath while I am fine-tuning because the loupe will instantly become covered in condensation. I use a trick from my 35mm days when a lens might get frosty ... cup your hand over the lens end affected so when you suck air in hard through an opening cold air rushes in and strips the frost/condensation off the glass. Sounds goofy, looks goofier, probably won't work for ground glass unless you have really big hands ... but it is effective.

JBrunner · Oct 12, 2006

One little serious warning to anyone who actually wants to try this... don't use anything much longer than a snorkle or you will just end up breathing your own exhalations, then you will pass out, topple your camera, and probably wet yourself.

ron mcelroy · Oct 12, 2006

JBrunner said:
pass out,.... and probably wet yourself.

This sounds like a possible life experience?

DBP · Oct 13, 2006

Pinholemaster said:
Why not full SCUBA gear?

You'd still be exhaling through the regulator and fogging the glass. Might have to use a rebreather.

vanspaendonck · Oct 13, 2006

TheFlyingCamera said:
Do you really want to be putting a hose in your mouth that goes up a mule's nose? How are you going to remember which end went up the nostril six months after the fact?

Oh, come on, it's only the mule's nose, not some other orifice...
You Americans are all so hygiene conscious, no wonder you all develop alergies, you never get a chance to exercise your immune system.

Snorkeling under the focusing cloth!

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