What is this thing?

[wolfee]

Doesn't appear to be a normal loupe. The end you can see looks square and frosty. Is it for placing the film/slide on and then backlighting? What?

http://cgi.ebay.de/Schneider-Kreuzn...14&_trkparms=72:1231|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318

 

[Paul Howell]

slide copier attachment for a bellows?

 

[Lee L]

Slide viewing loupe. Haven't seen one like this myself, and it's not current production.

Lee

 

[wolfee]

I got it half way figured out. You put the loupe on the light box and scroll the film strips across the frosted top part. I assume because the film is on the top you have no magnification (and the box does not have an "x" on it). Anyway, the viewing screen seems to be a little wider in one direction than the other. Does anyone know if the viewing part is formatted for 35mm or 120?

 

[Poohblah]

35mm most likely; reversal film seems to be most popular in 35mm format.

 

[ath]

wolfee, I think you insert a slide behind the frosted screen and view it magnified with the build-in loupe. The frosted screen gives even illumination without a lightbox, just point to the next "white" light source.
This is a standard slide viewer although I haven't seen them from Schneider before (and not at this extraordinary price; they tend to be a few Euros only from other manufactureres like this one)
Maybe you can detach the screen and use it as an ordinary loupe.

 

[Bob F.]

Googling "Diavorsatz" and "Dia Vorsatz" suggests it is a slide copier (plus I believe "dia" is slide/transparency in German - "vorsatz" (with intent) sort of agrees, but shows the difficulties inherent with direct translations between languages!)...

I suspect the use of the word "lupe" in the description is causing confusion - it may be a mistake by the seller.

German for Slide-viewer seems to be "Diabetrachter"...

 

[wolfee]

Crimeny, I'm getting so curious I might just buy the bloody thing to see what it is! Even though the comments from our European posters seem unanamous that it is over priced. Searching "diavorsatz" on google images provided pics of several devices that attach to the objective of a digicam lens to shoot macro pics of 35mm slides.

 

[Q.G.]

"vorsatz" (with intent) sort of agrees, but shows the difficulties inherent with direct translations between languages!)...

Indeed.
A "Vorsatz" is something that is put ("setzen") in front of ("vor") something else.

The thing looks like an attachment that turns a Schneider loupe into a slide-viewer.

 

[John Koehrer]

It's also likely to be an attachment to convert a loupe to a slide viewer. Leica had a 5X that could be separated and fulfilled both functions.

 

[wolfee]

Thanks, QG, you've resolved it. And, saved me a hundred Euros which is probably about a kajillion, pathetic US Dollars. I'll just stick with my Pentax 5.5x loupe and homemade light box.