Has anyone tried using the $30 Peak 10x suction cup loupe that sticks to your groundglass? Buy three and stick on your ground glass to define your plane of focus then tilt, swing, and focus away. This must be a joke, right? The DOF at 10x must be so small, and the flexibility of the suction cup and lack of focus adjustments? would make this device completely useless, right?

-- Carlos Co (co@che.udel.edu), February 22, 1999

Answers

With loupes and life, you get what you pay for. I started with the Peak 10x suction cup loupe thinking it would solve a continual problem all LF users have, focusing and holding a loupe on the ground glass at the same time. By the way, Peak calls it a "Sucking Lupe"...draw your own picture! The problem is that the suction cup is so large that when placed on the ground glass your loupe can only be used in the center portion of the 4x5 ground glass...and for most of my work, the near/far focus is not in the center area. I found that I was continually taking off the suction cup to look at the top, bottom and corners. The lens is optically not the best either, but then again I wouldn't expect a $30 loupe to be too great. I do like the 10x magnification and I still use it in low light situations. IMHO for a little bit more money I would invest in a optically better, non "sucking" loupe.

-- John Wiemer (Wiemerjo@slcc.edu), February 26, 1999.