I'm considering getting a Toyo 3.6 groundglass loupe, I've heard good things about this loupe. Has anyone had experience w/the Emo Focuscup 6x groundglass loupe?

Also I cannot find the distributer for Emo(Wetzlar if that where it's made) and I assume it's still made by Macromax or is it?

-- Jonathan Brewer (lifestories@earthlink.net), December 06, 2001

Answers

I have the toyo loupe and I think it's great. I haven't used/heard of the other loupe, but I wonder if a 6x loupe might be a little bit much. The ground glass on my Canham DLC is pretty course and I wonder if a higher power loupe would be usefull or if it would be limited by the texture of the GG.

Of course, you may have a finer ground glass in which case more magnification may be usefull.

-- Nathaniel Paust (paustne@whitties.org), December 07, 2001.

Nathaniel.....So the Toyo is cost effective and it would be pretty much overkill to look around for something else?

-- Jonathan Brewer (lifestories@earthlink.net), December 07, 2001.

I have the Toyo loupe and I'm very happy with it. Toyo makes two loupes--a short barrel and a long barrel. I have the longer version and I wish I had known there was shorter version when I bought it; it's just longer than it needs to be and a little clunky to hang around your neck. Optically, though, I think the Toyo is an excellent value, and it's very nicely made, so I don't hesitate recommending it.

-- tedkaufman (writercrmp@aol.com), December 07, 2001.

Hi Jonathan, I am using a 7x after losing my other one. It is difficult to focus with it. I wouldn't recommend a 6x.

Dave.

-- dave (daveanton@shaw.ca), December 07, 2001.

I have the Toyo 3.6x loupe (long barrel) and like it a lot. I used to have a 8x loupe, it was too strong to my taste. I like the long barrel so I don't have to stick my nose to the GG. I also like the rubber bottom preventing GG scratching.

-- Georges Pelpel (gpelpel@attbi.com), December 07, 2001.

I actually bought the Emo 6x Focuscope to replace a Toyo loupe. I found the Emo too large and heavy, and the 6x unecessary, and sent it back and got another Toyo.

-- Glenn C. Kroeger (gkroeger@trinity.edu), December 07, 2001.

I've used the Toyo 3.6 for years, and have absolutely no reason to want anything else. It does the job perfectly well, and is very reasonably priced. It's also nicely made, and I too appreciate the rubber ring to prevent scratching the GG. Just a suggestion...much of the time, when I have plenty of light, I use extra strong reading glasses instead of a loupe. (Stronger than I need...only use them briefly) I use the cord that allows them to hang around my neck. With those, I have both hands free.

-- John Sarsgard (sarsgard@yahoo.com), December 07, 2001.

Another satisfied Toyo user. Note that it has rubber rings on *both* ends, a particularly valuable feature if you wear AR coated eyeglasses, and wish to avoid scratching their coatings.

-- Sal Santamaura (santamaura@earthlink.net), December 07, 2001.

Another satisfied Toyo user - its cheap and very well designed. The long barrel, I suspect, is to allow you to use the loupe without removing a GG shade (if you use a Speed Graphic etc). Strictly speaking, the power of the loupe you use should be related to how much you will enlarge the image, since that allows you to see if the DOF will hold up when the picture is enlarged etc. However, beyong 4X can get problematic if you have a coarse GG. Having a fine GG creates another bunch of problems - a 'hot spot'. If you're shotting 4x5, a 16x20 is about a 4X enlargement and a 4X loupe is pretty much ideal. If you sometimes print 20x24, stop down a little more than the image through the loupe indicates. Good luck, DJ.

-- N Dhananjay (dhananjay-nayakankuppam@uiowa.edu), December 07, 2001.

Good to hear from you Dave.....I second the motion, Toyo 3,6x loupe it is. This ends two years of researching, e-mails, phone calls, offers, counteroffers, and picking the brains of some intellectual giants that gave me the tools to get the LF gear I was after at a reasonable price. I want to thank you folks for that, and now I'm going to put it all together, get comfortable with it, and start shooting! Ciao

-- Jonathan Brewer (lifestories@earthlink.net), December 07, 2001.

I think every LF photographer at one time or another used a Toyo, I have the long one and I am happy with it, but I really love the Silvestri 6x tilting one....oh men does it make your life so much easier when trying to check the corners....specially in 8x10.

-- Jorge Gasteazoro (jorgegm58@prodigy.net.mx), December 07, 2001.

Jonathan: I have used 5X, 6X, 7X and 10X loupes from Leitz, Horseman, and Silvestri. The 10X, a Silvestri I find just perfect. Where the 7X loupe did not give me as fine a definition of sharp focus, the Silvestri does to perfection, and with it, the tiniest movement of the cam on my Linhof Technika can be detected on the GG. This loupe comes with an excellent reticle, -which I do not use. It has a relatively large diamter and it is adequately long to keep the nose off the GG. The maximum magnification loupe that is practical I think is relative to the coarsness of the screen. With coarser screens you may want to stay with lower magnifications. With the fine screen I use on the Technika, the 10X's magnification is just right, with coarser screens it might be too high. For viewing the whole GG I have special prescription glasses and with those I can see the 4X5 screen at as high a magnification as feasible while viewing the whole screen.

-- Julio Fernandez (gluemax@sympatico.ca), December 07, 2001.

Hi Jonathan

If I can`t use the bino then I use a Nikon 8x loupe and it works very well for me on the Arca and the Horseman. Cheers!

-- Armin Seeholzer (armin.seeholzer@smile.ch), December 09, 2001.

I have an old Omegaron $12 80mm enlarging lens that works better than my friends Toyo ground glass loupe. He's trying to sell it. Can see clearly and as brightly all the way to the corners.James

-- bigmac (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), December 09, 2001.

For those using the Silvestri tilting loupe, why not just tilt a normal loupe at an angle?

-- Tony Karnezis (karnezis@aecom.yu.edu), December 17, 2001.

Tony as you tilt the loupe you get reflection from the ground glass since the Silvestry has an open design there is less reflection and you can see the image better.

-- Jorge Gasteazoro (jorgegm58@prodigy.net.mx), December 17, 2001.

for loupes that require the user to place the front of the loupe on the gg surface, looking into the corners darkens the image due to less light hitting that part of the gg. And turning the loupe into the line of site of the lens makes the loupes focus out of focus. James

-- bigmac (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), December 17, 2001.