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Best practice: hide the groundglass from light

Hi guys,
What do you do to hide the groundglass from light? What is your best practice? Black t shirt?

I have seen a shade at the groundglass on a Linhof techno on YouTube. But I couldn't find it. Some ideas?
Thank you.
Mueller
 

jlm

Workshop Member
i use the Rodenstock 6x6 3x loupe which shields the screen from stray light and gives 3x magnification mainly for viewing the IQ LCD, but also the gg
 

greygrad

Member
Linhof produce an adapter plate (#001104) which allows you to use any of the Hasselblad V-system finders (such as waist level finder or the RMFX) on the Techno - very useful.
 

Geoff

Well-known member
hoodman, with the rubber extension piece as well. Works like a charm for a 645 viewing area.
 

torger

Active member
I use the Linhof Techno, and on that I use the excellent Linhof self-supporting flexible screen shade (which is flexible to change shape but holds the shape). I don't use the magnifier lid, just use look into the shade as a chimney and further shade with my hands, it becomes a bit like looking in a waist-level viewfinder of a Hasselblad V. In rare conditions I do use a black $10 t-shirt as focusing cloth :) , I put the t-shirt neck around the shade (use a t-shirt with tight neck so it fits snuggly, it can hang there from the shade without support, so there's a reason it's a t-shirt) and put my head in it. Since I got the new bright ground glass I extremely rarely use the t-shirt, hand-shading plus screen shade is good enough for most occassions. In dim light (indoor, after sunset etc) with the SK35XL I use it from time to time.

(The t-shirt also doubles as body padding in the F-stop X-large ICU where I store my system. The Techno body is due to it's shape a bit messy to pack, I put the body on it's back in the bottom of the case with lens mounted, and then softly the t-shirt irregurarly on top to fill out the space so the camera don't shake around a lot.)

One advantage of having a flexible shade is that if you have shifted a lot or otherwise need to look from the side you can bend the shade to do so. The advantage of not using a magnifying lid or other viewfinder attachment is that with this flexible shade you can keep it on at all times, when focusing critical with the high magnification loupe you just fold it together in place.

Setting up and shooting with a technical camera involves many steps, and I've tried to cut down as many of them as possible to get a faster shooting procedure. For example I have a short cable release attached to each lens I have so I don't need to attach one for each lens change. Having viewer options which you don't need to attach/detach between composing and critical focusing is also a part of this concept. Some will think that the unmagnified ground glass is too tiny for composition and will want a magnifier lid attachment (it's only 4x so not usable for critical focusing, so when done composing you detach it and finalize with a high magnification loupe, such as Linhof Studio/Silvestri 12x). I have that, but never use it.

A disadvantage of my setup is that all Linhof-branded components are crazy expensive. Related to the system in whole it's not a big deal, but a couple of hundred euros for the flexible bellows and a few more for the magnifier lid does feel a bit expensive for these type of parts.

sliding back with the flexible self-supporting bellows shade:


me under the t-shirt


4x magnifier lid, which I never use (if someone wants it I can sell it), but some probably would prefer instead of unmagnified when composing. This could also be used instead of the t-shirt, you should not need a focusing cloth with this lid attachment. Oh well, there are some light leaks still around the lid due to poor design, I don't remember if they were critical or not though (ie if you still would need a focusing cloth on top of this in some conditions).
 
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Hi Torger,
Thank you very much for that interesting info about the shade and the loupe.
I ask myself if it would good to use a Hasselblad Finder with the Linhof adapter. but this finders have only a 2.5 magnification. This could be not enough. And there is a problem to change the finder from loupe 10x viewing... Hmmm.

I have to think about that.
Mueller
 
Hi,
does anybody used a Hasselblad viewfinder (e.g. a prism finder) on a techno? There should be a a right Picture because of the mirror.
Is it possible to use this?
 

greygrad

Member
Hi,
does anybody used a Hasselblad viewfinder (e.g. a prism finder) on a techno? There should be a a right Picture because of the mirror.
Is it possible to use this?
Yes. The RMFx is the ideal one to use - simple and light. The image is corrected vertically, but not horizontally. If you want to use one with a prism, make sure the eyepiece is far enough away from the camera to be comfortable to use (this is the RMFx's strong point). e.g. something like this might not fit at all, whilst this looks fine.

You can see the RMFx on an A/S camera here - it fits and works in almost exactly the same way on the Techno. N.B. The old-style Acute groundglass has the grooves for the Hasselblad finder built in; the new 'brightscreen' one requires the use of the adapter above, as does the standard groundglass.
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
With my Alpa GG I either use my Alpa bellows hood or BlackJacket dark cloth from my 4x5. Both with a Silvestri 6x tilting loupe.
 

Licht

New member
i use the Rodenstock 6x6 3x loupe which shields the screen from stray light and gives 3x magnification mainly for viewing the IQ LCD, but also the gg
Does the loupe work well on an Arca Swiss Rm3di ?
Regards Peter
 
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