4x5 View Finder?

[bobwysiwyg]

Hi all, did a search but couldn't come up with anything, at least not related to view cameras and a monorail to be specific. I hope to start fooling around with a Cambo 4x5 shortly. I happened upon something on the Web that 'appeared' to be some sort of right-angle view finder for a Cambo. It looked like it attached to the back, but I don't know if using something like this is worthwhile, and does it view the ground glass or replace the ground glass? Opinions and explanations welcome.

[keithwms]

There are various monocular viewers, most use the GG. I have a 6x9 one for my horseman that replaces the GG.

I nabbed a binocular viewer from a polaroid MP camera and fitted it to the 4x5 GG of my crown graphic. Heavy but kinda fun.

[bobwysiwyg]

Keith,

Thanks. Yes, I guess 'monocular' is the term for the one I saw. I've seen the binocular version for the Cambo, but thought it a bit pricey since I'm just getting my feet wet. I will be trying the dark cloth of course, but I have a bit of gadgeteer streak in me as well. Any thoughts on whether the monocular version would work?

[keithwms]

I think the monocular viewers are fine- you see just about everything that you need to see. For really critical focus, I feel that I am better off with a loupe. A viewer does allow me to work more quickly, but impatience is seldom rewarded, in LF.

If you need a quick-focusing 4x5 system for the field and aren't too worried about precise framing, then an RF-coupled thing like a crown graphic will make you happy.

I have no real use for my viewer gadget, to be honest.

[voceumana]

I think that mostly these viewers were used by studios so that when clients came to a photo shoot session they didn't have to deal with the upside-down image to view the composition. They don't seem to be very common in field use.

Personally, I find the inverted image on the GG helpful--if a composition holds together upside down, it will hold together right-side up, and the more abstract upsidedown image makes it easier to see form rather than get distracted by detail.

Charlie

[bobwysiwyg]

Personally, I find the inverted image on the GG helpful--if a composition holds together upside down, it will hold together right-side up, and the more abstract upsidedown image makes it easier to see form rather than get distracted by detail.

Charlie

That's an interesting take on it. I see your point.

[rob champagne]

I have a right angle viewer for my Linhof. I use it all the time in preference to a dark cloth. Mine has a 2X lens in it. It is supposed to be used in conjuction with a fresnel screen otherwise seeing what is happening in the corners is difficult in anything but the brightest conditions. The cambo right angle viewer is reputed to be very good and compact for carrying.

http://www.cambo.com/

its in there if you look for it....

[Ria]

Personally, I find the inverted image on the GG helpful--if a composition holds together upside down, it will hold together right-side up, and the more abstract upsidedown image makes it easier to see form rather than get distracted by detail.

Charlie[/QUOTE]

I agree. For me it has to do with the fact that when looking at something upside down I tend to see what I actually see, (ie, vertical lines, highlights here, shadows there), as opposed to what I know to be there, (a house, a tree).
It seems to me there was some discussion of this phemonema in the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain"; although it's been years since I read it and I could be misremembering.
Ria

[bobwysiwyg]

All very good points. Mentally, we do tend to "fill in the blanks" which probably keeps us from focusing (no pun intended) on what we really should be looking at.

[rob champagne]

I wonder how painters and the old masters ever managed with composition without being able to see upside down. Large format photographers do it so much better don't they:rolleyes: