Ground Glass and Light Fall Off
So I got out to use the 80 a bit and although it’s a little difficult to use, it is certainly very “usable”. After speaking with a fellow named Baxter Bradford, who I emailed because he also uses the 80XL and one of the Robert White chaps said he had solved the problem with an extra back, he said the purchase of the extra back with a wide angle fresnel solved the problem completely.
However I was also chatting with Bill Maxwell of Maxwell Precision Optics. He produces custom fresnels that have a greater brightness than the standard fresnels in many cameras. The general online consensus is that it is the best replacement ground glass/fresnel on the market (although it is expensive and I imagine there may be a little bit of post purchase justification going on). Bill can supply an extra wide angle fresnel that starts working at around 90mm and will show the corners of a 58 lens with no light fall off. The only downside is that he has to fit it to the back himself (or get an engineer to do so). I’ve spoken to him about what actual works needs to be done to get it to fit but had no reply yet.
I will most likely be ordering an extra back for my Ebony with the stock wide angle fresnel. At some point I will order the Maxwell standard fresnel and based on the performance of that and how much machining work needs to be done for the extra wide, I may also purchase that. The Maxwell gg/fresnel is about £150.
I was also out near Sutton Bank in North Yorkshire this week just before a meeting with our chairman and myself and my dear wife went for a little walk in the woods and I took the photo you see above. Charlotte also took a photograph of me looking like something steampunk from Naked Lunch.
