[Leica] the value of a good loupe

[Christer Almqvist <christer@almqvist.net>]

Recently somebody asked here whether XYZ brand was a good loupe: One of the
answers was that a used 50 mm camera lens bought at swap meet for $10 was a
good alternative to a pricey loupe. I almost wrote to say that a used 85 mm
projector lens bought for $5 would be a good alternative too. I am glad I
did not write that. (I hope you have forgotten I already wrote that once,
several months ago.)

Yesterday I spotted a Schneider 6x aspheric MC loupe for DM 220 at a shop
close by, that' about $ 105. The list price here is DM 419 ($199) but you
can usually get them for 320-360 DM ($150-170) So I bought the one for DM
220.

This is one of the best investments I ever made in photographic equipment,
and it would be true even if the price had been higher. If you have enough
money to buy a Leica, you should not hesitate to buy one of the real good
loupes.  Four element aspheric loupes, whether Leitz, Schneider, Rodenstock
and a few other brands are all really good loupes.  I only use my loupe for
looking at b+w negatives and contact sheets, but I guess my conclusion
would be the same if I looked at slides.

With the new loupe can I easily determine if there is enough detail to
warrant an enlargement  from looking at the contact sheet (like facial
expressions when the face is just 1 mm (1/24") on the contact), and seeing
the whole picture at once makes it much easier to judge its pictorial
quality than if you have a loupe that only shows part of the picture at a
time. And I can look at  negatives/contacs for much longer without feeling
the eye strain. I guess there is one drawback: I have to put more effort
into making the contact sheets, now that I know how much I can get out of
them. On the other hand it should save me some disappointing enlargements.

- --
Christer Almqvist
D-20255 Hamburg, Germany and/or
F-50590 Regnéville-sur-Mer, France