What loupe do you use? Any recommendations?

[Borna]

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What kind of loupe do you use when checking your negatives? Any recommendations? 

These models look nice, but hefty price on the used market. AP or HAMA or similar round loups cost 10-15 bucks while these expensive more premium ones around 100. 

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[spydrxx]

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[FrozenInTime]

A 50mm SLR lens can do a great job - better than most loupes.

Schneider x4 Lupe ; good but not really enough magnification.

Adox x10 ; good in the center but distorts quickly beyond that.

Nikon DW-2 finder from the F2. Superb corner to corner sharpness and x6 magnification : this is first choice of viewer.

For small area grain level inspection, an Olympus SZ60 stereo-microscope adds an extra dimension.

 

[TomB_tx]

I use a simple "AGFA LUPE 8x" I've had since the 1960s. Was great on contact sheets. Now I primarily just scan on a flatbed And view on PC monitor to evaluate.

[LocalHero1953]

I have a Silvestri (i.e. Linhof) 6x tilting loupe for large format photography - very high quality, and a bit pricy. They make several other loupes.

[BernardC]

I've used the second Nikon loupe (the black and clear one) for years. It is especially useful with view cameras because it can go to the edge of the frame. The optics are decent, but I'll use a reversed 50mm lens if I need to check finer details. I doubt it's much better than the standard AGFA-style 8x loupe.

One other option is an LCD magnifier. These attach to the back of digital cameras, and provide a magnified view of the rear screen.  They work like Hasselblad folding hoods, so they show a wider field at lower magnification. It's a good solution if you want to  look at larger negatives, or if you wear glasses.

 

[aesop]

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     ...my trusty old Peak Anastigmat Lupe 4x loupe, great for 35mm and medium format work. Sharp, contrasty, true colours with corner-to-corner correction to deal with aberration and distortion. Makes my Leica 37350 look like a child's toy.

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[adan]

I use a Schneider-Kreuznach 4x loupe similar to the Zeiss pictured, but a bit taller. Had it for a couple of decades, so the cost amortized over many years is pretty insignificant.

This current Kaiser 4.5x Loupe is about the same (at ~half the "vintage Schneider" prices asked on da Bay   ).

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1283093-REG/kaiser_202351_all_purpose_magnifier_loupe_4_5x_45mm.html/?ap=y&ap=y&smp=y&smp=y&lsft=BI%3A6879&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9b-pl4PQgQMVKwStBh3sMAXzEAQYASABEgIIyvD_BwE

I did use both the Nikon and Agfas for a long while - but they tend to have color aberrations and distortion in the corners, due to their high magnification, and sometimes plastic lenses.

Edited September 29, 2023 by adan

[Guest]

Since 2007: Rodenstock 6x aspherical. Highly recommended. 

[algrove]

I use the Magnifier feature on my iPhone. Plus I can make a photo of it too if wanted.

Edited October 29, 2023 by algrove

[Anbaric]

I don't really use it for negs, but I have a very nice BelOMO 10x triplet loupe I bought a few years back when they were commonly available for well under £20 on ebay, direct from Belarus, one of the last bargains of the former Soviet optical industry. Zeiss loupes were also made by BelOMO under a partnership agreement. Today, BelOMO is, I think, under sanctions by western countries as a military supplier of Belarus and Russia.

[Fazal Majid]

All the good loupes are long discontinued and have to be bought on the used market. Leica used to sell the EMO Seibert (also based in Wetzlar) rebranded. The gold standard was the Schneider-Kreuznach 4x, but I prefer the Rodenstock 4x aspherical with its convenient sliding skirt, which was also sold under the Calumet brand.

[Doug A]

I've been using this little Bosch & Lomb 5X jeweler's loupe for 70+ years. It has all the issues of any single fixed meniscus lens but it gets the job done for me. 

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[jankap]

The Carl Zeiss 3x12B monokular.

Edited December 26, 2024 by jankap

[Fazal Majid]

On 9/27/2023 at 2:07 PM, Borna said:

These models look nice, but hefty price on the used market. AP or HAMA or similar round loups cost 10-15 bucks while these expensive more premium ones around 100.

The conventional wisdom is that a 10x loupe only needs to be sharp in the center, to verify critical focus, so any cheap loupe will do. That conventional wisdom is wrong, as even in the center, a quality loupe will significantly outresolve a cheap Agfa-style one. I have an example of why this matters in my blog post on loupes:

https://blog.majid.info/going-all-loopy-about-loupes/

That doesn't mean you have to pay extortionate prices. A Hastings triplet type 10x loupe like the ones sold by Bausch & Lomb, Nikon, Zeiss, Euromex, Opticron and Belomo (the latter now near impossible to get because of sanctions on Belarus) will deliver sufficient sharpness in the center, at the expense of a tiny field of view of only about 10mm or so. They are marketed for jewelers (the Nikon and Zeiss ones have cult status among diamond graders because of their color accuracy), but beware of cheap Chinese knock-offs.

Edited December 28, 2024 by Fazal Majid

[Einst_Stein]

My two most used film formats are 6x6 and 6x8. I have extra Hasselblad 500CM waist level finder that covers 6x6 very well. It is foldable, so very convenient to carry.

The Hasselblad chimney viewfinder is good too, though not foldable. Much cheaper than the foldable in recent time.

For 6x8, I just take down the GX680's foldable waist level finder when needed. It can be expensive in the used market.

[105012]

I use two loupes and am very satisfied with them:

1. The big PEAK anastigmat 4x "lupe" (as spelled on the loupe); and
2. the small PEAK scale 10x "lupe".