New Yanke fresnel

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Alastair Moore
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New Yanke fresnel

Postby Alastair Moore » 11 Sep 2012, 21:40

Finally received my New Yanke (ebay) fresnel for my Cambo 4x5. Having had to wait all that time, I must say, it was well worth it. It's fantastically bright - I'm just looking at it now in a rather dimly lit apartment and I'm very impressed. I'm thinking of ordering the same product for my other cameras. Is there any downsides to using fresnels over a standard sheet of ground glass? The only concern I might have is ensuring the image is focused correctly, despite how it looks on the glass.

Walter Glover
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Re: New Yanke fresnel

Postby Walter Glover » 12 Sep 2012, 07:30

Alastair,

A Fresnel is not a ground glass — it is used in conjunction with a ground glass.

There are some cameras such as the Arca and the Toyo 4x5 which have the fresnel bonded to the inner side of the ground glass but neither the Wisner nor the Cambo would be like that.

Caution!!
Walter Glover

"We see things not as they are. We see them as we are."
Emanuel Kant

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Alastair Moore
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Re: New Yanke fresnel

Postby Alastair Moore » 12 Sep 2012, 10:10

Oh it's a two-in-one. Not just the fresnel! Glass as well. Really bright, checked it with my loupe and it looks to be sharp although I'm thinking I could probably do with a strong loupe, perhaps 10x. Anyway, I'm going to test drive it for a short while before committing to it.

Walter Glover
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Re: New Yanke fresnel

Postby Walter Glover » 12 Sep 2012, 10:17

Alastair,

The thing to do is to focus critically with your widest lens wide-open and a reasonable distant subject and shoot a sheet of film. Process it and check the sharpness of the image. As I pointed out to you when we met, the ONLY critical dimension in LF photography is the distance from the front of the ground glass holder where it makes contact with the camera body and the plane of the ground-glass which must be in the same plane as the sheet of film.

If the image forming ground surface of the ground-glass is at the very front of the Yankee than chances are you'll be alright. If the Fresnel component is in fornt of the ground surface as it faces the lens then chances are you won't be alright.
Walter Glover

"We see things not as they are. We see them as we are."
Emanuel Kant

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Alastair Moore
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Re: New Yanke fresnel

Postby Alastair Moore » 12 Sep 2012, 10:33

Thanks for the tips, Walter. I'm going to run a couple of test shots with some polaroids and see how they turn out and then will try it out with some negatives too. Will post up my results!

Andrew Nichols
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Re: New Yanke fresnel

Postby Andrew Nichols » 12 Jan 2013, 02:45

How did your tests go

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Maris
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Re: New Yanke fresnel

Postby Maris » 13 Jan 2013, 11:23

I get my fresnels from the local Dollar Tree store. They are labelled "whole page magnifiers" and actually neasure A4. The flexible ones are easy to cut to size and they work a treat when stuck onto the back (photographer's side, not lens side) of a plain ground-glass. The brightening effect is particularly dramatic with wide angle lenses. Focussing accuracy is unaffected if the focussing magnifier is adjusted to image the gritty side of the original ground-glass. Downside? The fresnel rings may clash with image structure and look a bit obtrusive. Price? $2 last time I bought one.


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