Ebony question --- Paul Owen where are you?

I was out looking at Robert White's site and noticed what appears to

be a focusing hood for the Ebony camera made by Ebony. Actually it

looks like a bellows attached to the viewing glass to work as a

focusing hood. A second model has a magnifier attached.

 

Has anybody tried this yet?

 

Thanks

Hi Grey Wolf!! The focussing hoods you describe are an Ebony version - a bellows affair that attaches to the ground glass back and acts as a sun-shield AND a hood designed by Matt Sampson of Robert White that also includes a non-detachable magnifier (x3 magnification I think). Apparently Matt designed the viewer in conjunction with Lee Filters and it was specifically designed with the RSW camera in mind. This viewer will work with other Ebony cameras, I believe. Matt has sent an example to Ebony for their comments as Hiromi Sakanashi has been contemplating a similar device for some time but his workload has prevented him from doing so. Matt's version is almost half the price of the Ebony BUT the magnifier is non-detachable and is therefore a bit restricting when it comes to viewing the corners of the ground glass. Both versions can be left attached to the camera in place of the ground-glass protector plate. IMHO, you are still hard pressed to better a good darkcloth for viewing the screen!!

Grey Wolf, check this thread out. http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=004H43 It contains pictures of it and some comments on it. I asked about this hood a few months ago. Haven't gotten it yet though.

I have been using the Ebony focusing bellows for over a year. I don't bother to carry a darkcloth anymore!

Thanks for all of the help folks. Sorry to have been a bit longer getting back here than I anticipated. (Winter returned and I got the flu).

 

I also am considering being done with a focusing cloth whenever possible. Paul, I did not realize that on the Robert White site Matt Sampson was making the focusing hood. Thanks for the informative reply. Also thanks to Keith for link to the same question that I must have overlooked or not searched on the correct keyword to find

 

I would like to ask Michael a few questions as he has the hood.

 

Does the hood extend far enough away from the ground glass for comfortable focusing with just your eyes in your opinion?

 

How do you use a loupe for fine focusing with the hood without having bright daylight affect the ground glass?

 

I frequently use two hands making adjustments while under a dark cloth. Do you find it inconvenient to have to hold the focusing hood in the extended position for focusing and thus leaving only one hand free for adjustment?

 

Is the hood fairly robust in materials and design such that hiking with it and taking normal care a person should not incur any real problems?

 

Thanks again for your help,

The Ebony hood can be extended to about 7 inches. It is fairly flexible, so you can move

your eyes from side to side. This is useful for wide-angle lenses, which tend to have a

hot-spot.

 

To get total darkness, I cup both hands around the sides of my eyes, to seal the

opening.

 

I can usually focus with one hand while holding the hood to my eyes with the other.

Even with no hands on the hood, it shades the glass enough to see the image

reasonably well.

 

The barrel of my loupe is opaque black plastic. I usually snap the hood "shut" (ie.

completely collapsed) and put my loupe flat to the glass. This is usually sufficient.

Otherwise, I will use my hands to close off the glass a little more. If I want to check

focus at the extreme edges or corners, I remove the focus hood, as it gets in the way at

the edges.

 

If this does not sound "light tight" enough for you, you could also consider using the

Ebony focus hood with a small dark cloth (which would serve the same purpose as

cupping your hands around the sides of your eyes).

 

Attaching and removing the hood is a trivial operation.

 

The material for the focus bellows is the same type of leather as the main bellows. The

frame is wood. The construction is solid.