Good loupe recommendations?

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Forest_rain

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No, there is a definite difference between good loupes and the cheap plastic ones. Sadly all the good ones are discontinued so you will need to trawl eBay for Cabin/Mamiya, Schneider, Rodenstock, Contax, Pentax and the like.
 
For focusing, the general recommendation is a 10x. Contrary to popular opinion a plastic 10x loupe is insufficient for critical focus, even in the center. In a pinch, you could use a Hastings triplet loupe like the Edmund Optics, Bausch & Lomb or Belomo ones, but they don't have the skirt to make contact with the ground glass and are less convenient than a proper focusing loupe.
 
For 10x, I have one of these and it's high-quality and very rea$onable (not sure if the form-factor is appropriate for your application):

BelOMO 10x Triplet. Jewelers Loupe Magnifier 21mm (.85"). Optical Glass with Anti-Reflection Coating


81pTPidz3NL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
 
majid said:
No, there is a definite difference between good loupes and the cheap plastic ones. ......
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True. But there is quite a difference in price. Pay for what you need. The one referenced by the OP looks like a knock-off of the original Agfa loupe which used to sell for $5-6 and was the standard for decades. I have several of the originals left.

I also use a large Jobo 4X loupe for 6x7 negatives. It was around $100 new some 20 years ago. Now it was not quite as good as the Schneider that cost $200 when I compared all of them side by side. But it was close and you have to find what is "good enough" to stop spending money at that point.

So buy the $5 knock-off at B&H and see if it does the job you need. It is a cheap price to find out if it will do the job you need. I'm betting it will be good enough.
 
What about a linen tester? Mine has a single element glass lens and very visible pincushion distortion, but should be fine for checking focus as the centre of the field.
 
I have about 5 of the Carson loupes and a couple of Peak brand loupes. They work okay, depending on your use. I use mine to check negatives and slides before "digitizing". For this purpose it's okay. There are lots of variation between samples, that's why I have several of them. I also have a Belomo but it's a different breed of loupe. I'm a little unsteady in the hands and I can't use it well.

For years I used a Calumet loupe that was really very good. Then one day my wife knocked it off the table while dusting and it broke apart. A good loupe is great to use. Best to look for a used one from the days when they were widely used and plentiful.
 
majid said:
No, there is a definite difference between good loupes and the cheap plastic ones. Sadly all the good ones are discontinued so you will need to trawl eBay for Cabin/Mamiya, Schneider, Rodenstock, Contax, Pentax and the like.
Click to expand...

I'm also coming to the realization that a lot of the good loupes have been discontinued. I have two that I consider to be really good: A Peterson 6x6 and a Promaster Spectrum 7 4x. They both have interchangeable skirts and, if I were to give the edge to either one of them for critical focus, I'd choose the Promaster. Maybe look on eBay or see if maybe KEH might have any. The Promaster originally retailed for about $80.

I just checked B&H and the only one I see that I know is good and has been around for a long time is the Peak 4x. It's $280 and is a monster (may actually be too big!), but it's a really good loupe.
 
I have used a Zeiss Triotar T* 5x loupe for years, it's excellent quality and outperforms its 5x rating. A quick search on Ebay showed several for sale, some complete and in the original box.

There are also a couple of Schneider 8x loupes I ran across doing the search.

G
 
I'm looking at a Belomo 20x and Bausch and Lomb 20x "Coddington" loupe. Both are about $28, which one should I get? Belomo sounds Russian so maybe I should stay away from that one...

Belomo claims to be "quadruplet" while Bausch and Lomb is "single lens" I'm not sure which is better. Maybe a triplet/quadruplet.... I'm leaning towards the belomo; the schneider and leica loupes are way too expensive.

Is 20x too much for my use of checking infinity focus? I chose it because above post says that 10x is not enough.

There's also a "Peak" 15x loupe that says "made in Japan", but I hate to say it looks poor quality, I'm not sure if it's a triplet or single lens, probably a single.
 
Silvestri still makes high quality loupes, they come in x4, x6, x8, x10 and x12 magnification + one with tilt. They are available through Linhof Studio in the UK and possibly other outlets as well. I've got one myself, top notch.
 
Forest_rain said:
I'm looking at a Belomo 20x and Bausch and Lomb 20x "Coddington" loupe. Both are about $28, which one should I get? Belomo sounds Russian so maybe I should stay away from that one...

Belomo claims to be "quadruplet" while Bausch and Lomb is "single lens" I'm not sure which is better. Maybe a triplet/quadruplet.... I'm leaning towards the belomo; the schneider and leica loupes are way too expensive.

Is 20x too much for my use of checking infinity focus? I chose it because above post says that 10x is not enough.

There's also a "Peak" 15x loupe that says "made in Japan", but I hate to say it looks poor quality, I'm not sure if it's a triplet or single lens, probably a single.
Click to expand...

The Belomo 10x is good. I don't have the 20x, but I would assume it's quite dark and has a tiny field of view.

Avoid the Coddington. It's basically a (very thick) single-element loupe with a deep groove stop in the middle to reduce the aperture and aberrations, but it is far, far inferior to a Hastings triplet like the Belomo or the Bausch & Lomb triplet loupes, and not that much cheaper.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coddington_magnifier

The Belomo is a favorite for field use by geologists. It's well-made with a robust metal casing, and has excellent optical quality, even before considering the very reasonable price.

The Edmund Optics triplet is excellent, but much more expensive than B&L:

https://www.edmundoptics.com/f/edmund-optics-hastings-triplets/11979/

The Nikon triplet is as well, but its main benefit is color neutrality, for gemmologists.
 
Bob Michaels said:
True. But there is quite a difference in price. Pay for what you need. The one referenced by the OP looks like a knock-off of the original Agfa loupe which used to sell for $5-6 and was the standard for decades. I have several of the originals left.

So buy the $5 knock-off at B&H and see if it does the job you need. It is a cheap price to find out if it will do the job you need. I'm betting it will be good enough.
Click to expand...

I used to believe that as well, and used the Peak 10x to assess critical focus on my Fuji G617 slides. Then one day I used a 5x loupe (Contax Triotar) on a slide of the Golden Gate Bridge seen from Marin Headlands. With the 5x loupe, I could clearly see the suspension cables were 4 separate strands. With the 10x loupe, it was just one hazy undistinguishable mess, despite the higher magnification. You don't have to get something very expensive, a $30 Belomo loupe would work just as well as a $200 premium loupe.
 
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