What would cause me to see my own reflection in the ground glass?

[ndavidson27]

Please move this to the TLR section if this is not in the right forum.

Anyways, I recently picked up a Rolleicord V on the popular auction site, with the seller stating it came installed with a Maxwell brightscreen. While it much brighter than the ground glass on my Autocord and Yashica Mat, I'm getting very bad reflection while looking into it, so in the center of the glass, I'm more likely to see myself looking down into it, and not the actual composition.

My question is, what would cause this? I'm thinking that it would be the mirror, but I don't know enough to make that determination, and I couldn't find anything by googling it.

In the photo embedded, you can clearly see the reflection of the ceiling light, as well as the outline my head and camera. Neither of my other TLRs exhibit this behavior.

untitled.jpg by Nathan Davidson, on Flickr

 

[x-ray]

There's no photo embedded.

The mirror wouldn't cause that because it's at a 45 degree angle.

Most likely the screen has a glossy surface facing you which acts like a mirror. It's much like a glossy computer screen reflecting everything in the room.

 

[ellisson]

I have a Maxwell screen in my SL66 camera and a regular screen in my Rolleicord V.
So I removed the angle viewer on my SL66 and viewed directly down on the screen with my waist level finder indoors with lighting from above and I saw some reflection. But the light coming in from the lens on the camera was not as bright (not a TLR, but similar since light for the image is coming from below the screen).

I then looked at the waist level finder on the Rolleicord V with regular screen, and I could make out some reflection (me), also with more light from above (the room lighting) then from what was coming through the viewfinder lens on the camera.

The way I interpret these observations is that there is going to be some reflection from the screens, Maxwell or other, but not to the extent that it would distract from composing in the screen when the light coming off the image and through the viewfinder lens is equal to or greater than the light directed on the viewing screen from above. There may be more of this reflection from the Maxwell bright screen, but I have never found this to be a problem under normal shooting conditions with adequate light on the subject being imaged and using direct viewing on the screen. Of course, this is never a problem with an angle viewer over the screen because there is no light coming from above. But most don't use an angle viewer on a TLR, even though they exist.

Try viewing in a setting where the light coming "from below" the screen is greater than or equal to the light from above. It would be interesting to hear what you find.