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Home >> Photography >> Accessories
Loupes and Light Boxes
I've had my Logan lightbox for a couple
of years and have been pretty satisfied with it for my use. It has some
light fall off in the top and bottom third of the light panal but it's
not too bad. I also have a smaller light box that can fit half a page
of 20 sleeved slides that I keep at work for some break time viewing but
most of my critical viewing is at home with the Logan.
At the same time as buying the Logan lightbox
I also bought the Iston 4X loupe to analyze my slides. It's a basic
copy of the acclaimed Schneider 4X loupe but at less then half the cost.
I've very happy with the optical quality of this loupe and although
I have not had the opportunity to try out the Schneider 4X loupe I have
not found anything else that really bettered the Iston. I did try out
the Pentax 5X loupe and found it to be very crisp and sharp but with
obvious edge distortion but certainly not as bad as my very cheap Kaiser
4X loupe that I bought because it could accomodate 6x6 chrome viewing.
Cheap as it was it was also a waste of money due to how the edge distortion
invades the critical centre viewing area. I keep the Kasier at work
for non-critical viewing.
I just bought this 8X loupe recently and
compared it directly against the Schneider 10X loupe that I really wanted
to buy but couldn't bring myself to spending over $350 CAN for it. I
cheaped out with the Cabin as it costs half as much as the Schneider
but aside from the extra 2X for the Schneider I couldn't detect any
meaningful differences between the two in terms of quality. I didn't
appreciate what the term critical sharpness really meant until I bought
the Cabin but now I really enjoy the ability to do some very critical
analysis of my slides. The Cabin can get almost all of a 35mm slide
within its field of view so it's more convenient then the Schneider
10X since the Schneider only covers about half a 35mm slide.
My slide viewing equipment is not highly
pedigreed but I believe they offer very good value for the money and
incidentally since I bought the Logan box used, my three major pieces
of the Logan box, Iston 4X and Cabin 8X cost me about as much as what
the Schneider 10X loupe would have cost me brand new.
Slides and 120 film are sleeved in Print
File protective pages that are archival quality of course. Given my
space constraints and lack of storage space, the pages are stored in
regular binders but I know that's not a good long term solution. Better
that I should keep the pages in boxes completely shielded from light
but perhaps I may be able to do so in a few years but not right now. |
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