Obtaining high-quality magnifying glasses from discontinued lenses

[Andreas Thaler]

Apart from providing insights into the structure and function of lenses, a section can also provide spare parts and high-quality magnifying glasses.

Today I was able to add two more examples to my Minolta magnifying glass collection.

A lens in a mount and …

… a „tele magnifying glass“ which, as a multi-part optic, allows viewing from a greater distance.

Ideal, for example, for checking deeply installed lenses in lenses.

Top magnifiers from Minolta!

 

[dpurdy]

Yes my 3 main loupes are all lens elements. you can't set them right on the surface you are focusing on but I don't mind holding them and focusing. I also found that if I forgot my loupe while shooting a view camera on some location that I can take a rear element off an unused lens and focus with that. I do prefer a standard loupe for focusing on ground glass.

 

[xkaes]

If you need a LARGE magnifier -- as opposed to POWERFUL, high diopter magnifier -- there are lots of longer zooms, such as 70-300mm and 100-400mm, etc, that have a front element/group that is easy to remove/unscrew. They are typically 67mm to 77mm wide.

 

[bernard_L]

I have a couple loupes that I use to peek at the ground glass (resting on film rails) when checking focus.
They came from cannibalizing the electronic viewfinder of camcorders that were not serviceable and/or of obsolete (analog) recording technology. Ooops! what did I just write about analog technology?

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

Another good source are busted binoculars.