Hello,

I asked about a Seneca Improved View 5x7 a while back, and I got an overwhelming number of responses. I managed to get some great pictures out of it, but i now have a not-so-little problem. Due to an unavoidable incident, the ground glass was broken. The rest of the camera is fine and functional, but I need to get another ground glass. I am currently using a piece of pane glass I sandblasted and cut myself, but the quality is very poor. If anybody has any ideas, drop a line. Thanks in advance,

-- Eric Johnson (erijoh@bcacademies.bergen.org), May 09, 2002

Answers

If he is still in business, you might check with Stephen Shuart. The last address I have for him (This is from an old Shutterbug magazine) is 102 Pine Ave., Kane, PA 16735; 1-814-837-7786; shuart@penn.com.

-- John Boeckeler (boeck@midcoast.com), May 09, 2002.

You can make a pretty decent groundglass by abrading a piece of clear window glass with machinist's silicon carbide lapping compound.

The difference between this method and samblasting is that the lapping compound is available in very fine grits, quite a bit finer than common sand to you can produce with a finer focussing screen.

The lapping compound consists of abrasive powder in a heavy oil. The last time that I made a glass screen I smeared the compoound onto a piece of completely worn out piece of 300 grit sandpaper held in a random orbit sander. It took no more tha 5 minutes to get a useable screen.

-- Ed Balko (veggie@monmouth.com), May 09, 2002.

One of the best "investments" you'll ever make in LF photograpy is to replace a regular ground glass with a Maxwell or Beattie screen. Expensive, yes. Worth it -- definitely.

-- Willhelmn (wmitch3400@hotmail.com), May 09, 2002.

I found that I got better ground glass by going to my local glass shot and showing them a ground glass from an old Korona view camera. They cut me three of them. Cost, $3.00 and better than the original.

-- Eric Williams (gldn@hotmail.com), May 09, 2002.

That should be shop, not shot....

-- Eric Williams (gldn@hotmail.com), May 09, 2002.