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Author Topic: Accurfocus™ AFD5  (Read 6181 times)

philipmccormick

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« on: March 19, 2010, 10:30:29 am »

I also posted this in the medium format/digital backs section, but it's relevant here too...

I was looking at this Accurfocus on the "Brightscreen" website and was wondering if anyone has used it, or know of anyone who has, and if so how good is it?

http://brightscreenstore.com/store/index.p...p;products_id=3

I can't find a review anywhere but the Brightscreen products seem to be highly regarded. The reason I ask is they say it's for improving manual focus accuracy/speed on medium format finders and I was thinking of one for my Leaf II-10 combined with one of their screens. In fact, can anyone give me feedback on the "Brightscreen" screens? Or are there better ones? Like many people on this forum I'm finding quick manual focusing difficult with the kind of low tolerances these bigger digital backs have. Thanks in advance.

Philip

« Last Edit: March 20, 2010, 06:44:15 am by philipmccormick »
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ddk

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« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2010, 03:19:39 pm »

Quote from: philipmccormick
I also posted this in the medium format/digital backs section, but it's relevant here too...

I was looking at this Accurfocus on the "Brightscreen" website and was wondering if anyone has used it, or know of anyone who has, and if so how good is it? I can't find a review anywhere but the Brightscreen products seem to be highly regarded. The reason I ask is they say it's for improving manual focus accuracy/speed on medium format finders and I was thinking of one for my Leaf II-10 combined with one of their screens. In fact, can anyone give me feedback on the "Brightscreen" screens? Or are there better ones? Like many people on this forum I'm finding quick manual focusing difficult with the kind of low tolerances these bigger digital backs have. Thanks in advance.

Philip

http://brightscreenstore.com/store/index.p...p;products_id=3

I never tried the particular screen you're referring to but my experience with some of their other screens wasn't good. What's wrong with your LeafII-10 screen now? Bill Maxwell's HiLux screen treatment is a better option imo and the addition of a quality finder magnifier, if you can find one, will help you more with mfing.
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EricWHiss

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« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2010, 04:32:49 am »

Quote from: philipmccormick
I also posted this in the medium format/digital backs section, but it's relevant here too...

I was looking at this Accurfocus on the "Brightscreen" website and was wondering if anyone has used it, or know of anyone who has, and if so how good is it?

http://brightscreenstore.com/store/index.p...p;products_id=3

I can't find a review anywhere but the Brightscreen products seem to be highly regarded. The reason I ask is they say it's for improving manual focus accuracy/speed on medium format finders and I was thinking of one for my Leaf II-10 combined with one of their screens. In fact, can anyone give me feedback on the "Brightscreen" screens? Or are there better ones? Like many people on this forum I'm finding quick manual focusing difficult with the kind of low tolerances these bigger digital backs have. Thanks in advance.

Philip

Philip,
I've got some experience with the brightscreen magnifiers and my feeling is you'll be disappointed.  I have their product for the leica DMR, and two D3 magnifiers for hasselblad that I adapted to work with the Rollei.  I simply don't use them.  Many other camera makers such as mamiya produced much higher quality devices.  The one for the RZ can be adapted to the AFi by a competent machine shop and give you much better results for less money than the cost of the brightscreen units which I think are really disappointing optically.   I have not used any of the brightscreen focusing screens so can't comment on those but  I have a Bill Maxwell screen in my Rollei and it did help some for focus.   The thing that made the best improvement was using a chimney style finder instead of the prism as it gives you a 3X on the whole field.   I really don't know if Rollei has one of these available for the AFi-10 or not but maybe the 6000 series could be adapted by changing the base plate out. You might write Reiner at DHW and ask him. If there isn't a viewfinder magnifier for the Hy6/AFi then you could see if he'd sell you the bottom plate for the prism and then any 6x6 loupe could be fit to the base by a competent shop.  I have an assortment of these that I've made myself for my 6008 ranging from 3x to 5.5x for different tasks.



Eric
« Last Edit: March 25, 2010, 04:37:53 am by EricWHiss »
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philipmccormick

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« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2010, 03:14:55 pm »

Quote from: EricWHiss
Philip,
I've got some experience with the brightscreen magnifiers and my feeling is you'll be disappointed.  I have their product for the leica DMR, and two D3 magnifiers for hasselblad that I adapted to work with the Rollei.  I simply don't use them.  Many other camera makers such as mamiya produced much higher quality devices.  The one for the RZ can be adapted to the AFi by a competent machine shop and give you much better results for less money than the cost of the brightscreen units which I think are really disappointing optically.   I have not used any of the brightscreen focusing screens so can't comment on those but  I have a Bill Maxwell screen in my Rollei and it did help some for focus.   The thing that made the best improvement was using a chimney style finder instead of the prism as it gives you a 3X on the whole field.   I really don't know if Rollei has one of these available for the AFi-10 or not but maybe the 6000 series could be adapted by changing the base plate out. You might write Reiner at DHW and ask him. If there isn't a viewfinder magnifier for the Hy6/AFi then you could see if he'd sell you the bottom plate for the prism and then any 6x6 loupe could be fit to the base by a competent shop.  I have an assortment of these that I've made myself for my 6008 ranging from 3x to 5.5x for different tasks.



Eric


Thanks Eric. Yes, I think give the Brightscreen magnifier a miss and look for alternatives, including the RZ you mention. As for the brightscreen focusing screen, it's been ordered by my dealer in the UK who sold me the camera, at his expense as part of the deal. He was told they made them for leaf and as the temporary one in my camera has the wrong format masking lines he has agreed to get the right one. Also, the temporary one doesn't have either a split screen or micro prism and I find it very difficult to manual focus critically with it as the tolerance with the Afi II 10, with the short depth of field of it's massive sensor and it's 56 megs. And that's doing it slowly in tests, it'll be worse in the real world with speed. However,  I did try my old rollei screen with it's horizontal split and it was altogether better, so I've asked for the brightscreen to have a split and micro prism. If it turns out to be poor I'll contact rollei and ask them to do me theirs with the 56mm x 36mm masking lines.
I do have both the waist level (chimney) finder with the 3x magnifier and the leaf 45 degree finder, and the above experience was with using them! I have my old rollei x6 loupe but the rollei base for it will not (i don't think) fit the Afi camera. Maybe an adaptation would be possible.

Philip

ps. I replied to your message regarding the x-act.
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EricWHiss

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« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2010, 05:04:44 am »

Philip,
I had SK Grimes adapt this http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/MA2281/  magnifier for use on my Rollei 45 degree prism.  It flips down over the eyecup when I need a close look and back up out of the way.  I went through a ton of effort to figure out the best way to focus my 6008AF.     I learned a couple things - first the focus screen I had was warped so it was impossible to have it calibrated for all areas in the finder so that was throwing everything else off - I guess this was just my screen which came with the camera that I bought used  - not saying they all have it but its worth checking into.  Once I got the Bill Maxwell screen and the camera calibrated to it for focus almost all of my problems went away.   Second issue was my eyesight.  I have mostly astigmatism but not enough to wear glasses all the time.  But astigmatism really affects the ability to focus - anyhow I had been thinking I needed more negative dioptric correction which didn't help.  Finally I found the televue dioptrx which is a corrective eyepiece for telescopes that corrects for astigmatism. And as luck would have it, it was a press fit onto the 45 deg prism eyecup.  So that finally fixed my problem and I realized I did not need the extra magnification at all.   If you have already done the screen, and gotten the correct diopter adjustments and still need more, then pursue the magnifier.  I may have an extra set of parts for the RZ ...   In any case the Rollei AFi viewfinder is one of the best and brightest out there - I'm sure that with some tuning you'll be able to make it sing.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2010, 05:09:28 am by EricWHiss »
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philipmccormick

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« Reply #5 on: March 28, 2010, 07:38:52 pm »

Thanks Eric.
How did you get the Maxwell screen calibrated for focus, what did that involve? Yes, I may end up trying the RZ piece modified for the Afi 45 degree prism.
Cheers,
Philip
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EricWHiss

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« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2010, 02:49:52 am »

Quote from: philipmccormick
Thanks Eric.
How did you get the Maxwell screen calibrated for focus, what did that involve? Yes, I may end up trying the RZ piece modified for the Afi 45 degree prism.
Cheers,
Philip

I sent my camera into Rollei Service in NJ with the screen I intended to use most and Onick calibrated the focus. Cost was minimal and the turn around was just over a week.  Probably this might not be needed if your camera has already been calibrated properly as the focus screen inserts into a frame with the ground area down so recalibration shouldn't be necessary.  In my case the focusing screen I bought the camera with was bad because it was not flat, so I had to do the calibration.

I suspect that this is actually an easy adjustment for someone that knows how to do it.
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