People are welcome to try these but I know the exact screens you are
talking about. I find them nearly impossible to focus on the matte
surface. They have coarse fresnel lines not like the nearly invisible
fresnel lines on the Maxwell with its "snappy" matte surface. I believe
they originate from the Seagull TLRs.
If you use the split image only, they are OK but I actually prefer the
ground glass focus on a stock Rollei screen by a wide margin. My 2 cents.
Do you own a Maxwell screen too? I've tried just about every screen out
there and the Maxwell is my number one choice. Its obviously too pricy
to install into just any Rollei though: I've limited myself to my 2.8E
TLR and my SL66 SLR.
Craig Roberts wrote:
I've just swapped my original 2.8C's focusing screen and the $10.00 auction site bright screen from Hong Kong. The replacement screen (like Bill Maxwell's screen) is thinner than the original so I shimmed it to bring its "working surface" to the same level as the Rollei screen.
It's great! This ten dollar screen is every bit as bright as a Maxwell screen (the mirror was actually in pretty good shape, Marc) and is provides dramatic improvement in focusing ease over the Rollei plain ground glass.
The "Hong Kong Special" has an "Accu Matte" type surface with a small split image area in the middle. It does not, alas, have grid lines. The ones on offer at the auction site are "B" factory stock, so they have imperfections. Mine has a tiny chip on one corner which is not visible in use and a couple of plastic scrap grains in the focusing area which look like the usual dust that inevitably collects on the surface of a focusing screen during two minutes' use in any venue other than a NASA clean room. It's not perfect -- but it's not $150, either.
Now, this camera's body is nearly mint and I like Bill Maxwell a lot so I'll probably upgrade to his screen sometime (if I can find a pristine "donor" lens set for the camera). But, right now, this will do just fine. I'll shoot a roll tomorrow night and post the results in the next couple of days).
Craig the only guy in Washington, DC not engaged in deficit spending --- Rollei List
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