Given the fact this product page has only low res renders you'd be forgiven for thinking the product is vapourware, but I can promise I do have various printed prototypes that are working - I just haven't got one pretty enough to be worth photographing yet.Essentially the goal is this; whenever I have shot 6x7 on my body I have relied on fast lenses with bright ground glass and cupping my hand around my eye, and this has been fine. I've never bothered with a dark cloth.However, I've begun to realise I may have above average eye sensitivity and can put up with this more than most.The answer comes from a scale up of something I've built for my digital back use, where the ground glass is a tiny little thing (smaller than 645) and really needs magnification, so I've just built a unit that fully integrates the ground glass and a 3x loupe, which hangs from my neck on a cord.It works great, so I've been designing something similar for the 6x7 model. I say similar as the bigger ground glass needs a longer lens of bigger diameter to comfortably see the whole image. I also don't think it should be completed welded to the ground glass as it will get a bit unwieldly, so current prototyping is for a unit that snaps onto the ground glass holder with magnets, and then the ground glass holder snaps to the body with more magnets, where the magnets holding loupe to holder will be slightly stronger than the magnets holding holder to body, so that you can mate them together as a single unit, but also pull apart easily enough. (Note; I reserve the right to go back to a unit fully integrated into the ground glass holder and screwed to replace the top plate of that if the magnet trickery doesn't work out in further testing)I originally thought I would integrate a focusing helicoid to allow for accurate diopter adjustment, but what I learned was you actually need a pretty good focusing throw to cover -3D diopters and the majority of the population, at which point that helicoid was getting heavy (cantilevered off the body) and expensive. Instead, I'm opting to design for a small amount of user calibration possible through some shims that can be swapped in-front or behind the lens for fine tuning if you have good vision, and then a nice rubber eye cup and a lens big enough for good eye relief so glasses wearing uses shouldn't have an issue seeing through it with their prescription glasses on.People with close to good vision may well find it works without glasses regardless - with this system which is going to be 2.5-3x magnification you're really not seeking super fine grained focus, for architecture/landscape work where you're seeking just the "most in focus" position for some medium sized object it's OK if it's minutely fuzzy... The main use of this is to be able to block out stray light to maybe composition easier, with a slightly magnified view that fills a good amount of your vision.This is a pre-order for the first run of this accessory. From the date the pre-order sells out completed units will be mailed to purchasers in 4-8 weeks. After progressive runs this timeline will likely accelerate but initially I am still finalising some production and shipping aspects and want to ensure quality.Note; the price shown excludes any applicable taxes or tariffs. For my Australian cousins; I'm sadly going to need to charge you GST at the checkout, and for those in the US a tariff charge will be added automatically. For those in other countries if Shopify doesn't add any taxes you may still be charged by customs when the package lands in your country and you will be responsible for paying these fees.
