[LargeFormat] Ground glass or etched

[Les Newcomer]

On Tuesday, December 24, 2002, at 08:50 AM, Brock Nanson wrote:
>
> When wet, the water fills the tiny scratches and makes the glass appear
> un-etched.  Or so I found when I washed 40 years of grime off of mine!
>
>

I recently bought an Ansco 5x7 with "perfect ground glass" when it arrived,
  it looked a little odd so I decided to wash it.  Low and behold it was 
nothing but window glass with matte spray on it!

I was careful enough not to remove it all, just a part in the center, so 
now I can compose on the ground glass, and focus on the aerial image!

The one nice thing about etching is that you can mask off a section.  The 
aerial image is much easier to focus on with a higher powered loupe as you 
aren't magnifying the scratches in the glass.  When I adjust rangefinders 
on my Speed Graphics I use window glass and a 50x hand microscope.