Today’s article is a little more technical and meant for those of you who own an analog camera with a focusing screen – primarily TLR’s like a Rolleiflex. I own a very old model back from somewhere between 1945 to 1949 and the main issue with the Rolleiflex focusing screen, is that it is very dim making it hard to see and to focus in low light conditions.

A couple of weeks ago I came across a solution. It’s a fresnel screen that is much brighter and has a little prism in the center of the frame to help you focus. A guy – Rick Oleson – in the United States produces these replacement screens and ships them worldwide for only 50$ (he has two different versions on his website – one being slightly more expensive). They are made of acrylic glass and are made to fit many cameras with focusing screens. I contacted him to see, if he had one that fits my specific model and only two weeks later, I got it in the mail today.

The process of exchanging the stock focusing screen is pretty straight forward and is shown in the video on the right. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line, and I’d be happy to answer them.

Visit Rick’s website now to see if he has a fitting screen for your camera model.