Focusing on a view camera is done on ground glass and close focusing requires a magnifying device called a loupe. For years I used a cheap plastic one like this...

Only a small part in the center was sharp and the rest of the image was pretty funky. Lately I've been using a linen tester...

A big improvement but you still have to put your face close to the glass and your eye close to the magnifying glass and it's metal which isn't the best on glass. Recently, Marja-Leena sent me a couple of lenses from a process camera. One of them, the Comparon, wasn't useful as a taking lens but a post on a large format forum mentioned it would be useful as a loupe. I did some looking through it and then went down to the local Ace Hardware and hung out in the plumbing department looking through pieces of plastice until I found the right combination that would put it off the glass the right amount to be in focus.

Two plastic pieces of plumbing, the mounting ring, and the lens. Add a little 5-minute epoxy and voila! The FrankenLoupe...

The mounting ring is bonded to the plastic and the lens screws into the mounting ring. It's nice and long which solves a big problem. Both my 5x7 back and my 4x5 back have hoods which would have made using the linen tester impossible. This will work fine with the hoods. It doesn't have a high magnification but it has a nice wide field and I can see it quite well with my eyes back from the lens. I think this will work out very well. Now I need to make a neck strap for it.