A loupe is a magnifier for looking at your negatives on a light table. Having a loupe in your darkroom is not necessary, but it is helpful when trying to determine which photograph to choose for printing and for viewing negatives. Contact sheets will give you a general idea of what the photograph looks like, but they will always come out a little fuzzier than the original negative. Another use for a loupe is getting a closer look at all the detail in your view screen when using a large format camera. Having a loupe will make focusing much easier on 4 x 5 or 8 x 10 cameras.

If inspecting your negatives is important to you, or if you plan to use a loupe with a view screen on a large format camera, then there are loupes, like this Schneider loupe pictured left, that magnify 4x and cost around $100. However, if you are less concerned with this and don’t mind doing test prints to more closely inspect your negatives, than you can pick up a very simple plastic loupe for just a few dollars.