Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/12/28

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Light box
From: Mark Rabiner <mrabiner@concentric.net>
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 10:25:15 -0800

ksherman wrote:
> 
> hi folks,
> i've decided it's high time i get a good light
> box for viewing negatives, and i thought i'd ask what you folks considered
> a good one that's not too terribly expensive.  i'm not even sure how much i
> should expect to spend to get a good one.  would just be for viewing negs
> made with the leica and some transparencies from time to time too.
> thanks for your time, and continued best wishes to all during the remainder
> of the holiday season.
> kim

Just about any LightBox is way too expensive imo, even the cheapest one which is
a Logan probably. I have 3 of the mini 8.5x11 inch Logans, one on my projection
stand I built out of cedar, one in my file room of negitives and prints and one
is on loan as I can't find it right now.
But I have a non brand name 2x4 foot florescent light fixture which holds 3 four
foot florescent bulbs. This is sitting on a long table on the dry side of my
darkroom. For a while I had white glass on top of it but someones elbow went
through it. Now it's got  white Plexiglas on it and I forgot about that fact and
put cut marks in it which I'll have to rub down. Glass comes in real handy for
cutting with an X acto knife. I had very expensive full spectrum bulbs in it for
all these years but I'm putting a full set of less expensive ones in now. Unless
it's a transformer or starter starting to go out. It's just a regular white
Fixture that instead of being on a ceiling you put upside down on a table. It
cost one fifth the bucks from what I remember.
This size LightBox you can lay a strip of film on, a full roll for viewing and
cutting...stuffing into plastic sheets and viewing a set of contacts rear lit
which is the way to do it IMO.
Mark Rabiner