[Leica] Half-glass carriers and other neat tricks

[Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net>]

>>>
> Even with a half-glass carrier (the only kind I will use for 35mm),

I hereby admit that I've never encountered such a beast.  Is that glass
on the light side and air on the easel side?  Are they a standard item,
or do they tend to be cobbled up by the user?<<<


Jeff,
Either one. With the standard type of carrier that uses inserts for
different formats or for glass, you can make one easily by interchanging
the inserts--a glass insert on the top (light source) side, and an open
glassless insert on the bottom (easel) side. With most of the Durst
carriers and the Saunders 670, and perhaps some others I'm not as
familiar with (Kaiser too, I think), it's short work.

With my old Saunders 4x5 enlarger, however, I had to make one, and it
was quit involved and quite expensive--you need to buy a glass carrier
(around $100), dismantle it, buy a 35mm carrier, dismantle it, then
drill out the guide pegs, file down the burrs, cover the holes with
tape, and reassemble the carrier with the glass half on top and the
now-smooth 35mm half on the bottom. Saunders doesn't make a true ff 35mm
carrier for the 4x5, either, or didn't when I had mine, so you may have
to file out the opening if you prefer to print ff as I do. And it's
sometimes difficult positioning leftover "short strips" of negatives in
that carrier...and if you want to re-convert it to a full glass carrier
it takes a bit of time and work with a jeweler's screwdriver.

Half-glass carriers work great with 35mm film. The dried filmstrip curls
upwards, so the glass on top flattens it beautifully; but because you're
not "sandwiching" it under pressure, you get no Newton rings (at least I
never have, with many different negative carriers over the years*); and
the two side of glass aren't so hard to keep clean--the underside gets
little dust falling on it, and the upper side is always accessible to a
quick blast of air or a wipe with a cloth or brush.

While we're at it, I'll share another neat little trick: if you have a
Saunders or Omega 4x5 enlarger, you can easily make enlarged 35mm
proofs. Buy a Saunders 4x5 glass carrier (it will fit the Omega
enlarger, but the Omega glass carrier cannot be used for this trick).
Cut your film in 6 strips of 6 frames each. By carefully laying the film
in the carrier with the edges overlapping (with practice, this becomes
easy enough to do), you can fit nine frames very neatly in the 4x5 glass
carrier. Enlarge this using your 4x5 enlarging lens just as you would a
4x5 negative, and you can quickly and easily put 9 35mm frames on a
sheet of 8x10, 11x14, or even 16x20 paper. Do this four times, and
you've proofed the entire roll. The enlarged proofs make a serviceable
substitute for work prints, so, if you work-print as part of your
editing procedure, you may save yourself a lot of time and effort.
They're certainly luxurious--once you get used to enlarged proofs, it's
painful to go back to contacts.

- --Mike


* Rule 23: Never generalize on the LUG; you WILL get your ass kicked....