Dark Cloth

[Chuck Mintz]

My 30 year old Zone VI has disintegrated. Want to replace it. It is pretty simple, about 50" square with white fabric on one side and black on the other with weights on the corners. When I look at online sources, like B&H, I find stuff that is either elaborate. or made of waterproof (and apparently hot) materials or black on one side and red on the other (huh?). I could make one myself but sort of busy for a craft project right now. Anyone know of a source? I do mostly 4x5 but find the 50" square good enough for 8x10.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I have the cat's meow darkcloth. Waterproof, breathable, extremely durable, and best of all, NO LINT. It's made of black Goretex. That's a color of
Goretex hard to find; but with patience, yardage can be acquired. Weights in corners are a good way to get a groundglass broken or injure your eye
or a lens in the wind. Not everything Fred Picker marketed had common sense behind it. Use velcro tabs instead. And leave linty cotton fabric for those who enjoy spotting prints for hours on end.

 

[Chuck Mintz]

Wiley - I take it you made it yourself? In 1988 velcro and Goretex were available. If you were NASA. The ground glass is about the only thing on my Zone VI that I have not broken. Fred did OK by me. But both of your points make sense - velcro is, well, a miracle and Goretex is not far behind.

 

[bdial]

Just go to the fabric store and buy a couple of yards of whatever suits you. The white side thing is sort of nice, but I've not found it to be all that necessary. The fabric in my current dark cloth is weighty enough on it's own that it doesn't need corner weights. A hemmed edge is nice, but not essential if you pick a fabric that isn't prone to fraying.

Or, a great alternative is an XXXXL (as many x's as you can find, depending on how big your camera is) black (or preferred color) tee shirt. Put your head through the neck hole, stretch the body part over the back of the camera. Just wear it as sort of a collar in between shots.

 

[Trail Images]

I played around with a few over the years and never found one I liked. I finally saw some UK folks out at DVNP one year and they'd made their own. I liked what I saw and did the same. Light weight white on top and black on the bottom cloth sewn together with a draw string front closure and velcro bottom closure. Love it and is totally washable if required. Can be made as large as you like.

 

[michaelorr]

I have both 4x5 and 8x10 View Camera Store dark cloths, which i find to be worth every overpiced penny, for every benefit obtained. They are white outside, black inside. The materials are very lightweight, which is important. (I am amazed how heavy other traditional dc's are, probably to aid in keeping in place, and the weight added by traditional to my packable weight was not appreciated and despised until i carried the kit about.) The end over the the GG has elastic band, which has proven to be essential for me since all i do is outdoors work. I have used a normal dc outdoors and it just sucks. Finally, there is a velcro edge going out to the end of the dark cloth, which helps keep in place also in the wind. I also then unrip the velcro and put the larger opening over the gg end of the camera after i put the film holder in place, just to minimize light leaks in bright direct sunlight.

 

[DREW WILEY]

This city used to be the outdoor gear mfg center of the world, before everyone outsourced. But there is still a substantial climbing community here, and still a repair shop down the street that caters to expeditions and repairs of packs, down sleeping bags, etc. They keep all kinds of big rolls of Goretex, Cordura, ripstop nylon etc. At one time they even had big a big roll of black Goretex, so I had them make my dream darkcloths for a modest stitching fee with velcro and grommets included. Now they no longer have enough demand for black to invest in a big roll of it, though there are internet sources that will sell it to you by the yard. Otherwise, for more casual cloths, I just let my wife stitch together black and white pieces of thin ripstop. The thought of traditional cloth darkcloths or T-shirts almost makes me break out in hives. I can't think of anything worse, other than maybe cleaning your camera and filmholders with a shedding cat. I have shot below a waterfall with a big Goretex dark cloth, briefly shaken it off, and
it still weighs very little. Try that with cotton.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

I'm with Drew on this one, except my GoreTex is white with a black lining. I've used my cloth to protect the camera from sea spray and breakers on the coast, used it for a rain poncho and even a tarp. Velcro instead of weights unless you like getting wonked on the head on windy days, or worse, replacing you broken ground glass. FWIW, I sewed my darkcloth myself, but had a shoemaker sew on the Velcro strips since my machine was too wimpy. It cost very little. I've had the thing for years now.

Best,

Doremus

 

[winger]

My mom and I made one that's got an outer layer of the stuff you can cover ironing boards with and a black something layers under it. The end that goes around the camera has a drawstring and there's velcro to hold the edges together to make it like a tube. Works pretty well and it took less than 2 hours to make (I designed, mom sewed).

 

[DREW WILEY]

I could grab a scrap of black and white Tyvek truck wrap and make a water-resistant and breathable emergency darkcloth in minutes. We've only got several hundred square yards in the recycle been around here on any given day. But it is just too light to stay put on a typical windy day. A lot of bargain ultralight backpacking tents are made with similar material. Yeah ... they can keep water out for a couple hours; but once they get saturated
and can't breathe anymore, all hell breaks loose. Fine for a ground cloth or temporary shelter or el-cheapo darkcloth, however. Do have a kinda crinkly sound with movement that would drive me crazy under one.

 

[Ai Print]

I like this one from Ebony. It is a bit smaller at 36" x 36" but it has handy velcro that I attach it to my Chamonix 4x5 with, is super light, folds up tiny and the white side is the same water resistant material that they use on the all weather version that costs $230. Despite the exterior coating, it's pretty breathable too.

I love it so much I just ordered a second one from Badger Graphics, here is a plug for it on LFF from awhile ago.

 

[Kilgallb]

I made one with a layer of white black out fabric. That is the white dense material used to line curtains. It is cheap. Cover it with the cheapest black material you can find. You could get a alteration seamstress or the local Taylor to sew it together in five minutes. Total cost would be way less than a store bought cloth.

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

I would recommend "triple pass" fabric. It's completely light-proof and coloured white so it doesn't get hot. I'm not sure what this fabric is called in the USA.