drawbacks to 4x5 ANR carrier with masking vs. multiple sized carriers?

I don't see any drawback to using a glass carrier for any format, given that dust is easy enough to keep out of a bathroom setup.

I'm curious, though, if there are any gotchas or problems with using a 4x5 glass carrier with all negative formats paired with a masking stage? (like Omega D5 404-864)

For a casual printer with one session a week for relaxation, to frame the question properly!

Newton rings? Especially with Tmax film.

I use this method with an LPL 4x5 glass carrier and masks cut out of thin black plastic. Dust is never a problem if you give everything a quick wipe with a PecPad. I never use any of my other carriers.

There are pros and cons to both methods. Fixed format masks almost always, of necessity, crop a little of the borders of the exposed frame. This doesn't stop them being useful and convenient for a lot of work. They are most successful with 35mm and 6x6 where the unsupported film area is smaller and the film does not tend to sag which can quickly render focus a problem. Formats 6x7, 6x9 and 4x5 are more difficult to keep flat, this is where glass carriers have the advantage. One 4x5 glass carrier can do all formats, I have one for my LPL, I use black paper adhesive tape to mask off the upper glass so only the working negative area is illuminated, I allow the whole of the negative to be seen on the easel including the borders and frame markings. The image is cropped for creative purposes by adjustment of the easel. I also have an adjustable mask for the negative stage but I don't use it I prefer to use black adhesive tape on the upper glass.

4x5 Omegas carriers with glass on top & bottom have two alignment pins, one on each side. They are on the center line . A 6 exposure strip of 35 mm film , if centered, would need holes for the locating pins. I suppose 35 and 120 could be run front to back. Just thought of that solution after 30 years! My solution was to file out the top of a 35 mm carrier and install AN slide mounting glass. Worked like a charm.

From the factory, it has plain glass. You would need to purchase AN for the top.

Enlarging lenses are flat field so you need a dead flat neg for best performance. Open carriers are not flat.

Ronald Moravec said:

on the center line

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As far as I know, on a D5 the carrier can be rotated so this shouldn't be much of a problem.

Thanks for the heads-up on the glass, I found an almost NOS condition carrier and unless the original user refit AN glass I will track some down before my project is complete.

Just a note that works for 6x7 - I made a DIY glass carrier that uses notebook-paper sized pins (I just use a 3-ring puncher with adjustable punches to punch the film). It uses regular window glass and the negs get pinned and taped into place - no top glass. I find the film stays perfectly flat without a sandwich of glass. I do have a heat-absorbing glass layer in the enlarger. Even for long exposures, the neg stays flat and I get no newton rings. I've played with a layer of regular glass resting on top of the film, and got no rings or moire (various Ilford films). I assume when I get a 4x5 enlarger I'll look for a standard AR glass carrier, but I've been surprised how well this works.

silveror0 said:

His name is Mike

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Thanks! Recommendations are always welcome.

Are we having this conversation yet again? I thought glassless carriers were something that died out in Medieval times, along with dragons and
unicorns. Spend the money, get a good carrier with quality AN glass.

Everything has already been said, but not by everybody....................

DREW WILEY said:

Are we having this conversation yet again? I thought glassless carriers were something that died out in Medieval times, along with dragons and
unicorns. Spend the money, get a good carrier with quality AN glass.

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It's not that simple for everyone.

No matter what I did, I got newton rings with my AN glass LPL carriers with medium and large format tmax, Acros, Techpan and APX25 films. So I ended up removing the lower glass on two 4x5 AN glass LPL carriers and building custom frames out of black plastic to replace the lower glass. I based this design on the top glass only LPL 35mm carrier I have that works excellent in this regard, one for each format I use besides 35mm and that is 4x5 for one and inserts for Xpan, 6x6 and 6x12 on the other.

Making these special top glass only AN glass carriers was the only way I could easily eliminate newton rings without using messy scan fluid or some other wonky method.

DREW WILEY said:

glassless carriers were something that died out

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Glassless are the most common to find used and for anyone who did school back in the day all carriers were glassless, it's what people got used to. Glassless is also what 90% of new printers will buy bundled in. In the intervening years most used glass carriers had their glass broken, it's a natural thing to see if it's worth buying new glass (top and bottom) or using one of the millions of almost free open carriers that came with their used enlarger.

I was also curious about full sized AN carriers matched with a masking stage to use with multiple formats, which doesn't show up in searches reliably.

Two birds, one stone, all questions answered!

Guess it all depends on whether you want your prints truly in focus or not. Students also get fixer onto their hands and fingers and all over the
darkroom, and nobody is going to trust them with expensive glass carriers to begin with. Glass carriers have been around longer than any of us have been alive. Otherwise nothing professional in terms of color reproduction would have been possible. Scanners and Photoshop weren't even around. What is relatively new to the last few decades are very slick thin-emulsion films with no retouch surface. I simply employ AN glass both top and
bottom. Of course, you have to know how to do this correctly, have the right kind of glass, understand how your lenses and light incidence interact, and be willing to experiment to perfect your technique. But otherwise, congratulation on killing two birds - namely, a chimera and a phoenix bird,
both of which are fictitious anyway.