Front surface mirrors for wall projection?

[Lachlan Young]

I know that at various times Beseler, Omega and De Vere (and doubtless others too) offered front surface mirrors for wall projection for mural printing - have any of you used one of these & did they have any significant impact on optical quality? This query is mostly out of curiosity & potentially having access to a Sinar front-surface mirror. I know that alignment will be pretty critical & that I'd need to flip the neg upside down to get it to print the right way up.

 

[Ian Grant]

They shouldn't have any impact on optical quality, I get front surface mirrors made by a company in London and they are superb, usually about 2.5"x3" for SLR cameras. A lot depends on the quality of the glass and how perfect the flat surfaces are before vacuum coating. These days aluminium is used rather than silver and they have a longer life. you can see deterioration of the Silver on early SLRs including some 35mm cameras.

Ian

 

[Donald Qualls]

Every Polaroid SX-70 and Spectra format camera has a nice sized front-surface mirror that puts the image on the film. It's tapered, for cost saving, and pretty thin (same reason), but optically should be good enough. You can often get the 600 "One Step" family cameras for next to nothing at yard sales or thrift stores.

 

[Lachlan Young]

I get front surface mirrors made by a company in London and they are superb, usually about 2.5"x3" for SLR cameras

Which supplier are you using? Always useful to find out who the good specialist optical glass suppliers are.

 

[Ian Grant]

I use a company called Vacuum Coatings Ltd in Walthamstow, London. They told me they could restore a silvered front surface mirror make a new one, it's just a liittle extra for the glass.

I opted for a new mirror preferring to keep the old on as is

Ian

 

[ic-racer]

I have never seen one in person, I think they are hard to find. If you can find one I'd not hesitate to get it. Another option is to do what Bob Carnie does with his Omega 4x5. He has it mounted high and projects on to the floor. This should get an image as big as available B&W paper rolls with (about 50 inches),

 

[Lachlan Young]

@Ian Grant cheers for the info - I suspect it may take a few iterations to get it exactly right in terms of shape etc.

@ic-racer two major reasons why I'm looking at taking this approach: ceiling height in the space in question & most floor standing De Veres etc hit their limits at about 30x40" prints - yes, wall mounting or a Durst that can be swung round to wall project have been contemplated, but the nature of the site, and a variety of other factors add up to make me want to at least try this method first.

 

[ic-racer]

Ok, if greater than 40" that would require the more drastic moves. Even the baseooard on my 10x10 Durst is only 40" across and the standard lens sets only project to 40" with the baseboard as low as it will go.
If you find a mirror, let us know how it works out. I'm always interested in reading threads on processing large prints too.