Making a neg carrier

Markok765 · Sep 29, 2006

Need help for making a 6x6 neg carrier.

Ian Grant · Sep 30, 2006

Making a lens carrier is not particularly difficult, but you don't say what enlarger it has to fit.

I made the 35mm metal glass-less inserts for my Durst M601 over 25 years ago, and they are still in use in a newer enlarger, I've also made 5x4 neg carriers as well.

Ian

ann · Sep 30, 2006

get some matt board and cut it to the size needed.

two pieces of 4 ply board should do the job, unless you have a rollei or nikor enlarger and then is not a workable option.

Markok765 · Sep 30, 2006

I made it from ruined photo paper, and put tape on one side.
It seems to be able to hold the neg reasonably flat

Jim Jones · Sep 30, 2006

Twenty years ago I adapted a DeJur 4x5 enlarger for 35mm with a temporary home-made Masonite negative carrier. I'm still using it. Many enlargers will not accept the thickness of Masonite. Mat board does work fine, especially for casual use.

Claire Senft · Sep 30, 2006

It is quite worthwhile to choose a material that is flat and will continue to stay flat. It is helpful that the carrier seats in the same position without a lot of futzing around. It is quite important that the carrier not leak excessive light to the sides or to have an opening substantially larger than required..the closer the fit of the opening to the negative size the better. It is extremely important that the opening for the negative is very closely placeable to allow the center of the opening to coincide with the center of the lens' field of view...enlarging lenses when used at the optimum apeture, generally, do not provide the same degree of optical quality over a field much larger than required when the lens lens being employed has been designed for that negative as the maximum size...ie 80mm/6x6cm. If you meet the foregoing requirements with just a single piece of material and are able to place above it and to hold firmly against the negative a piece of suitable glass you will have a negative carrier that works as good as anything you can buy. In the very great majority of cases that means anti-newton ring glass.

BWGirl · Sep 30, 2006

ann said:
get some matt board and cut it to the size needed.

two pieces of 4 ply board should do the job, unless you have a rollei or nikor enlarger and then is not a workable option.

I've done this & it works well... however, you may want to get some electrician's tape (black, smooth & shiny) to go around the inside edge of the opening. This will make a nice smooth edge when you expose the negative.

Rolleiflexible · Sep 30, 2006

Claire Senft said:
It is quite worthwhile to choose a material that is flat and will continue to stay flat. It is helpful that the carrier seats in the same position without a lot of futzing around. It is quite important that the carrier not leak excessive light to the sides or to have an opening substantially larger than required..the closer the fit of the opening to the negative size the better. It is extremely important that the opening for the negative is very closely placeable to allow the center of the opening to coincide with the center of the lens' field of view...enlarging lenses when used at the optimum apeture, generally, do not provide the same degree of optical quality over a field much larger than required when the lens lens being employed has been designed for that negative as the maximum size...ie 80mm/6x6cm. If you meet the foregoing requirements with just a single piece of material and are able to place above it and to hold firmly against the negative a piece of suitable glass you will have a negative carrier that works as good as anything you can buy. In the very great majority of cases that means anti-newton ring glass.

I too use a piece of glass for the base of a 4x5-inch full-frame carrier for my Omega D2. Unlike Claire's, mine is regular glass. So long as you are putting the negative onto the glass with the emulsion down, newton rings shouldn't be a problem.

I have used gaffers tape to mask off the parts of the glass not covered by the negative. This allows me to place the negative quickly onto the glass in the right place, and blocks out extraneous light for a better exposure. To the glass I have hinged a piece of museum board cut in the shape of a regular Omega carrier, with a 4.5x5.5 inch opening cut out for the negative. This board holds the head off of the negative, and keeps stray light from escaping from the edges of the head.

Sanders

Claire Senft · Sep 30, 2006

Well Claire has come to the opinion that his 35mm negatives will lay flatter with the glass as the top part of the sandwich.

Ian Grant · Sep 30, 2006

Claire Senft said:
Well Claire has come to the opinion that his 35mm negatives will lay flatter with the glass as the top part of the sandwich.

Unfortunately this is when you get Newtons rings with 35mm film.

No-one has suggested making a top plate from Aluminium sheet, this is very easy to do even with the very basic of tools a drill and good files. Then some primer followed by semi matt black paint to finish

I've always used aluminium for things like this but then I used to have it around anyway for commercial projects. 20 years later I'm still left with a few handy off-cuts.

Ian

Claire Senft · Sep 30, 2006

Well what if somebody had said "In the great majority of cases this will require the use of anti-newton ring glass" or something similar?

Would you still feel the same?

Making a neg carrier

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