Neg Holder

The plastic sleeves...these things.
http://www.freestylephoto.biz/35610...chival-Negative-Preservers-35mm-6-Strips-of-6

If I had my darkroom set up, I would just try it, but that is still a few months away.
Can you put a piece of VC Paper under one of these, and a piece of glass on top, and shoot through the glass and plastic to make a contact sheet.?
Maybe do a test strip like for a normal print.?
Is there a need to have a "Frame".....I guess that is what I am really asking.
Thank You

The advantage to the frame is that it makes it easy to put the paper, the negs in sheet, and the glass together and clamp them. It's really a convenience thing. You can just drop the paper on the enlarger baseboard, put the negs in sheet on top of that, and lay the glass over the stack. There's just a higher risk of getting something askew, but it's not a big deal.

OK...I see.
Absolutely understand about the cost of "convenience".
Was mostly wondering about being able to shoot through the plastic holder...just to get started.
Thank You

Yes you can proof with the negatives in the sleeves, it's my routine method. The images in the print will be very slightly soft because of the plastic between the neg and paper, and the plastic adds a bit of density to the neg, maybe 1/4 stop.
On a practical basis, you generally won't notice the softness, and the density is easy to compensate for with a bit more exposure. For times when you need to look at the negative critically to judge focus, use a loupe and look at the negative directly.

It's worthwhile (IME) to proof in the sleeves as it protects the negatives from handling damage.

A piece of thick glass and a flat surface will be fine to hold it all down for exposing.

bdial -
Great...Thank You.
That was the essence of my question.