[LargeFormat] Enlargers and Glass Neg Holders

[Don Feinberg]

> I dont't have experiences with 5*7, but for any format up to 4*5, I
> abandoned glass holders (even if they were anti-Newton) completely since
> long. My advice: always check your negative (+ negative carrier) with a
> magnifier on a light box before inserting the carrier into the enlarger.
> Preventing is better than the cure...

I also abandoned glass carriers for 35mm, 6x6, and 4x5.  People tell me how
I'm losing critical sharpness by not using a glass carrier, but I sure can't
tell that from my prints, which are as edge-to-edge sharp as I want/need
them to be.

I used to have a glass carrier, and I could not get the dust off it no
matter what I did.  Period.  Cleaners, canned air, brushes, radioactives,
whatever.  Nothing would clean the glass adequately, and I always had dust
in my prints that I had to retouch out.

Since I abandoned glass, I have zero dust in my prints. :-)  :-)  I
de-static and clean the neg carefully, put it in the carrier; only very
rarely will a piece of dust find its way onto the negative's surface during
a printing session.

FWIW.

Don Feinberg
donf@cybernex.net