[LargeFormat] Re: focusing cloth

[Clive Warren]

At 4:39 am -0800 22/2/01, Jeff Schraeder wrote:
>Does anyone know where I can get a patterns for a
>focusing cloth? My wife sews and I would like to have
>her make one for me. The large square cloth I use now
>is cumbersome, blows off in the wind, and is totally
>distracting. I heve seen some interesting cloths
>advertized that wrap around the camera in various ways
>and need a starting point to experiment.
>Jeff

I have used a coat in the past and now have the luxury of two cloths. 
One was kindly purpose made for me by a friend to my design and has 
an elasticated opening at one end for the camera and flares out a bit 
like an elongated cone with a sealed end and a slit on the underside 
to place head and shoulders.  It is made of a double thickness of 
black cloth and is fairly light but probably too large for field 
use.... It gets most use in the studio.

The other cloth is heavier duty, almost square, black one side and 
white the other, but smaller than the other cloth and has velcro at 
both ends. The velcro does not attach to the camera, rather it seals 
the ends of the cloth together, one end around the camera and the 
other behind your neck. This cloth has been ideal for all my field 
work, if a little warm.  White side out is usually the way to go......

The velcro cloth is probably a purpose made commercial job, however I 
haven't seen them for sale anywhere.  It was purchased through EBay a 
couple of years ago and came from the US.
-- 
All the best,

             Clive Warren   http://www.f32.net
                            Large Format travel and stock photography