Darkslide material is part of the reason I would construct a non-standard film holder and matching ground glass. If you could have thicker (deeper?) holders than your darkslide material could be thicker. Even sealed masonite would work. It would also take more bumping without marring the film surface than would something thin.
A thicker slide of course raises the light trap question. Make the light trap longer and make the darkslide non-removable so you never have toworry about the gap. Formica's other big problem is it is brittle. But then so are some of my circa 1980 4x5 & 8x10 commercially made darkslides. Also to save on anodizing the aluminum, I often use flat black high heat paint. It dries quick, its thin, its matte black and you can quickly repair any scratches with another spray. Will ---William Nettles [EMAIL PROTECTED] Nettles Photo / Imaging Site http://www.wgn.net/~nettles > Formica(TM) and other similar products is compressed paper with melamine > plastic. It is useful for some camera parts where a slight warp isn't a > problem A 24 in sq. darkslide would be very risky. I laminated wood veneer > to formica and found that their expansion was too different and the veneer > cracked. I believe conventional darkslides use a cloth/bakelite material. > I've seen it in the Small Parts cat. but no thinner than 1/8 in. It ain't > cheap. There was a posting a couple years ago on this list about anodizing > aluminum. I wonder if that is a relatively cheap way to go? Black anodized > aluminum would be very nice. _______________________________________________ Cameramakers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://rmp.opusis.com/mailman/listinfo/cameramakers
