Inglis Masking Carrier

[jeroldharter]

Does anyone use the Inglis masking equipment including the pin registered negative carrier? If so, I have a number of questions... The website is not very instructive and I would like to have some basic information before I proceed further. Thanks.

http://www.alistairinglis.com/negative_carriers.htm

http://www.alistairinglis.com/punchB-small.jpg

http://www.alistairinglis.com/BESELER%20GLASSLESS-%20REG.%20PLT._small.jpg

[Drew Wiley]

Most of these systems work in a similar manner. I use the original Condit equipment. It's important to order punch, contact frame, and carrier all at the same
time. And preferably order spare pin glasses. This is because it's tricky to precisely
duplicate pin spacing afterwards. The accuracy of registration is vital. AN glass is
generally preferable. If you use a registered carrier for enlargement, you want your
enlarger to as solid as a granite boulder, unless you are just using a single mask for
a single projection. Enlarger like Omega D and Beseler simply aren't built to these
kinds of standards, but are suffient for simple unsharp contrast masking. In fact,
for this kind of work you dont even need a registered carrier - you can simply tape
the mask to the original on the pin glass. Everything should be mylar: the original
film, the type of masking film, and the tape. Acetate film base isn't dimensionally
stable and will not maintain register except temporarily. Otherwise, masking and
color separation work using this kind of equipment is an art in itself, with many
possibilities.

[Drew Wiley]

Jerold - I was using the term "mylar"generically. Sorry. It means anything polyester
based, i.e.. "Estar film base", frosted mylar diffusion sheeting, polyester or mylar
based adhesive tape. Very small offsets with enlargement will show up similar to
excessive Photoshop Unsharp Masking, but out of alignment. A few large-format films are still made on acetate base, so try to avoid them. An excellent masking film
is FP4 with dilute 76, or 100TMax with special developers. Have a pleasant holiday!