Focusing cloth in high winds?

[Fred Gunnerson]

Any advice as to the best focusing cloth to be used in high winds? Any work arounds? Thanks in advance...

[tim atherton]

something like this is good http://www.quietworks.com/FRAMES_FILES/BJ_NEW_HOME_FRAME_.htm

[tim atherton]

or there is a giuy on ebqays sells some as well (or just make your own...)

[Gem Singer]

Hi Fred,

A way of working around the problem is to use a rigid monocular or binocular viewer over your ground glass viewing screen. There are several nice ones available from Cambo, Toyo, etc. Even a folding focusing hood will work, if you can rig one up to fit your camera.

The obvious solution is to shoot early in the morning, before the wind comes up, or late in the evening after the wind has died down. Not always possible, however.

One thing to avoid is the use of weighted edges and/or corners on a darkcloth. Many horror stories about broken viewing screens and eye damage from darkcloth weights flying around in the wind.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Wind can drive you m-m-m-mad sometimes. After composing and focusing under my BTZS hood, I found that the best way is then to wrap the entire camera in a big old darkcloth and tying off the corners snug under the bottom of camera bed. This helps keep the bellows from going this way and that way and...

[Tim Curry]

I used a samll quantity of bb's for weight in my darkcloth's hem and have had not problems at this point from wind. I don't bother to shoot when it is too windy, so this has not caused a problem. They are loose inside, so it is not like a larger weight which is concentrated in a corner. Also, I didn't cut in square corners, but used a radius for the hem so it would hang evenly across the bottom without the "flaps" which occur from hard corners.

[neil poulsen]

Take a look at a BTZS focusing hood sold at The View Camera Store. I just bought one used at a swap meet. See the following site:

http://www.viewcamerastore.com/product_info.php?cPath=99&products_id=32

You sort of one end 'round the back end of the view camera and you stick your head in and look through the other end. Wind won't be a concern. It looks a little different. From inside, I have a clear and close look at the view camera.

[QT Luong]

There is also a new product called the "Black Jacket" that seems promising, and goes beyond the BTZS excellent cloth, providing sleeves: see quietworks.com

[Scott Walton]

As stated above, weighted cloths aren't the brightest idea, they tend to flop around and knock you in the head... I had velcro strips sewed into my cloth and it works great... that and a Bright Screen helps too.

[RichSBV]

I recently shot out in a field with a "good wind". I wouldn't have called it a 'high' wind but there were a few times I grabbed the tripod with worry.

Up until that day, I was going to buy the Harrison dark cloth. I liked the idea of the reflective silver and being water proof. It's easy to get caught in the rain... And it's made out of a very light material.

On this windy shoot, I made the mistake of bringing about the thinnest and lightest dark cloth you could imagine. It's some synthetic and may have been velvet at some point in it's life. I keep it because it folds up so small & light that it's good for travelling. I never used it in the wind before...

It was worthless. I could hold it to the camera no problem, but it was so light that no attempt at holding around me worked...

So, when I got home, I quickly ordered the calumet cotton dark cloth in the black & white, double cloth design with NO weights. It's a nice heavy cotton. So it's not water proof... I haven't used it in a "good wind" yet, but I guarantee it will be better than my light silky one even though it doesn't quite fold up into that nice small package... And velcro & spring clips are easy to add... I'm happy with it. And I bought the 4x5 size, for an 8x10 camera. they sell BIG cloths...

Anyway, the only point here is that a light material is worse than a heavy material in a wind in my experience. And the tubes & jackets that some people like, I would really hate. I wear a hat & glasses, generally like to smoke a cigar, etc, and would really hate to have to stick my head into a tube to focus my camera. Plus the advatage to a standard dark cloth is that after focusing, you flip it back over the camera to cover the entire unit up and guaranteed no light leaks or flagging/drapping cloth...

I may change my mind yet again, but right now I'll stay with a standard, heavy material, white/black, cotton (natural), un-weighted, dark cloth... ANd the price wasn't so bad either!