Chamonix bellows not IR proof - Solution?

[Winger]

Rodfjell,

Is the Roc-Lon Blackout fabric completely lightproof? I'm considering it for blocking outside light from coming through a large window in my "darkroom." What color did you get?

Thanks,

Thomas

My solution for a window is very redneck-looking, but it's the laundry room so it doesn't matter. Being a bit of a packrat, I had several bags from paper, so just gaffer taped up as many as I needed to cover the window. I may also have used some black plastic blackout I got from B&H (which seemed to be just the same as the bags from the paper).

[tgtaylor]

It is advertised as "100% light proof" so I believe it to be so. I got white. It's the same fabric that hotels use for their curtains. I'd use it in my darkroom if I needed to.


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Thanks - I'm going to try it.

Winger - I currently am taping 4mil black contractor trash bags to the window. It works but its labor intensive and uses a lot of tape. Going to try building a curtain rod and have a piece cut to catch the spill from the top.

Thomas

[Rodfjell]

So I did a test this weekend where I pulled the dark slide out halfway when attached to the camera in broad daylight for 3 minutes and developed it. I also took a few more shots of various scenes and lighting without covering the bellows. The results were difficult to gauge. I won't post them because they are inconclusive.

So sometime in the next weekend I'll do a new test:

Photo 1 will be in broad daylight with the dark slide out for 5 minutes and the bellows not covered.

Photo 2 will be the same but with the dark slide out for less than 20 seconds.

Photo 3 will be with the bellows covered and the dark slide out for 5 minutes.

Photo 4 will be with the bellows covered and the dark slide out for less than 20 seconds.

All shots will be on Rollei IR 400 and a Hoya R72 filter.

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[Rodfjell]

So another week has passed and I haven't posted the results. I haven't forgotten about this though. The weather here in Southern Louisiana is very unpredictable. We've had rain and cloudy days for a while now. I'll try for sometime before next Sunday to do the test.


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[Fr. Mark]

I've used blackout cloth from a fabric store as a bellows for an 8x10 camera, it works for that application and it makes an o.k. dark cloth for composing photos, too. Don't know as to it's IR proof-ness. Don't have any way to test it. Aluminum foil also works for windows, though it is pretty ugly looking. I used it to block out basement window well windows which were hard to see from the street so my wife never objected.

[Rodfjell]

So the sun finally came out to play and I did the test with Rollei IR 400. Photos are located at http://imgur.com/a/C5jpU.

My conclusion is that the bellows is sufficiently IR proof.

The sun was behind a cloud in Photo 1 so that's why it's not as contrasty as the other three. On photo 4, I don't know what that line is but it's most definitely not fogging - I didn't care about being delicate during loading & processing.


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[Cor]

Thanks for reporting, a convincing answer !

best,

Cor

So the sun finally came out to play and I did the test with Rollei IR 400. Photos are located at http://imgur.com/a/C5jpU.

My conclusion is that the bellows is sufficiently IR proof.

The sun was behind a cloud in Photo 1 so that's why it's not as contrasty as the other three. On photo 4, I don't know what that line is but it's most definitely not fogging - I didn't care about being delicate during loading & processing.


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[mariaisabel]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do that test ... very helpful to me and I am sure to many others!