Omega film holder - whte?

[Jac@stafford.net]

I just got a replacement 4x5 holder for my Omega enlarger and it is white (actually irregularly yellowed) and the paint, if that is what it is, is very tough. My question is: Why is it white? To reflect back up into the condensers or white box? I'd rather it were a regular color. White or Black?

I guess my life is pretty good when this is all I have to worry about. :)

TIA

[Mark Sampson]

Early Omega D carriers were unpainted and relied upon the two notches at the back for positioning. Later carriers have the lower half painted black, with a frame around the opening so that the carrier can rotate, and are white above. Can't say why they did that, but I will say the changeover occurred before 1977, when I first encountered both kinds of carriers at my first job. Over many years in the labs I have used numerous Omega 4x5 enlargers of different types, and both styles of carriers. I never saw any difference in the prints, or had any reason to suspect that the different carriers gave different results. Although while at Kodak I did have the maintenance shop mill out the openings to print the full 4x5 frame, and blackened the aperture edges to reduce flare.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Thank you so very much, Mark Sampson.
Finding no difference is precious information.

Regarding the blackening of machined out edges - we did the same thing because it seemed intuitively correct. Thank you for the affirmation.

Methinks we both go a long way back to when optical printing was all that mattered, indeed all that existed.

Jac

[LabRat]

I think it is merely to indicate what side is up (white towards light)... Painting entire carrier flat black will eliminate flare/reflections... But polish the paint where the film sits to prevent abrasions to neg...

Steve K

[Jerry Bodine]

Back in the '60s when I bought my 5x7 (E6) enlarger new together with all the various format carriers I wanted, I immediately took all the carriers to a local shop and had them all dunked in a black anodize tank. That was my way of avoiding any potential issues with the bare aluminum on all surfaces. With a previous 6x6 Omega enlarger, I had noticed prints that exhibited extra densities around the edges due to reflections from the bare aluminum carrier's thickness.