10x10" AR AN Glass?

[Brian K]

Besides the source in Oregon, are there any other sources for anti reflection coated AN glass for 10x10 durst enlargers?

[Allen in Montreal]

Try this guy (link below)

I have not used them, a LFPF member sent me the link.


https://linux19.domainnameservers.net/~fpoint5/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=1538304.680*9P5B67&product=ENLARGER_GLASS

[Alan Butcher]

You might try:

http://www.fpointinc.com/glass.htm

I have bought glass from in the past no problems
--
Alan

[Peter De Smidt]

Is glass available that is both anti-reflection and AN glass? Anti-reflection has coatings, whereas AN glass has a texture. I've heard that AR glass can minimize Newton's rings, whereas AN glass prevents them.

[Drew Wiley]

I commented on AN glass with some details, under the recent ACROS thread. Focal
Point is a good source; but I do not believe you will find anyone that makes an AN
glass which is optically coated. Sure, you can try the Oregon source, but his own source is allegedly is in Germany, but actually no longer exists, and you can pretty much be guaranteed of never seeing anything delivered. I'm still waiting after three years. Optically-coated glass SOMETIMES works as a substitute for AN, but not always. You need to test. Sometimes Durst or Omega 10X10 glass comes up for sale on Fleabay. This is a special type of glass and DO NOT attempt to size it down from
12X12 forinstance unless you have special equipment. Regular glass cutters won't work well. Focal Point, on the other hand, can supply just about any size you can think of. Once in awhile their glass has a bit of "fisheye" in it, like "bloom" in old lenses, but this doesn't seem to affect image transmission. Just to be certain, I always order a spare piece when I place orders from them (good in case you break a piece too!).

[Brian K]

I should have clarified myself more. I'm looking for enlarger glass that is anti reflection coated which is added specifically to enlarger glass because of it's AN properties. It is not the typical AN glass with a finely etched type of surface.

[Drew Wiley]

Brian - true AN glass does have some kind of surface treatment; otherwise you are
simply talking about coated glass. True AN glass is NOT etched! It is a precisely made
product which is unlikely to have the texture reproduce on the printing material. Merely
coating the glass is not sufficiently effective to supress rings in many cases. That's
why you can also buy anti-newton sprays, powders,etc (I prefer the correct glass itself). You can also try fluid-gate immersion (another headache). In the past I have
successfully found certain very specialized types of coated glass as surplus from some
unrelated application which work well sometimes (and I emphasize "sometimes"). But
you would save yourself some trouble if you contacted someone like Focal Point first.
Believe me, I've tested just about every kind of glass imaginable. I'm not guessing.

[Brian K]

Drew I have AN glass from focal point as well as the AR coated Schott glass. I'm looking for something closer to the schott glass because I use TMax 100 and get newton rings on the bottom glass. Some AN glasses do project a fine granularity when used for high magnification prints.

I've also used the other products for reducing newtons, the sprays, anti and printers offset powder.

[Drew Wiley]

Tmax 100 can be a pain in the butt, but I've often successfully printed it using high-quality AN glass both above and below. The official Durst glass works fairly well. I've
never had the texture of the glass itself reproduce on the print. In fact, I even use
TM100 for color separation negatives sandwiched with TM100 masks, which is about
as tricky an application as I can think of. In an emergency I'll reach for the AN spray.
I'm in a marine climate, so AN rings are a constant nuisance with slick films. But if you
do want to experiment with high-end coated glass, the best place to try would be
JDSU. They bought out Optical Coatings Lab in Santa Rosa, which was probably the
most sophisticated coating lab in the world (as big as three football fields!). Sometimes
leftover odds and ends can be had reasonably, and they can cut and edge precisely.
Hoya in Japan also is a source, though much slower to deal with, as well as Schott
itself, which would probably be expensive.

[Drew Wiley]

Brian - you could also try working with optically coated picture framing glass, which
should be readily available in your area. It's expensive and has come a long ways since
Denglas first attempted this. Again, needs special cutting tools, specifically a sharper
profile cutter than conventional float glass. This is completely different from etched
"nonglare" glass. I have several types on hand, including some scraps of the original
Denglas, but frankly, haven't found any of these particular effective at stopping rings.
Optically coated plastic might work better, but I'd be worried about dimensional
stability and flatness once it gets heated up (and even more expensive!). In my 8x10
cold light enlarger I use some very oddly coated glass left over from some very esoteric x-ray project. Doesn't resemble a lens coating at all and works quite well, but I've never been able to locate any more of it. Wish I knew exactly what the coating is,
but can't afford to sacrifice any of my own glass. Feels almost like a plastic coating,
but is easily washed or scrubbed, something unthinkable with true coated glass. It
was made in Germany about twenty years ago and just another thing I bought for the
hell of it.