I've always used regular negative carriers for enlarging, in particular because glass negative carriers for my enlarger are practically non-existent.
But lately, I've been wondering about a compromise on glass negative carriers? Why not alter a regular negative carrier with a single piece of glass below the negative to keep the negative from sagging? Yet, it's held in place at the edges in the traditional fashion.
Given gravity, I would think that sagging is the primary problem. (Especially for 8x10 carriers.) Plus, with the emulsion side down against the sheet of glass, one might be able to avoid troublesome Newton rings that I've read result from the top piece of glass pressing down on the shiny, non-emulsion side of the film. This also cuts by a third the number of surfaces that can collect dust.
As a question for those who use glass negative carriers, do Newton rings ever result from the emulsion side of the film touching the glass under the film?
Does what I've suggested sound like a reasonable approach? At least, it's better than using a traditional negative carrier. For my enlarger, it would be easy enough to add a support for a piece of glass under the negative. But, effecting this for both under and above the negative would be a different story.
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