Quote Originally Posted by roscoetuff-Skip Mersereau View Post
You aren't going to need more than one of these things every jillion years, so get something made well. I'm sure a spouse can add a certain something no pro can, but why push someone up the learning curve when the cost of materials, experience and the like means it might actually be cheaper or at least no more expensive to buy off the someone else's shelf? Here's a source someone found, made by a LF photographer for folks like us. I got a traditional one, but with summer and really year round have switched (yes, a 2nd one!) to one of their ultralights (which is made of spinnaker material - yes, I'm a sailor in my time, too). Very very highly recommended. Linked to this here: https://www.wandererphotogear.com/pr...ght-dark-cloth

Greatest benefit of the ultralights are that they literally fold up into a handful. VERY VERY small, and take no real space in your bag while still adding some padding.
I started out with an Adorama branded dark cloth and it was terrible - for some reason, they put the black fabric on the outside and white on the inside? I practically passed out from heat exhaustion over the summer while using it. It was made out of some type of synthetic material that just made the heat 10x worse. I switched to the traditional dark cloth from Wanderer after seeing them recommended here and it was a massive improvement. The material feels substantial and it does a great job of blocking all the light out. I'd also highly recommend them to someone looking for a new dark cloth.